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366 UNDERGROUND: WHEN THE SUN STANDS STILL (2024)

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When the Sun Stands Still is currently streaming free on Fawesome.

DIRECTED BY: James Edward Newton

FEATURING: Georgie Harriet-King, Paul Richards, , Kimberley Findeis-Sparkes, Pierce Connolly

PLOT: Diana disappears in the woods: the police know nothing about the case, a paranormal investigator knows less than he might hope, and Diana’s step-father knows more than he lets on.

Still from When the Sun Stands Still (2024)

 

COMMENTS: There’s a sensation of ensnarement in this corner of England. Widower Kenneth is trapped by dread and lingering grief, having lost his step-daughter Diana in the nearby woods nearby. A burly stranger repeatedly circles a seven-pointed star inscribed upon the ground. A local police detective is trapped by lack of insight. And quite literally, something is trapped in a valise, in a shed. Somehow a pattern emerges from this near-stasis, and ambient clues and portents conspire to trap a psychic who could be the key to the greater mystery.

This mystery, whose nature I couldn’t fully reveal even if I wanted to, seems to be both of ancient Earth and far-flung æther, and James Newton uses this unlikely MacGuffin to bring about a stylish thriller-in-miniature. Feeling alternately theatrical and abstract (and during the brief color sequences, both), When the Sun Stands Still is a delight to gaze upon as the sound design ushers the viewer in. The movie opens on Diana wandering through a copse into a clearing, with sound cues distracting our eyes as hers eventually gaze upwards into the splashy sky, and the world shakes. Crisp framing floats amid an inky void as Kenneth is interviewed by the suspicious inspector, the harsh tone of the dialogue muted by the darkness. Clock-ticks accompany the troubled father, and suddenly we hear his name—and he hears his name—and a cryptic visitor augurs the events’ unravelling.

The pieces don’t add up, and probably can’t, but this is no criticism. James Newton (with co-writer Paul Richards) are not here to tell a commonplace story. As with their previous collaboration, Katernica, there are events that can be explained, and events that cannot—and the viewer must be comfortable in the face of a deep, otherworldly inscrutability.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

No other reviews found at time of publication.

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When the Sun Stands Still

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    Capsules

    CAPSULE: THE PROMISE [LA PROMESA] (2004)

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    DIRECTED BY: Héctor Carré

    FEATURING: , Santaigo Barón, Ana Fernández, Juan Margallo, Evaristo Calvo

    PLOT :  A devout nanny’s religious convictions are tested when a clairvoyant child implores
    her to murder his father.

    WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: The events in La Promisa unfold in a weird way, making the story bizarre.  The nature of these events, however, is no different from those in any occult film; the film is as conventionally produced as any horror movie.  While the story is definitely out there, the overall viewing experience is not quite weird enough to be certified as such.

    COMMENTS:  Solid performances and Santiago de Compostela locations compliment this creepy, offbeat occult tale.  Gregoria (Maura) is a modest housewife leading a life of quite desperation.  Her marriage is suffocating, her husband (Margallo) is an ogre and her spirit is repressed.  When her husband’s abuse takes its toll, Gregoria seeks refuge in the ecclesiastical.  Finding solace in religious fervor, she plunges into the deep end of delusional thinking.  Or does she?  Taken to episodes of brief catatonia, Gregoriia becomes accident prone and paranoid.  Every shadow hides a demon and every accident is a sign of manifest evil.  Her chosen solution is to pray incessantly.

    When a bizarre tragedy leads her to a chance encounter with a dying soothsayer, the doomed man implores Gregoria to fulfill a prophecy at a mysterious church in a remote mountain village.  Supernatural voices drive Gregoria to murder her husband, after which she flees to the strange hamlet.  There, on a fog enshrouded mountain estate, she takes a job as caretaker to a telepathic boy named Daniel (Barón).

    Haunted by voices and fearing that she is losing her mind, Gregoria is drawn into a divine good versus evil enigma. Her snowballing predicament becomes centered around a secret passage, a well that presents a nasty fall hazard, the ghost of her husband, and her young ward’s murderous psychic manipulations.  But the answer and her fate are inexplicably intertwined.  The key to it all lies grounded in the sinister old church that she is destined to visit.  The clairvoyant Daniel will use any means necessary to entice her there to fulfill The Promise.

    WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

    “…an offbeat, mostly effective story of madness that combines a psychological study, a supernatural yarn and a tale of domestic violence to surprisingly rounded effect.”–Jonathan Holland, Variety (contemporaneous)