The Latent Image is a gay thriller that comes from Alexander McGregor Birrell (Sleepaway Slasher), which he also co-wrote with Joshua Tonks, who plays the part of the protagonist. The film was a feature length adaptation of the director's short film of the same name from 2019. It isn't the first time I have reviewed a gay horror, Devil's Path and B&B both spring to mind, but with this one, while it definitely has gay overtones, it was also a genuine horror, whose faults laid not with the former, but due to elements of the later.
Ben (Tonks) is a writer who has rented a remote woodland cabin from which to write his latest thriller. One dark night, having gone to bed frustrated at the lack of work he has been able to produce, he hears a noise downstairs. He is startled to discover a mysterious stranger (Jay Clift - Batwoman TV series), who tells Ben that his car has broken down nearby, and is in need of medical assistance, having injured his hand. While Ben is afraid of the stranger, he is also inspired, and begins to write his novel in earnest, styling the antagonist of the piece on the man. Finding excuses for the stranger to stay for a few days, Ben is fascinated with the insightful input the man is able to give the writer about the actions his villain would do, but this also begins to make him suspicious, as his observations seem a little too perfect.
Getting the gay elements out the way first as those were never going to appeal to me. Ben has an overactive imagination which results in quite a few times where things occur only for it to be revealed he was daydreaming. This includes Ben's boyfriend Jamie (William Tippery) turning up at the cabin, as well as an imagined sex scene between Ben and the stranger. Both those sex scenes didn't really add anything to the film, I don't think they would have mattered if they hadn't even been there. Sex scenes in films in general I never really enjoy anyway regardless of which gender is being shown. I guess they work in showing Ben's inner thoughts in a visual sense, firstly, with the arrival of his boyfriend it is a projection of his unconscious guilt of the fascination of the stranger. With the stranger himself, there was undeniably a stream of sexual tension, at least as perceived by Ben.
As a horror though this works very well, and it became quite fourth wall breaking, with the stranger acting out how he says he would act if he was the villian. The two even having a pretend fight at one point. As a viewer you are never sure if the man is as innocent as he claims to be. There became a gradual blurring of the lines between reality and fiction that made you question what really was going on. In parts this worked well, Ben was a writer after all so it makes sense his imagination would be good. On the other hand, this device can also lead to moments that feel like a cop-out, when it appears the thrills have ramped up only for it to not be the case. It was one of these later moments that really took away from my immersion into the story.
From the second the stranger arrives there is a sustained feeling of threat and tension in the air. I thought Clift was fantastic in his roll, giving a captivating performance, seemingly creating effortless menace despite not actually confirming if his intentions are good or bad. Combined with the tense film score it made for a suspenseful time that had me glued to the screen. With a cast of just three actors, and with one of those barely in it, the two characters held the film together impressively. A shout-out has to also go to the Super-8 moments of footage and how well they were implemented into the movie.
I appreciate how twisty The Latent Image became, but I did wish this had known when to stop being clever and just commit itself to being an effective little thriller, as some of those twists and turns altered this into something other than what I had hoped for. Still, I enjoyed my time with this, and certainly found it worth a watch. The Latent Image has been acquired by Cinephobia Releasing.
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