This low-budget Swiss horror movie, the brainchild of young director-writer-actor Chris Bucher, is a good example of the strengths and weaknesses of the form. And it illustrates the extent to which an ambitious vision can sometimes be the enemy of a director with slender means at their disposal.
The 2014 film Tyfelstei: An Alpine Horror Tale tells the story of a troubled young man, Mike Dorn (Tobias Fischer) who is injured when, during a storm in the alps, he crashes his car in a remote and cursed Alpine village. When he wakes, three days later in the care of Dr. Simmen (Hansjörg Betschart,) his injuries aren’t life threatening – some cuts and a mild concussion – but as the surrounding roads are impassable, he’s stranded, and it becomes clear that all in the village is not as it seems. Teaming up with Laura Wenger (Lisa Maria Bärenbold,) half of a pair of documentary filmmakers who are likewise stranded, Mike begins an investigation of his own, trying to find out the identity of the spectral figure that caused his crash.
Tyfelstei opens with beautiful sweeping shots of Alpine scenery, including an aerial view of the giant boulder that gives the movie its name (the title translates to, “the Devil’s Rock”), the sights set to moody religious choral music. As the main narrative begins, the viewer understands that protagonist Mike Dorn may not be the most reliable narrator. Shortly before the accident that leaves him stranded, Dorn vomits in a dingy public bathroom somewhere on the mountain road after a nightmarish flashback involving an unnamed woman and an ominous baby’s crib. After freshening up, Mike drives on before stopping, in apparently heavy rain – the bad weather, much talked about, rarely shows up onscreen – to help a dazed and unspeaking woman whom he sees wandering by the roadside in a nightdress. She gets into the car, but shortly afterwards, to Dorn’s surprise if not the viewer’s, she disappears and he crashes into the boulder. These scenes set the tone for the movie as Mike, a slightly gormless but not unlikeable young man spends much of his time onscreen being plagued by nightmares and visions.
During the course of the movie, two parallel narratives emerge, the more interesting of which feels like a slightly cheesy but authentic Alpine folk tale about a 12th century pact with the devil. Local farmers unable to build a bridge across a vast ravine determined that only the devil could make such a crossing, and he offered to do so for a price: the first soul that crossed the new bridge. The desperate farmers agreed but tried to cheat the devil by sending a goat. Unamused, the devil threatened to destroy the bridge with a giant boulder, but was foiled by Anna, a young woman who blessed herself and the boulder, which became so heavy that it crushed the devil.
However, ungrateful villagers burned Anna as a witch, and with her dying breath she cursed the village and the stone itself, bringing bad luck to anyone who touched it. Remorseful residents wanted to bury her ashes in the local churchyard, but church elders refused, and the remains were eventually placed in the derelict sanatorium overlooking the town. After various visions, nightmares and strange encounters, it seems that Mike’s best chance of surviving his time in the mountains with his sanity intact would be to return Anna’s ashes to their rightful resting place. A decent if not original thriller could be made from this story. But Tyfelstei muddies the waters with a competing narrative: that of Mike Dorn himself, plagued by his own demons.
The biggest barrier to enjoying Tyfelstei is its HD digital video look. In the establishing shots of the Alps and some of the scenes of the village and the ruined sanatorium, the crispness and detail make the setting feel immediate and vivid. For scenes when it’s just characters in a room talking though, it’s far less satisfying and the resolution feels more like a filmed stage play, a jarring effect that makes it harder to be immersed in the story. At the same time, HD seems to highlight weaknesses in the acting, and worst of all are the visual effects, including a laugh-out-loud moment in the prologue featuring a tiny Mike. The rule, as has perennially been the case with horror movies since the earliest years of the genre, is that if you can’t afford plausible special effects, don’t use them at all; hint, don’t show.
If Tyfelstei were a little more restrained in its most horrific set-pieces – as, to be fair, it is in one spectacularly nasty scene in a rustic mountain man’s cabin – the movie might build up tension and atmosphere more effectively. But at 108 minutes, it feels a little too long. Bucher’s direction at first makes good use of disorienting camera angles and dramatic lighting, but he falls into a series of pedestrian shots that don’t fulfil the potential of the fantastic scenery and locations.
Still, some of this works. Those locations are stunning and, even if in the end it feels slightly underused, the scenes of the deserted village are haunting and the ruined sanatorium has a real sense of presence. The story is intriguing enough to hold one’s attention, and although it’s telegraphed early on, the extent of Mike’s derangement isn’t revealed too soon. The actors are mostly fine, and in the case of Mike and Laura, very likeable. Ramon Kündig’s brooding score adds a real touch of class and atmosphere and ensures that the occasional unwelcome feeling of watching a bunch of people pretending to be other people never overwhelms the whole film.
Overall, Tyfelstei is not a feast for the senses or a terrifying experience. But if you like horror movies with a folk twist, it’s entertaining enough and has some nice set pieces along the way. There’s a better movie lurking in here, and given a bit more money to play with, Chris Bucher is clearly a director with the ability to make it.
The post From the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Tyfelstei: An Alpine Horror Tale appeared first on Spectrum Culture.