If you liked Wolf Creek, then this funny little movie (and it is short for a movie) will probably please. It manages to remain serious enough throughout to genuinely scare, although at the beginning, to my mind, there is a slight caricature issue. I may be wrong about that, as this is an American movie made by Italians, so I'm not sure what was the intended audience. There is some beautiful forest to be ridden through, though the cameras used could have had better colour, and there was no artistic cinematography which would have been nice, although the shots of the deer were OK. Is it scary though? The first half is action, light on the dread, the second half is dripping with dread, and light on the action. It is frightening, absolutely, but I feel, in my humble opinion, that there was much more scope to develop more creepiness and tension, and I certainly wouldn't have minded the movie going a bit longer so as to enjoy that. It's like a painting that's only 80% and needs some art direction in any case. Shadow has great ideas that are slightly undernourished. Similarly the soundtrack was really original and modern, until the final frantic stages leading to the credits, when it devolved into something off-kilter and slightly distracting. Again, an unfinished painting. The flashbacks needed work, I thought, and to be more convincing. OK, I'm being really picky. Basically, Shadow is a good horror movie with plenty of skin to crawl and seat to edge onto, with excellent acting, good looking leads, and a profoundly devilish evil that's worthy of a minor award. Yea!
