There isn’t much you can do with the fantasy genre anymore, especially with the short film format, but lo and behold, director Adam Bolt finds a way by making his fantasy characters much less cutesy padding, but much more incredible symbols of unrequited love, unspoken misery, and demons of the past that simply won’t stay dead. Bolt’s direction is morbid enough to where even the most light hearted moments are filled with dread and spooky plot elements that always keeps “Vanished Acres” on the border of horror.
The true reason to see “Vanished Acres” is for Bolt’s absolutely fantastic and whimsical direction in which a man on the brink of insanity thanks to loneliness and his inability to let go of his past, comes face to face with a condescending scarecrow who is absolutely smug, but for good reason. Since created, seemingly by omnipresent forces in the land, he’s seen more than anyone could care to, and bears this power over Jarod, who he knows more than Jarod knows. He holds the power, he holds the secrets, and Jarod hates him for it, especially when he discovers an old love letter from his wife who passed years before. The exchanges between Jarod and the scarecrow are absolutely superb, and Bolt keeps a healthy dose of gripping ambiguity that creates a sheer sense of menace in this dramatic tale.
Is this scarecrow actually alive or is Jarod just going insane from loneliness? Or perhaps it’s just his conscience taking a toll on his life, after tucking it away most of his life? Is this scarecrow a higher force ruining Jarod’s garden purposely? Is this raven much smarter than we think? John Riley almost runs away with this movie as the decrepit old man who lives in a museum of his past unwilling to face a truth that this scarecrow, acting as his constant psychological nemesis, teases him with. Riley grabs every single scene by the heart and provides a truly grueling portrait of this old man who refuses to walk away from his delusion.
Matthew Solari is excellent as the ghoulish as this rather elitist scarecrow who taunts and torments Jarod, paired with his raven who is also a very questionable second hand in the pair. Is the animal a messenger, a sidekick, or the true master? More importantly, will Jarod ever face his actual reason for staying in this mausoleum of lies and falsehoods? Bolt’s film is very much of a Terry Gilliam throwback, and it simply took my breath away. Adam Bolt’s short dark fantasy is wonderful, it’s a tight, chilling, and incredibly acted drama about lost dreams, delusions we stick to, and the unusual methods we can come to grips with a life that we never wanted.