Adapted from BA Paris’s 2017 novel The Breakdown, this less-than-thrilling psychological mystery has the unthreatening ambience of a made-for-TV movie. Blackwater Lane lacks tension or much in the way of genuine surprises, but before it fritters the effort away, it does start to build a sense of disquiet and dissociation.
Forty-something secondary school teacher Cass (Minka Kelly) enjoys a comfortable life as the owner of the impressive country estate she shares with her husband Matthew (Dermot Mulroney). Driving home from end-of-term staff drinks one night, she takes a shortcut through the woods. She passes a parked car in which a woman is slumped motionless in the driver’s seat but leaves without investigating. When she learns the next morning that a dead body was found on the spot, she becomes a ‘person of interest’ in police enquiries. But as alarming incidents begin to disrupt home life, her memory appears to fail. Despite the help of best friend Rachel (Lost’s Maggie Grace), she starts to doubt her sanity, fearing that some ghostly entity is now seeking vengeance for her culpability.
Unfortunately, despite the potential of the premise, there’s little in Blackwater Lane to get the blood pumping. Characterisation remains superficial, so it’s hard to invest in anyone’s fate. The ‘home alone’ scenes, during which Cass is menaced by unseen forces and unsettled by memory lapses, lack impact. Any unease surrounding the creeping supernatural threat evaporates in an unexpected turn of events late in Act Three. Its conclusion – complete with flashback do-overs – draws heavily on the Scooby-Doo school of criminal deduction and is woefully implausible. Director Jeff Celentano and his team tick all the contractual boxes, but it’s clear that everyone involved is capable of far better work.
BLACKWATER LANE is available now on digital platforms.
