A Wounded Fawn

A Wounded Fawn is told in two parts.

Act One serves as our introduction, and it balances a number of tones with deftness. It takes place in the world of art dealers, admirers and academics. The film is filled with visual queues inspired by paintings. The set design is decorated and dressed accordingly, with vibrant, beautiful colors. In this way, it feels almost like a Giallo film shot on 16mm, artfully shot, and even the violence is beautiful. The bright, pulsating reds remind me of Suspiria, the focus and obsession on art reminds me of Torso, and the metal claw the killer uses looks like it’s straight out of Blood and Black Lace, while the evil red owl that gives our killer the desire to murder reminds me of Stage Fright.

References can enrich a movie. Filmmakers wearing their influences on their sleeves can help deepen its themes, the way that literary allusions do. But the film must work on its own, or else it’s just an empty, hollow shell of nostalgia, with callback after callback that never works on its own.

Act One of A Wounded Fawn works marvelously. The set-up is intriguing and left me genuinely excited to see how the entire story was going to pan out. In Act One, we meet Meredith (Sarah Lind, who reminds me a bit of Parker Posey), a museum curator who is ending an abusive three-year relationship, only to go away for a weekend in an isolated cabin with Bruce (Josh Ruben) an actual serial killer of women. On the road leading up to the cabin, there are numerous odd interactions and red flags that Meredith wisely chooses not to ignore. She has experience with this kind of behavior and uses it to her advantage when she gets scared at the cabin. There are also ominous, ghostly warnings—terrifying and also terrified specters warning Meredith to leave right now, to save herself.

What I liked best about the suspense of Act One was that it worked on two levels. Meredith sees these red flags in his behavior and she can interpret it in one of two ways. It’s either a bad date, or she’s in danger. And the movie does such a good job of simulating a bad date. It’s not openly antagonistic, it’s just that there are a lot of miscommunications and neither person is on the same page. Certain actions are perceived as backhanded sleights and conversations often take a turn toward the awkward.

Act Two, unfortunately, is a bit of a letdown after this excellent setup. The payoff is mostly hit or miss as it doubles down on its artistic imagery and abandons its giallo stylings for something more like a Dadaist interpretation of The Evil Dead, with some Lynchian surrealist imagery for good measure. It’s by no means terrible, but it goes off the rails in long stretches where it becomes a one-man show, replete with overacting and screaming at shadows. Some of Act Two works. Some of the nightmare imagery works very well. Sometimes, though, it’s unintentionally funny. And nothing sinks suspense faster than a payoff that is a lot goofier than the filmmakers had hoped.

Travis Stevens is a talented director and either one of the film’s acts would have worked on its own, it’s that they don’t gel together as a cohesive whole. There are elements of Act One that never get resolved—the ghosts that warned Meredith vanish as soon as the film shifts tone and visual language. I think Act Two would be a decent film on its own, the story of someone driven mad and grappling with fear, as filtered through the lens of art, but it doesn’t work as a payoff to what we’d seen before it.

A Wounded Fawn is not a bad movie, just a disappointing one that has a lot to admire. Ironically, the film may have been better as a whole if Act One hadn’t been so effective in establishing a payoff that never arrived. Still, the film swings for the fences and though it doesn’t succeed as a modern masterpiece of horror, it’s a unique thriller still very much worth seeing.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
A Wounded Fawn arrives on Blu-ray from Shudder and OCN Distribution with a 1080p high definition video presentation that really shows off the 16mm cinematography and a wild, raucous DTS HD-MA 5.1 sound mix that very often goes over-the-top in a way that’s always welcome. There are a few special features here to check out to give you a bit more history on the film’s production, plus a booklet contained inside the case that provides some backstory on the film’s art influences and the imagery present throughout.

While I have my gripes about the film itself, I have no such gripes about the film’s technical stats. In terms of visual representation, A Wounded Fawn is a feast for the eyes. The filmmakers made the decision to shoot A Wounded Fawn on 16mm Kodak 500T 7219 film stock and I applaud them for it. Not because I’m a film snob purist, but because aesthetically, it was the correct decision for this movie. It looks authentic to its influences. The colors are rich and vibrant, skin tones are health and film grain is present throughout. In the various outside nighttime shots in the forest, the blacks of the sky are swimming in a deep, charcoal gray.

If I do have a gripe, and I do, it’s a minor one: The decision to give the film a retro distressed look, but having splotches, dirt spots, etc. sometimes goes over the top. It levels out as the film progresses, but in the beginning, it looks like they’re trying to emulate Grindhouse or some other long-lost exploitation flick. A Wounded Fawn looks its best in a clean picture, particularly in those razor-sharp extreme close-ups.

In my review of the film itself, I lamented how let down I was by Act Two. That disappointment does not extend to the audio mix of Act Two. When the insanity is allowed to run amok, the sound mix kicks into gear and there’s a near-constant rear speaker activity. It’s over-the-top, but absolutely wonderfully so. It’s manic and inspired. It’s like being in a haunted house attraction, with whispers and screams and things that go bump in the night always near.

In the much more subtle Act One, the sound mix is no less enthralling. There are specific sound effects with pinpoint precision, so brilliantly calibrated that it’s clear a lot of through went into the design of A Wounded Fawn’s sound stage. The DTS HD-MA 5.1 mix is excellent quality, crystal clear in all the right places, and loud and boisterous when it needs to be. The electronic score and theme to the film’s mysterious red owl creature allow the subwoofer and LFEs to growl and hum with delight.

Supplemental features on A Wounded Fawn are a decent watch for anyone who wants to know more about the film’s themes and production history.

• “Conversations” - Behind the Scenes Interviews (HD 35:32)  Interviews with various behind-the-scenes artists, including the sculptor behind the piece that the film centers around
• “On Set” - Actors & Costumers Interviews (HD 29:03) Cast and crew explain how the sausage is made, what it’s like to work on the film’s set and with the director
• Coaxial (HD 5:26) A short film by Travis Stevens
• Booklet Containing an essay by film, arts and culture writer Sabina Stent

A Wounded Fawn is a tricky, ambitious film feature that deftly balances a number of tones and influences… until it doesn’t. Still, what works about the film works incredibly well and the production values, from the 16mm cinematography to the deliriously overactive 5.1 surround sound mix, make this Blu-ray disc Recommended.