‘The Moogai’ review: Dir. Jon Bell [Sundance]

In 2020, writer and director Jon Bell delivered a fifteen minute short horror film, The Moogai, to the SXSW midnight masses. Now, four years later, Bell has arrived at Sundance with a feature-length adaptation of the short source. 

The plot of the short saw a mother become increasingly concerned about the welfare of her child, believing it to be the target of a persistent spirit. For this extended iteration of The Moogai, it is the second child of a couple that is in peril. Once again, it is the mother who begins to worry about her child. She doesn’t respond how most horror characters do in her shoes however, with mixed results.

High-profile lawyer Sarah (Shari Sebbens) and her carpenter husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) have a pretty picturesque life. They live in a gorgeous house with their first child, Chloe, and have plenty of friends and family around them. Amongst their community of support is Ruth (Tessa Rose). Ruth is Sarah’s biological mother, an aboriginal woman who gave Sarah to a white family in the hopes of giving her a better life. The two women have only recently reconnected and constantly hit heads as Ruth desperately tries to teach Sarah the traditions of the aboriginal people. Sarah is disinterested and views her lineage as an embarrassment. Even when her newborn son, Jacob, attracts the attention of the aboriginal spirit, the Moogai, Sarah refuses to bow to her ancestors’ rituals. 

The more The Moogai progresses, the more little moments of silliness begin to manifest.

The back and forth between the two sides of Sarah makes for an interesting lead character. Most people reunited with lost family members would take the opportunity to learn whatever they can, but Sarah remains steadfast. As the Moogai begins to ratchet its attempts as stealing the baby, Sarah refuses to fully acknowledge what is happening. Rather than being the hysterical woman who immediately believes the news, Sarah remains locked in her stubborn, practical views. With The Moogai, Bell has a lot to say about finding oneself and the importance of knowing and understanding where we came from. 

Shari Sebbens, who returns from the short, is wildly frustrating as Sarah. Her stubborn nature seemingly causes events to spiral. But it is in this stubbornness that Sarah comes alive. Stories of mothers believing something is after their children is an overplayed trope. Here, the idea is expanded beyond the usual hysterical mother that no one wants to listen to. Sarah herself is one of those people who doesn’t want to hear. It’s a fascinating reversal, which sees Sarah constantly trying to talk herself out of the increasingly alarming amount of strange occurrences. Just seeing a mother not immediately breakdown is a commendable direction to go.

Also returning from the short is Meyne Wyatt. His character, Fergus, is greater than the sum of their typical parts. Rather than being uninterested or oblivious to Sarah’s ordeal, he immediately tries to help her. Granted, he mistakes her issues as potentially stemming from postnatal depression, but he wants to support his wife. More importantly, he looks into Sarah’s argument and soon begins to put stock into aspects that she herself is unafraid to. The dynamic between the pair shines, their time together on the short film clearly providing a lush foundation onto which they build now. 

Whereas the story and character subversions are interesting, The Moogaiis not quite as strong as it could be. There’s still a tad bit of fat that needs to be trimmed. The final act gets a little jumbled and the pace falls off here and there. Outside of this, the biggest issue with The Moogai is that the Moogai itself is not a particularly well realised ‘monster.’ Scare sequences have been played these ways hundreds and times and The Moogai does little to try and rise above the anticipated jump scares. The design of the creature itself is not exceptional. It’s more silly and weird than menacing. Thankfully, Bell keeps the entity secret for as long as possible. It is just a shame that the potency is lost.

The more The Moogai progresses, the more little moments of silliness begin to manifest. For example, the baby that Sarah is trying to save has more lives than a cat. The newborn is dropped and loses an uncomfortable amount of time. Although a film that excels when it strikes out of the box, The Moogai ultimately gets a little lost in the perceived need to conform to the stereotypical idea of horror. 

The Moogai was reviewed at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.