Kryptic (2024) Review (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

★★★ out of ★★★★★

Intensity 🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

Directed by Kourtney Roy

Trippy Canadian feature Kryptic relies heavily on its Lynchian and Cronenbergian inspirations, tripping up on other areas in this dark, mystical journey.

Canadian feature Kryptic combines Lynchian uncanniness and Cronenbergian sexually-charged body Horror with sylvan eeriness and creature-feature elements. The result is a head-scratcher that looks great and features a top-notch lead performance, but lacks in other areas.

Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie), who seems somehow off from the very get-go, joins a womens’ hiking group but wanders off by herself and encounters a cryptozoological beast known as the Sooka — traditionally, a shape-shifting monster. When she returns to the group — its members and leader perturbed at her because of the quality time lost because of searching for her —  she isn’t even sure of who she is. She may be renowned missing cryptozoologist Barb Valentine, who went missing in these very woods. Kay/Barb goes on a journey to try and figure out who she is exactly, but matters become even more enigmatic.

Kryptic presents a sizable cast of supporting characters who range from quirky to weird to villainous as the protagonist goes through her Lynchian doppelganger trek, but they are dropped just as easily as they are introduced. This is one issue with Paul Bromley’s screenplay, which is loaded with ideas but which shies away from making many connections. 

Director Kourtney Roy does an admirable job of adding a great deal of visual flair to the screenplay’s shortcomings in substance, with assistance from David Bird’s gorgeous cinematography and some gooey, gloppy sexual encounters brought to life by the makeup and special effects departments. The main draw of the film, though, is Pirrie’s outstanding performance as a woman whose brush with a mysterious entity thrusts her into a mystical world in which time is bent. Viewers’ minds are likely to be bent, as well, but not as strongly as they would be when watching an actual Lynch or Cronenberg film.   

Review by Joseph Perry 

Kryptic screens as part of the 2024 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 18–28. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.