Kew Media
Married couple Larissa (Amanda Crew) and Matt (Adam Brody) move into a new house, all ready for the imminent arrival of their baby. Tragically, just after moving in, the pair lose the baby. In the aftermath, as both struggle to come to terms with the situation, Larissa becomes certain that the girl next door, Isabelle, has sinister intentions for them. Can she convince Matt before it’s too late?
In terms of narrative structure, Isabelle doesn’t deviate too far from the expected beats. In many ways it can be viewed as your typical genre fodder, yet Isabelle has enough within it to stand out on its own. The primary way that it does this is in the way it handles the situation that kicks off the chain of events: losing the baby. The idea in itself isn’t new, but usually the event is just a throwaway plot device to start things going. Here however, the entire film is woven around their loss, and the ramifications that it brings. By focusing so much on the loss, and how both characters attempt to deal with it in very different ways, makes Isabelle a more interesting and compelling watch. The focus also intensifies the emotional connection between the characters, making it all the more unpleasant to watch them spiral further away from one another.
Kew Media
As previously mentioned, Isabelle does a great job at handling bereavement and the different stages of grief. For one, it actually shows how they both deal with the aftermath. All too often, in life as well as on screen, the attention is focused purely on the mother. It’s understandable as they are the one that has had the physical bond as well as emotional bond to the child, but it takes two to make a baby. Here we actually get to see how Brody’s Matt handles things. He’s an interesting character as initially it seems to Larissa that Matt isn’t ready to be a father, and yet his reaction soon proves otherwise. Brody and Crew both handle their character’s circumstances perfectly, Brody especially showing a different side to his acting capabilities. When coupled with Ready or Not, it appears that he’s having something of a comeback and we can’t wait to see what he does next.
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The ‘scare’ element of the story unfortunately let things down a little as it is here that Isabelle sticks fairly faithfully to the expected tropes. That’s not to say that there aren’t some effective scare moments, there are, they’re just a little clumsy in their execution and can be seen coming a mile away. The true horror of Isabelle is linked much more to trauma, and whilst that might not make you jump out of your seat, it does unsettle the mind and play on the emotions in a much more insidious way.
A well-acted and intriguing take on a generic story, Isabelle may very well keep you awake at night, just not for the reasons you’d expect.
Isabelle will be available on Sky Store, iTunes and UK digital platforms from 30th September.
