Director Joseph Archer and screenwriter-star Cathy Wippell will turn heads with this undeniably stunt-y but eerie novelty set in Victorian London and shot as though with a pinhole camera.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Courtesy of Silicon Gothic Found footage may be a fairly stale gimmick in horror these days, but the low-budget British indie “Snapshot” finds a way to freshen up the idea — and if that largely amounts to layering another technical gimmick over it, the results are nonetheless striking. Emulating the look of 19th-century pinhole photography, with the entire film presented in a circular 1:1 aspect ratio, this resourceful debut feature from director Joseph Archer and screenwriter-star Cathy Wippell turns the visual restrictions of that device to its advantage: This imagining of the well-trodden Jack the Ripper tale hinges heavily on what can’t be seen, as it follows a group of young Victorian women pursuing their own supernatural theory behind the killings terrorizing London, and the pioneering male filmmaker who takes it upon himself to document their efforts.
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