User reviews

What is nice about this short is the visual appearance of the actors playing Lourdes and Bernard. It is only when the characters start speaking does one switch off due to the poor dialog and not to mention done to death plot/sub-plot and characters. In particular, the character portrayed Nick Moran - a good actor wasted on a bad role. It's only in the third act that you realize this poor short is a build up to the director's exhibition of visual effects and there is one particularly good visual effect that soon loses it's efficacy or wow factor given the rest of the film. i suppose short filmmakers have on the whole decided to create shorts that have a possible 'wow! that was cool.' moment hence the lack of focus on emotionally engaging the audience.

Before I watched this film I saw that the director was one Peter Szewczyk, a name I recognized from somewhere. At some point during the film it came to me that I knew the name from recently watching the short ColourBleed – a film I had not cared for particularly because it was all effects and no substance. Credit to Szewczyk then for trying here to tell a story to allow the use of effects rather than just showing off what he can do. I think it is a good try but a shame that it is not a better try because it mostly doesn't work.

Firstly it is worth saying that the effects are very impressive and effective throughout. They produce a creepy atmosphere that eventually delivers into a scene with frightening and well-designed visions. The problem is, that this sequence is so strong that it stood out to me as the reason for the whole film to exist and at a point where I should have been pulled closer to the action, instead I was thinking "well, that was a long walk to get to an effects showcase". Even on paper the narrative is full of convenience and obvious attempts to draw the viewer in; it does work a little bit not as much as it should. The characters are too simply drawn: Bernard is a kindly drunk with a sad story that comes out very easily and Lourdes is too kindly. OK perhaps these are the basic characters but the performances limit them – Scott is stunning but doesn't convince in her dialogue although Dyblik is better. The presence of Moran and his character are equally annoying – his accent stomps all over the film and needs its own explanation, while his character is just a very poor narrative device that doesn't work at the start or the end.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a better attempt at delivering a narrative supported by effects from Szewczyk but it still falls short of what it needed to be by only being an attempt – not a successful one.