Notable Cast: Anna Mirodin, Tayna Clarke, Julia Tomasone,
Stephen Bogaert
When I read that Ivan would be a film centered around
a piece of technology, specifically an AI device named - you guessed it - Ivan,
I do not think I would have ever expected that the film would be a period
piece. Not that it’s given a definitive year, or does it make the horrible
mistake of littering the film with a plethora of needle drops and references to
pop culture, but Ivan surprisingly takes its audience back to a time and
place where having an electronic device that can watch, hear, and talk to you
is almost beyond understanding.
It’s one of the bold choices that Ivan makes
throughout that sets it aside from many of the other films in this year's Panic
Fest. Director and co-writer Damien Fannon takes a familial drama and inserts
this technological horror aspect as the catalyst to address many dark family
issues, and manages to craft a rollicking thriller that regularly sidesteps
expectations and delivers a surprisingly potent mix of horror and drama. And
that’s before the ending slams its audience with two or three new layers of
intensity.
If one were to describe Ivan as an intimate film,
that seems justifiable, considering how few actors and sets are needed to fill
its narrative. Yes, there is certainly a familial drama at its core, where a
mother and daughter work through their personal demons and find their place with
one another. Abigail, the daughter played by Anna Mirodin, receives the titular
electronic device from her estranged father, while her mother hires a home
cleaner in the hope that the cleaner will somehow help her connect with the
daughter. Yet, the wake of the ripple effect of domestic trauma and other
marital issues lingers in the house with all three women, and this new device
starts to take control of them and continues to leave a wave of violence in the
household.
The performances are all nuanced and layered here, which
bodes incredibly well for the dramatic heft the movie requires of its
actresses, particularly since the film mostly focuses on this for most of its
runtime. Layering in the woman who is also working through her issues as a
house cleaner also parallels the film’s themes nicely - especially in how Ivan
is taking a swing at how domestic violence lingers through generations and
manages to continue to infect. All three actresses get to shine in their own
ways and in their interactions with one another, and it creates a revolving,
interesting foundation of dramatic tension that sets the stage for the horror
to come.
Hints of its larger horror elements pop here and there in
the first half, whether it's perhaps one of the most intense uses for a pair of
scissors without actually showing anything that grotesque or the intense gore
that is shown through a science fiction horror moment with one character, but
where Ivan showcases its horror is in its final act. I mentioned
previously that Ivan makes some seriously intriguing and intense choices
and by the time the third act rolls around, it’s gone full horror and it never
pulls its punches to execute the choice that makes the most sense for what it
wants to say about the circular nature of violence and untreated trauma as it
is passed down, not only through people, but technology as well.
It culminates in one of the most hollowing final moments
I’ve seen in a horror film in quite some time, combining its themes with a
visual and auditory echo effect that hangs through the credits. I assumed I
knew where Ivan was going, and it shuffles a few steps to the side of
that and manages to invoke a fresh take on some of its horror tropes and
impressively does so without succumbing to the B-movie concepts of a killer
machine stuffed onto a teenager's dresser.
There are a lot of ideas and executional pieces to love in Ivan's
writing and filmmaking. While it does perhaps work best to allow its narrative
and character beats to naturally unravel instead of trying to predict where it
wants to go and what it wants to show its audience, the combination of its
stellar performances, thematic stomach kicks, and key visual moments makes this
one a huge surprise from the indie horror circuit this year.
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