The Moor (2023)
When More Should be Less
Zombos Says: Almost fully terrifying, but bogs down from a slow pace.
Some movies take a lot of time to build suspense or atmosphere. I think movement is more important than time. That movement can come from the camera, from dialog, and from how the story plays out. The Moor, directed by Chris Cronin and written by Paul Thomas has four truly chilling moments surrounded by a lot of dull moments that stretch its running time almost as large as the titular Moor that Bill (David Edward-Robertson), Claire (Sophia La Porta), Ellie (Elizabeth Dormer-Philips), Alex (Mark Peachey), and Liz (Vicki Hackett) find themselves trudging through. I will say up front that Sam Cronin, the cinematographer, makes me dislike that moor (filmed in Yorkshire, England). The endless, boggy and foggy moor-scape imaged here is, alone, quite unsettling. I can see why this movie won the Best Scare at the Total Film FrightFest Awards in 2023, but you will need to be patient because the scares come toward the last third or so of the movie. The last scare, on that dreary moor, is classic.
Bill’s son went missing twenty-five years ago. Since then, he has been searching the moor with the help of Liz, a ranger with experience and sense, something he starts losing throughout the movie. He approaches Claire, a former podcaster, to drum up attention to the case again, as the child-abductor is actually known and was sent to prison for twenty-five years. But with the chance of him being released, Bill is desperate to find anything on the moor that will keep him in prison. …