Review: ‘The Shade’ offers thought-provoking thesis on suicide and grief

Mental health and horror locked hands the moment filmmaking began. From The Seventh Victim to The Babadook and The Night House, horror storytelling has always been a vehicle to explore the darkest parts of human existence. Anxiety and depression often manifest as ghoulish monsters under the bed or ghosts clanging their chains in the closet. With his feature debut, Tyler Chipman excavates inherited mental illness through a terrifying lens about a young teen who sees a gnarled figure lurking in the shadows. The Shade blankets the audience with a cold sense of dread that seeps into the pores and contaminates the bloodstream. Despite lacking jolt-you-awake scares, Chipman’s offering provokes the viewer to think deeper about mental health and its ravaging effects on one’s ability to have meaningful relationships.

Ryan Beckman (Chris Galust) hasn’t recovered from his father’s suicide. The ripples from that fateful day linger inside Ryan’s skull, causing oozing ruptures and sores. Living with his mother (Laura Benanti), he looks after his younger brother James (Sam Duncan) and shields him from the pain that still throbs inside his ribcage. When Ryan’s older brother Jason (Dylan McTee) returns home from college, Ryan begins seeing a crackling-boned creature crouching inside Jason’s room and following him throughout his everyday life. The creature clearly serves as a metaphor for inherited mental illness — signifying the idea that it just can’t be defeated. As the pale monster inches closer, it becomes clear that it’s up to Ryan to break the generational chain that connects his family. It’s a ticking timebomb whether Ryan can tame the beast within to save his younger brother from suffering a similar fate.

Chipman delicately wraps the story around the audience, pulling them closer and nearly suffocating them in the process. Ryan, who frequently suffers from panic attacks, pulses to life through Galust’s raw and vulnerable performance. The way he’s able to delve into the nuances of mental illness is remarkable and allows the viewer to see themselves reflected. The dynamic with Duncan and McTee pushes the film even further down an avenue of human compassion and empathy. There’s nary a weak link in the cast — even Benanti shines, particularly in one moment when her veneer cracks and she collapses into a puddle of tears.

Inside its horror shell, The Shade delivers an authentic human story that feels ripped from real life. While rooted in personal feelings of regret and shame, spooky imagery blossoms through mood-soaked cinematography (courtesy of Tom Fitzgerald) and the uneasy feeling in the pit of the stomach. The monster, often seen poking around corners and hunkering in bedroom recesses, claws its way through Ryan’s life. Nothing leaves unscathed from its destruction. Therein lies the true horror of the film — that monsters do exist in the real world and often bleed sufferers dry.

The Shade reads as a psycho-drama. What holds it back from achieving true greatness is the tepid scares. The images, while rather haunting, don’t strike the kind of fear that sinks into the bone marrow and shakes you until you cream. Regardless, Tyler Chipman shows great promise and demonstrates he has a working knowledge of soul-rattling horror that sticks to the back of the brain. It might not reinvent the wheel, but it does prompt a much-needed conversation about survivor’s guilt and how suicide destroys everything and everyone in its wake.

The Shade is currently playing in select theaters.

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