Observance

Joseph Sims-Dennett's Observance bundles voyeurism, blind obedience and grief up in a package that is already plenty disturbing before the biological horrors slink in.

Sims-Dennett's slippery take on manipulation and madness ushers in a welcome return for the messy obfuscation and creepy indeterminacy formerly found in the neurotic cinema of the late '60s and early '70s.

Sims-Dennett's ambitious low-budget effort obviously borrows riffs from Eraserhead, The Shining and other classics, but it's very much its own film. And a bloody creepy one too, mate.

A clever, low-budget exercise from the young Australian-based director Joseph Sims-Dennett, Observance is a hybrid of two familiar brands of psychological thriller.

A twitchy, icky, genuinely unsettling psychological thriller about a private investigator who takes on what appears to be a simple, well-paying job.

The cool, languid pacing of the film is only occasionally disrupted by flashes of phantasmagoria, showing further confidence with restraint in a story that could have gone down the path of oversized jump scares and filtered flash cuts.

Largely incoherent, inconsistent and unauthentic, Observance offers such scant characterization in its limited number of protagonists that it becomes a challenge to pay attention.

A horror/suspense filled to the brim with atmosphere and mood.

an intriguing, elliptical enigma that confronts us with our own complicit voyeurism, even as it leaves us unsure what exactly we have seen - or overlooked.

This stylish flick about a PI surveilling the blond crumpet across the road has a lot to recommend it.

Observance implores you to continue watching, but doesn't quite fully reward its audience for doing so.