Sundance 2021 Review: Eight for Silver

Eight for Silver (2021) is a gothic horror film. It was written and directed by Sean Ellis.

The film begins in the trenches of World War I. Soldiers in gas masks line the walls as German soldiers launch volleys of nerve gas in their direction. When the gas forces the soldiers out of their trenches, they are mowed down by gatling guns. Following the offensive, the wounded are tended to in medical tents.

One soldier in particular, Edward Laurent (Alun Raglan), is being tended to having been struck by three bullets from the machine gun. As blood gushes from his wounds, a surgeon attempts to extricate the slugs from Laurent’s torso. He removes the first two slugs successfully. When he goes to remove the third, he discovers that the slug has shattered inside Laurent’s body. After pulling out the first shard, he dives back in for the rest.

As he plunges his forceps deep into the bullet hole, they strike something solid. The surgeon is unsure about what he has discovered, but knows it must be removed nonetheless. He manages to pull the item out of Laurent’s body. He sets it down on the tray. It is a slug from a bullet. However, it is totally different than the other slugs. This one is huge and made of pure silver.

Flashback to 35 years ago. Edward Laurent (Max Mackintosh) is a young teenager. He lives in a mansion on a large piece of land with his father Seamus (Alistair Petrie), his mother Isabelle (Kelly Reilly), and his sister Charlotte (Amelia Crouch). While he and his sister spend their time engaging in youthful trivialities, Seamus is trying to solve a problem.

It seems a clan of people who do not belong to the Laurent family have taken to squatting on their land, and have a potentially legal claim to being the rightful owners of the land. At a meeting of the town bigwigs, it is decided that rather than try and deal with the squatters in a civilized manner, that they will hire a group of mercenaries to show up and murder everyone.

Which is exactly what happens. As the squatters are butchered with ruthless aggression, the matriarch of the group warns the mercenaries that she will put a curse on their land if they do not stop their violent advance. She produces a replica of a canine jawbone, with teeth made of purest silver in place of real teeth. The mercenaries, who couldn’t care less for her threats, murder the last remaining squatters, and bury the matriarch alive in a mass grave with the rest of the bodies. As the dirt rains down on her face, she recites the words of the curse.

The next thing you know, everyone in town is having crazy nightmares involving a scarecrow and the teeth and some crazy monsters. A few of the neighborhood kids, including Edward and Charlotte, get together and head out to the field where the massacre took place. One of the kids digs up the teeth, which are buried at the foot of the scarecrow, puts them in his mouth, and bites the shit out of Edward.

Edward does not succumb to his wounds however. Instead, he becomes a werewolf. His first act of business as a werewolf is to kill the kid that bit him with the teeth. Payback is always a bitch. Enter traveling pathologist John McBride (Boyd Holbrook). McBride has seen this kind of evil before. Seamus appeals to the law to do something, but with a Cholera pandemic in full force and Edward seemingly having been killed by a wild animal, the law tells Seamus to get stuffed. John McBride offers to hang out for a while and help Seamus handle his lycanthropic business, lest there be further casualties.

Eight for Silver is likely to be a divisive horror film. There are those who will love it for its successes, and those who loathe it for its failures. Allow me to preemptively settle any debate by suggesting that you shouldn’t waste your time on this movie. It isn’t very good. There are some very strong elements that work very well. Unfortunately, the story just isn’t very good, and it isn’t told very well.

In terms of the successful elements, let’s talk about the cinematography. Sean Ellis is a guy with a few credits under his belt. Eight for Silver is not his first rodeo. Although it may be his first experience with stretching himself too thin. Very few movies that are not Neil Breen or Stan Kubrick joints feature the same guy writing, directing, producing, and being cinematographer. Sean Ellis is now a member of that esteemed club. Maybe that wasn’t such a good thing though. Maybe the story was so poorly told because Ellis was busy being a member of the crew on his own film. There is an ancient proverb that suggests “they who chase two hares will catch neither.”

This being said, I must praise the cinematography of Ellis. This film looks absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful locations, fantastic costumes, enough diffusion for a thousand episodes of Smoke Box with B-Real, this film looks amazing. Comparisons will likely be drawn between this film, and The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015), largely because of the look and temporal setting of the film.

Which is exactly where any and all comparisons should stop. For while the look of Eight for Silver is a tremendous success, it fails to generate even a fraction of the suspense, the mystery, the tone, and the quality story behind The Witch. Perhaps Eight for Silver could be one of those films that people watch on mute while synced up to a record. Sort of like The Dark Side of Oz. Turning the sound off, and allowing this beautiful imagery to become an impromptu music video for your album of choice could be the best way to watch this film.

The acting is also good, for the most part. Hilariously, it is the film’s star who turns in the least convincing performance. Holbrook is a wishy-washy lead. His accent fluctuates constantly, never once being convincingly British. His character is inconsistent. He shows up acting like he knows what is going on and can do something about it, but then goes on to make boneheaded and/or inexplicable decisions. He should be the heart of the film, but it never once feels like it. Obviously Holbrook isn’t to blame for the flaws in the story. Unfortunately, his performance ain’t helping any.

The failures of the story extend to more than just John McBride’s character. None of the logic of this film makes any sense. I don’t want to go into too many spoilers here, but the curse itself has questionable logic, as does so much more. For example, throughout most of the film, the only thing stopping these farmers from taking out a werewolf is the fact that it takes them 10 minutes to reload these antique rifles. Give anyone of these guys a revolver and its night night for Mr. Werewolf. Several of these unholy beasts are taken down by ordinary gunfire. Yet somehow three-quarters of the way through the film, all of a sudden they can only be killed by silver bullets? Yeah, dumb.

I don’t really need to spend too much time ripping this thing apart. I’m certain there will be an audience for this thing. I’m sure plenty of folks will say how it’s better than The Witch. There will be plenty of folks who are satisfied enough with the superficial beauty and atmosphere of the film to not give a shit about any plot holes, or inconsistencies. They will think Holbrook sounded perfectly British and anyone that disagrees is a hater. Whatever. It’s fine. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

However, at its best, Eight for Silver is like a broke-ass Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999) ripoff. There are some body horror elements thrown in that will remind some of The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982), but it is almost the same story as Sleepy Hollow, only with werewolves instead of a headless horseman. As far as werewolf films go, if you were way into The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part 1 (Bill Condon, 2011) and Part 2 (Bill Condon, 2012), there’s a good chance you will like Eight for Silver.

The more discerning film viewer or horror-head, will likely not be fooled by the superlative cinematography, the sumptuous costumes and locations, and the film’s confident attitude. In the end, Eight for Silver will disappoint. The story just isn’t there, and the inconsistency of the film’s logic and characters will frustrate you, should you stick with it until the end. Although, the film’s strengths are strong enough that it might suck you in and get you to spend enough time with it, that you will stick with it until the end, even though the wheels fell off long before you actually realized they did.