Knife Edge

KNIFE EDGE

A slow-paced and boring haunted house film from 2010, Knife Edge follows a woman named Emma who moves into a sprawling country home in England with her five-year-old son (Thomas) and husband (Henri).  Thomas develops a relationship with an “imaginary” friend called Tobias, and Emma has strange visions involving acts of violence in the house.  Meanwhile, Henri’s photography business crumbles, and he plots a way to gain control of his wife’s family’s trust money.  Emma’s sister researches the house and discovers that two people were murdered there three decades earlier.  The plot becomes increasingly convoluted until the final twist reveals an unexpected villain among Emma’s associates.

Knife Edge features characters who behave in ways that seem to lack motivation.  When Emma and Henri first arrive at their new house, they inexplicably instruct Thomas to wait by the car while they go inside (thereby allowing Thomas to wander outside and get into mischief).  At one point Emma seems to hear strange noises upstairs, then before investigating them she takes a detour outside and for no apparent reason reaches into a hole at the base of a tree trunk.  Thomas falls asleep in the middle of a conversation.  The sum total of all this odd behavior is a sense that one is watching a poorly-told tale.

The movie’s strong points are its original music (composed by Guy Farley) and fine locations.  The house has great atmosphere, particularly when the power goes out during a storm.  Atmosphere and music are not enough to balance out a crummy plot, though, and Knife Edge sadly is poorly-paced and has a rather passive protagonist with no clear goal.  I’m a sucker for good ghost stories, but this one’s forgettable.