The latest feature from ultra-low-budget film-maker Robbie Banfitch (after The Outwaters and White Light) sees him wearing many hats; he is the film’s director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and lead actor, multitasking truly above and beyond the call of duty. The result is a reasonably impressive achievement: a sad little horror story about a family grieving for a missing daughter-sister that tempts the viewer to think there are ghosts about, or at least something supernatural afoot. Feet and the sound of footsteps play an outsize role here, with the carefully constructed sound design making this found-footage exercise more nuanced than most cheap horror iterations of the genre.
Banfitch plays a guy named Robbie Lyle, an aspiring film-maker who has come home to rural New Jersey to spend time with his mother Leslie (played by Banfitch’s own mother Leslie Ann Banfitch, giving a moving performance). Both son and mother are still trying to cope with the unexplained absence of Robbie’s sister Noelle (Salem Belladonna, seen only in pictures and old home movies, but heard singing often), who went missing a few years ago while out for a walk on the secluded road of the title. Robbie tells Leslie that he’s making a doc about angels or spirits; she is convinced Noelle is haunting the house, but when he goes out and asks local people about what they know of his sister’s disappearance, it’s clear he’s a sceptic.
Naturally, this means Robbie’s rationalism will be tested when things go bump in the night, Leslie starts sleepwalking and saying spooky things in a fugue state and, most eerie of all, Noelle’s old music box keeps opening up to play the Blue Danube waltz while a tiny ballet dancer revolves on the wind up mechanism. In addition, Noelle’s old cassette tapes, decorated by drawings she made of barren trees or leaves on a ground, seem to prefigure views in the bit of the forest Robbie isn’t supposed to go to. The atmosphere thickens with foreboding, although it might have been even scarier if someone had advised Banfitch to tighten up the edit as there are repetitive spells that test the patience.
• Tinsman Road is in Letterboxd Video Store now and on digital platforms from 3 August.
