While it's said this is adapted from a Charles Dickens short story, it barely resembles the original work and what we have here is only some
small bits and pieces from that, and the main focus is directed to a lone character, a railroad signalman (Fernando Teixeira) who deals with strange
visions and frightening occurances as he tries to do his job taking notes on the coming trains. Are they all real, imagined or he's losing his mind
after many years of loneliness and zero human contact? It's up to viewers to figure out.
A slightly interesting idea as the director provides many suspenseful and intriguing elements to thrill audiences, and all is done through the visuals and above all the sound. A very key elements in the story, the sound of objects, strange noises and some minimal music makes it all more mysterious as the old man checks out what's happening at a tunnel nearby, or dealing a flooded toilet in his cabin and many other things, and we don't get to hear the old man at no time - our contact with him comes from his log registers. Tension is everywhere as we follow his journey and trying to find some reasoning behind those visions and the strange bruises on his body.
It's a quite creative work and thrilling to watch, but had it been an exact adaptation from Dickens story with the two characters discussing about a possible premonitory vision, this would be more interesting. Here, almost nothing is answered and for a little while I didn't even bother to come up with a theory about what's real or not. It works as a small puzzling horror story where the junction of elements and their presentation intrigues audiences from the very beginning. 6/10.
A slightly interesting idea as the director provides many suspenseful and intriguing elements to thrill audiences, and all is done through the visuals and above all the sound. A very key elements in the story, the sound of objects, strange noises and some minimal music makes it all more mysterious as the old man checks out what's happening at a tunnel nearby, or dealing a flooded toilet in his cabin and many other things, and we don't get to hear the old man at no time - our contact with him comes from his log registers. Tension is everywhere as we follow his journey and trying to find some reasoning behind those visions and the strange bruises on his body.
It's a quite creative work and thrilling to watch, but had it been an exact adaptation from Dickens story with the two characters discussing about a possible premonitory vision, this would be more interesting. Here, almost nothing is answered and for a little while I didn't even bother to come up with a theory about what's real or not. It works as a small puzzling horror story where the junction of elements and their presentation intrigues audiences from the very beginning. 6/10.
