Shadow (2009)

Shadow: Directed by Federico Zampaglione. With Jake Muxworthy, Karina Testa, Ottaviano Blitch, Chris Coppola. When a young soldier leaves for a mountain biking excursion, he meets the girl of his dreams as well as a group of violent locals who want to see them dead at any cost.

“Saw this at Frightfest in London a few days ago.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector Federico Zampaglione comes across as a really nice guy, the film seemed like a bit of a labour of love for him (he even got his old dad who helped with the script up on stage for the Qu0026amp;A which was quite sweet) and heu0026#39;s obviously a real genre fan. Thatu0026#39;s the good news…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, on the bad side… the story is horribly confused, the direction is all over the place – but the music isnu0026#39;t too bad (Zampaglione is the singer of an Italian pop-rock band) There are a few fairly gruesome moments, but thereu0026#39;s all too much boring, nonsensical build up, with badly drawn characters running around in the woods before the u0026quot;horroru0026quot; bits kick in. Thereu0026#39;s also a good deal of needless mountain biking (a passion of the director) which makes the film feel like someoneu0026#39;s switched onto an extreme sports channel for 5 mins before we can get back to the film! As I say, there are moments of promise but as an overall film it just doesnu0026#39;t work. I donu0026#39;t think that Zampaglione is really ready to be writing and helming his own films at this stage… itu0026#39;s a far cry from a 3 minute music promo.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHopefully for his sake heu0026#39;ll maybe try and work with an outside influence who might be able to give his next project a little bit more focus. In a way you have to salute Zampaglione for making exactly the kind of film he wanted to make – but unfortunately that doesnu0026#39;t make it something that other people will want to watch.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne to avoid.”