by MATTHEW HAYS

Everything about Le Marais (The Marsh), the directorial debut of Montreal filmmaker Kim Nguyen, looks stunning. Director of photography Daniel Vincelette certainly deserves a hand for it. The landscapes are captured stylishly and beautifully, loading Nguyen’s film with the intended creepy, otherworldly atmosphere.

Yet it’s there that much of the film stops. Though imbued with a great look and super performances, Le Marais feels less like Craven horror and more like wannabe Bergman. The film opens with an unintentional killing in a tiny 19th-century Eastern European town. Two outcasts (Gregory Hlady and Paul Ahmarani) settle in a nearby marsh that is fabled to be haunted. Due to their outsider status, they become the perfect scapegoats for the crime they had nothing to do with.

Though undeniably well-crafted, Le Marais moves along a wee bit too slowly. What keeps things interesting is Ahmarani’s odd character, someone he brings to life beautifully. A vagabond performer, he was born with severe abnormalities, including two lumps on either side of his forehead (which look suspiciously like budding horns) and malformed feet. Naturally, ass-backwards types populating movies from this period see him as some sort of devil child.

Lurking beneath all of this is a mystery which Nguyen allows to unfold as the film progresses. Flashbacks show us earlier moments in the town’s history, when allegiances were forged and trusts broken. It’s not exactly new, but Nguyen’s narrative device works well enough here.

Though not exactly brimming over with action, Le Marais emerges as a not-bad Halloween diversion. The cast is universally excellent, but the key kick for me came watching Ahmarani, who’s building up quite the litany of freakish film roles for himself. His star-making turn in La Moitié gauche du frigo earned him a richly-deserved Jutra award, and his ability to conjure up rich character detail is again clearly displayed here. Look forward to more work from Ahmarani, one of the most talented new actors to emerge on the Quebec scene in the past few years. :

Le Marais opens Friday, Nov. 1

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