An apparently dead man mysteriously comes back to life in this tantalising, atmospheric thriller
The cult that gathered around Shane Carruth – the polymath writer-director-performer who dreamed up the brilliant and baffling Primer and Upstream Colour – will want to reconvene for this effective low-key chiller in which Carruth takes top acting billing, while handing directing duties to Billy Senese.
With its twin-track storytelling, Senese’s film owes less to Carruth’s filmography than to upmarket TV fare such as True Detective and the recent Unbelievable. In one narrative line, a conflicted, corner-cutting psych-ward doctor (Carruth) engages with a hulking patient (Jeremy Childs) who revived in the morgue after an apparently successful suicide attempt; in the other, a medical examiner (Bill Feehely) heads into the field to investigate how this John Doe got on the slab, and how he got up off it.