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Review

Most recent American horror films have relied on special-effects spectacle and cacophony to impact an audience, but we all know that those tricks are not generally effective in creating an atmosphere of terror. Director J.T. Petty's debut film adopts a completely different approach, establishing a sense of menace and mystery through silence and stillness. A surprise sleeper success at the recent 2002 Sundance Festival, Soft for Digging unfolds almost entirely without dialogue, instead relying on the tranquility and isolation of rural life to conjure a tone of tension and unease. Virgil Manoven (Edmond Mercier) is an elderly man living alone in a cabin in the woods. While out walking one morning, Virgil sees a man and a little girl with what appears to be a small sheet-draped body; later he witnesses a struggle between the man and the girl, and it appears that the girl has been killed. Yet this is all viewed from a distance, and when Virgil summons the police, there is no evidence to be found of the alleged crime. As Virgil investigates the matter further, he becomes troubled by nightmarish visions of the forest and the girl, doubting his own experience. With its small cast, limited locations, and virtual absence of dialogue, the film defines the term "spare," and Petty uses this stark simplicity to rebuild the horror film, breathing life back into the clichés of the genre by examining them from a fresh perspective, and accentuating the unsettling touches most films would neglect — the whistling of a tea kettle, the snap of a twig on the ground, the echo of footsteps in an empty hallway. Soft for Digging marks Petty as a unique and promising talent within the genre.

 -- Travis Crawford