Birth of Separation (2010, Review)
Director: Louis Mansfield
Cast: Ashley-Rebekah Faulkner, Steve Saturn, Tony Slade
Official Site / 1.78:1 Widescreen / Color / English / 105 minutes / Drama-Suspense-Thriller
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I’ve always seen home invasion as a very specific type of “breaking and entering”. I’ve always associated home invasion with the concept of someone forcefully entering your house; not in an interest for your possessions, but in an interest for you. I’m not sure if this idea pretains to just me or if it’s more of a universal feeling. Either way the home invasion movie is one of those plot devices in horror that seems to always keep my interest. I guess it’s the simplicity in the storytelling and the raw emotion that goes into a film with a plot that we all can relate to, seeing as we all live in houses and there’s that always unfortunate possiblity that someone will betray that comfort we feel in our homes. The twisted minds behind Birth of Separation must understand this concept completely.
The film centers around Elizabeth, a housewife and mother with another little bundle of joy on the way, and in fact teetering very close to that 9 month mark. The day starts out like any other ho-hum day with her getting her daughter ready for school and kissing the adoring husband goodbye, until she’s alone and then comes the knock at the door. The sweet and trusting Elizabeth takes pity on the gentleman on her doorstep, who is desperately going door to door handing out flyers for his missing son, and invites him in for coffee. Given that this is a horror movie, things begin to take a bad turn for Elizabeth at this point.
When I first saw the trailer for Birth of Separation I thought it was going to be alot like Inside (which if you haven’t heard of or haven’t seen you should seek it out now). Other than the invasion, a pregancy, and the highlighted weapon being a pair of sissors, Birth of Separation is a completely different movie. This of course is a good thing considering I’m sure Hollywood is on their way with an official remake so the last thing we need is an unofficial remake. Birth digs itself under your skin; not with gore, as with Inside, but psychologically as the intruder fucks with Elizabeth’s mind more than he causes her physical bodily pain, though he does cause some physical pain as well. In fact I’d say that Birth is actually slightly similar to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, just in the tone of it being more psychological than visceral.
Birth of Separation was directed by Louis Mansfield and I have to say that he did one helluva job. He creates a dark atmosphere of dread by directing a film that imitates reality. He doesn’t fill it with big orchestral scores, instead the music remains subtle and complements the movie like a score should. Also he uses long takes, that admittedly could try the patience of many music video fans, and few angles allowing the preformances of the actors to tell the story. I’m offically paying attention to Louis Mansfield’s sophomore effort, whatever that may be.
Speaking of the preformances, I’d be doing a huge disservice to this movie without mentioning the two actors that portray the main characters. Ashley Rebekah Faulkner plays the lead, Elizabeth and delivers a fantastic, very real performance. Having to give such a draining performance with long uninterrupted takes speaks of how great of an actress she is. Any horror awards out there take note of the name Ashley-Rebekah Faulkner because she deserves to win. Steve Saturn plays the bastard who decides to fuck up Elizabeth’s day. Portraiting a meancing but hurt beast, Steve’s performance can make you hate him with ever fiber that resides inside you yet also leave you feeling a slight bit sorry for him… only a slight bit though. I don’t think I’m revealing anything by stating that without the kickass acting chops on the two leads this movie couldn’t have survived, not in the style it was shot.
Birth of Separation is a brutal, unflinching example of what a good horror film can be, with the right director behind it and of course the right actors in front of it. It’s not the typical jump scare after jump scare invasion flick (cough, The Strangers, cough cough) instead it’s a slow burning example of the true horror that can come out of a situation like this. That to me is much more terrifying.
