Disappearance at Clifton Hill Movie Review

This mystery, thriller is anything but traditional.

Intending to try and be something different, we also find the reason why this story must also be referred to as anything but flawless. It’s somewhat hard to follow because, on occasion, you’re not sure if you’re crazy or the protagonist is. There’s an awful lot of peculiar going on in this movie. Yet, for the most part, this seems to work in the film’s favor. That works for me.

While on vacation at the age of seven, Abby (Tuppence Middleton) ventures out into the woods and sees something that haunts her for years to come. She stumbles across a boy of about twelve with a bloody patch over his eye. The youngster is being beaten and is violently kidnapped. Did she dream this? The memory comes to her in continual splinters. She isn’t supported, but she knows what she saw is real and wants to put the tale of what happened to him together. Everything having to do with this memory lends to the creep factor. The more that’s revealed, and the more explicitly things come into focus, the characters and the story itself get stranger.

Many years later, we meet Abby again. Her mother just died, and she and her younger sister, Laure (Gross), are at odds about what to do with the rundown motel near Niagara Falls that they’ve just inherited. A man named Charlie Lake, who buys up all the available land in the area and has become somewhat of a tycoon, has great interest in buying the place. As lovely as it would be to get rid of what they can’t handle, Abby isn’t sure she’s willing to let it go. What she saw when she was a girl is still a mystery to her, one that the hotel keeps her attached to.

The not so stable minded young woman starts to dig around into the city’s history. With little else in her life, she decides she has time and wants to try and solve what has now become a bit of a murder mystery.

David Cronenberg, yes THAT David Cronenberg, is introduced as Walter. He adds a lot to the film as a conspiracy extremist with a podcast. He has plenty to offer Abby. She not only gets help from Walter, but her sister jumps in and gets involved. Their curiosity takes them on a bizarre trek into the past, filled with magicians, tigers, and videotape. An old family photo points our thirty-something Junior Sleuth in the direction of a woman who Abby remembers from the kidnapping. When she gets the woman to the hotel, hoping to get more information from her, she sees that the woman is as evil as she remembers.

What I liked most is how the film approaches the mystery. It’s so… offbeat. As far-fetched as many of the plot twists are in ‘Disappearance at Clifton Hill,’ you don’t mind that this narrative leads you around guessing the entire time. You’ll forgive the few flaws you come across. Yes. It could have revealed details better, but it’s not just a rehashed version of a movie you’ve seen before. This is a one-of-a-kind. It’s hard to tell precisely what’s going, but that’s both a good and bad thing.  Interestingly, that approach ultimately leaves you with the feeling of unease, which is literally what you want from an excellent dramatic thriller with a psychotic twist, no?