Sundance 2021 | "Eight for Silver" Is A Moody But Flawed Creature Feature

6/12 ForReel Score | 2.5/5 Stars

We’re not always hungry for more werewolf films, but we’ll certainly take them if they come! Sean Ellis’ Eight for Silver arrives at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival as the only creature feature (unless you count Dash Shaw’s phantasmagorical fable Cryptozoo), and it’s a technically impressive and moody looking one at that.

Set during the 1800s in a dismal patch of the English countryside, Eight for Silver sees the manor of a wealthy baron and his family, as well as the surrounding town, preyed upon by a “wild animal” that has something to do with a curse. This curse has something to do with the area’s Romani peoples, who, when they make a claim to the land, are senselessly slaughtered by the baron, Seamus Laurent (Alistair Petrie). But it isn’t until the baron’s son grows ill and then goes missing that he becomes suspicious of an unfamiliar presence, enlisting a pathologist, John McBride (Boyd Holbrook), who may have some history with the phenomenon.

Eight for Silver is Ellis’ fifth feature, and it is clear in the production design, costumes, and cinematography that the director has honed the skills in overseeing a well-polished, silver screen-ready product. An unmistakable tale of gothic horror, the film is almost meditative in its decadence, dolloping on thick atmosphere and shadow over the dreary landscapes to instill a rich miasma. The creature design and makeup departments also deserve their due, having concocted a fresh, grisly take on a classic beast and some truly gut-wrenching gore. Unfortunately, these elements are also where the film languishes.

The characters of Eight for Silver are maddeningly flat, almost rendered static by the film’s dark tones, while Ellis’ script gives them precious little to actually do except fall prey to the monsters. All this time that is spent waiting and wondering with the characters could have been put towards world building, or exploring pathos even. For a story about the supernatural, there is also so little done in the ways of developing a mythology. The Roma element is basically discarded after it gives us our creature in question, and it rears again only in the most clichéd nightmare sequences (book-ended with jump scares, of course). And while I can’t say Eight for Silver is an entirely clichéd take on werewolf tropes, I also can’t say it does anything entirely new with the beast’s arc either.

Those craving a dark period horror should definitely seek out this film if they are looking for something to simmer in and take at surface value. The film has a raw tactility to it, and though a shallow script stifles the acting, most of it is actually quite good and engrossing. But after the eviscerated flesh is torn away, Eight for Silver is, in the end, a meatless husk.