Film Review: LOST GULLY ROAD (2017)

LOST GULLY ROAD ** Australia 2017 Dir: Donna McRae. 80 mins

A lone woman travels to a cabin in the countryside and calls her sister to find out when she will be joining her. Lucy (Adele Perovic) is instructed by her sister Cassie to stay put, don’t use Facebook, keep the bag safe whilst she tries to throw a mysterious “him” off the scent and join her soon. With little to do having no TV or phone Lucy explores the woods and visits the creepy guy in the local store by day and at night passes the time by drinking a lot of wine which doesn’t mix well with the meds she is taking. With time passing ridiculously slowly and her sister delaying her arrival Lucy eventually starts to notice weird happenings around the house that she had previously ignored. A strange dark mark on the ceiling, whispering, flickering lights and the fireplace that decides when to light itself. One night when she was about to go to bed Lucy is viciously attacked by an unseen entity. This happens a couple of times in the night and rightly so Lucy flees the cabin fearing for her life without waiting for her sister. This very slow burn movie has its merits but it takes far too long to get going. It boasts an impressive, effective and weirdly familiar sounding soundtrack which is enjoyable and helps the time pass a bit quicker but nothing of any interest happens until your at least 40mins in. Things pick up when it comes to the scenes where Lucy is attacked and these are actually really quite intense and you will find yourself flinching at every blow. Adele Perovic does a fantastic job during these scenes and, to be fair, she does a good job throughout considering that it is mostly just her on screen it’s just such a shame it takes so long to get going. I have very mixed feelings on this. I wanted to like it more than I did. It is really well shot and acted, has some great creepy attack scenes yet the reveal of the ghost is rushed and very much an afterthought and the ending to me is a total non event.