Monday, May 30, 2016

Primrose Lane

Eight years into a childless and financially stressful marriage, Chris and Robin drive to another couple's gothic, upscale home in suburban Los Angeles for a visit. Upon arrival, they find the front door unlocked, and when Robin steps inside, her instincts tell her something is wrong. Their friends have disappeared without a trace, having left their car keys and cell phones in the house.

They search the house from top to bottom, and while it seems lifeless, the emptiness of the home, its dearth of sunlight, and the antiquated mosaic of objects and shadows that shape and haunt room after room collectively add to Robin's concern. Unlike her assumptive husband, she harbors a gnawing awareness: they have left their upwardly mobile life in LA for a realm of strange and unknown proportions, a place where the known rules of the universe no longer apply.

A boy is watching them. He plays tricks on them. He rolls marbles on the floor and toys with their minds.

Swirling into a black hole where everything she knows and loves is snatched, twisted, and inverted, Robin calls upon friends and strangers alike in ever-puzzling ways, only to learn that she, too, is an integral part of the maelstrom, a predicament from which there is no escape. With Primrose Lane, lead actor and director Kathleen Davison, who returns to New Hope after an award-winning screening in 2015, has not so much shot a film as woven it. An original story, an outstanding score and a multitude of visual touches are exquisitely fused into an eerie, sensory experience, one that questions the nature of one's existence.

You can watch the trailer here: Primrose Lane Trailer