Return to Elenore

Directed by Peter Renzullo, Return to Elenore is a short film inspired by and featuring the original song ‘The King of Always Wanting More’ by Ammify. The film is a gothic tale of ghosts and vengeance, interspersed with the group’s track. While the film is ambitious, particularly in its use of visual effects, costuming, and make up, it fails to capture the emotion that the song promises.

Return to Elenore opens with two men in cloaks, known as the Leader (Jay Jay Jegathesan) and the Pastor (Steve Kio), approaching an abandoned home in the middle of the woods. The audience come to learn that the spirit of a woman named Elenore (Justine Renzullo) still resides there, and these men are here to exorcise her. They speak enigmatically, and after entering the home, the Leader comes face to face with the spirit. As the music swells, the full fury of the apparition is revealed. The narrative of Return to Elenore is somewhat difficult to follow as much of the exposition and setup is delivered through vague dialogue. The film relies much more on its atmosphere to tell its gothic story.

Combining simple digital vfx and an alternative metal soundtrack, reminiscent of Evanescence, Return to Elenore looks and sounds like a rediscovered artifact from 2000. Unfortunately, the dialogue therefore feels disposable and largely meaningless. The language is poetic and flowery, and worst of all, delivered unconvincingly. The stretches of the film that are more dialogue focused are the weakest, especially when compounded by the flat cinematography. Since the film is mostly shot against digital backgrounds, the camera doesn’t exist in a physical space, which is noticeable. Actors are either shot in a close up face on or in profile throughout the short which doesn’t make for interesting or varied shots. As a consequence of shooting everything in one of two directions, the environment feels flat. Additionally, the compositing of the performers isn’t seamless, which further adds to the sense of artifice and disconnect. To mask the fact that the film wasn’t actually shot in a dark environment, the saturation has been turned way down on the footage of each of the actors, which makes them look like all the colour and life has been sucked out of them; of course this may be appropriate for a gothic story of ghosts and haunted houses, but it only makes them look murky. There’s not much in the way of colour contrast, so Return to Elenore ends up looking various shades of grey.

It’s a shame, since the effects and make up on Elenore work well to make her ghostly visage come to life, so to speak. Justine Renzullo’s performance as the titular spirit is convincingly creepy, and she channels the energy of a heavy metal monster very appropriately. She could have been more frightening were she filmed in shadow more, but for the tone that the short exists within, her performance is measured, and she doesn’t overstay her welcome.

Return to Elenore is an enigmatic curio that doesn’t reach the lofty ambitions that it aspires to. The filmmakers clearly had a goal in mind, but the short’s murky dialogue and cinematography make this artifact difficult to follow, with many of the larger themes and ideas too indistinct to pick up on. It’s a respectable effort, but perhaps too unwieldy for this team at the present moment.