New York, New York Film Fr.Pan.<br /><br />New England is the physical and psychic backdrop for LITTLE ERIN MERRYWEATHER, a stunning film that manages to be both cerebral and terrifying. For anyone who has watched American horror films over the last thirty years, this is no mean achievement. Most of the bumper crop consists of cheap thrills, bad acting, laughable dialogue, gloriously nihilistic exsanguination scenes that mean nothing and only signify an audience as banal and boring as these slash-and-gash films. Prepared for the horror equivalent of a Brecht play: it will transform the audience and expectations about what the genre can do when it is permitted to move beyond its creaky conventions.<br /><br />Vigdis Anholt plays Erin, a college student with a dark past, and even darker secret, whose existence is neither quite lived in reality or within the fairy tales she writes. She moves through these thresholds with dreadful consequences and the mental geographies she travels soon moves her beyond the human. Well, this may not be entirely true, and my ambivalence about commenting about her transformation has as much to do with Anholt's acting as much as the well-crafted script. In one of the most nuanced acting performances of the past few years, Anholt demonstrates how long we've been waiting for an innovative character in the horror genre. Her ability to make herself vulnerable and wicked simultaneously is moving (not typically an adjective one attributes to actors in horror films); finally, a feminine embodiment of accidental evil who is active, not passive, empowered and completely sui generis. A performance worthy of a Bergman actress. Her excellence is complemented by the rest of the cast, most notably David Morwick, as Peter, the student who removes the cloak of evil and rids the world of one of the most memorable characters you'll meet (should we applaud or scorn him for this job well done? Moral ambiguity towards murderers is inevitable in this case). Morwick, amid many solid performances, is the most natural; the character inhabits him and his sensitivity reflects a fine-tuning of the young adult roles that so often become overacting, oversexed, overkill all too often. So we have a killer possessed by family demons and a male lead possessed by his character: let's be thankful that there are no exorcism scenes.<br /><br />I saw this film at the New York City Horror Film Festival and was overwhelmed by my viewing. The rest of the audience would concur, or so their gasps, nervous whispers, and intermittent screams would infer. The French philosopher Pascal once wrote of his fear of open spaces. The Director of Photography Michael Marius Pessah should be complimented for inflecting his widescreen vision with a tension and force that suggests terror thrives in the open air, not just in tight, dark pockets. Agoraphobics take warning! David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA comes to mind as a reference point; in each, the camera's wide-scope takes on a life all on its own, as if it were itself a character in the action. LITTLE ERIN MERRYWEATHER is a refreshing example of the industriousness of small-budget films graced with acting chops and intelligent writing. Go see it and prepare to be surprised, terrified, and delighted.