[imagesource: HBO]

Jude Law is okay, but I can’t imagine enjoying 12 hours of watching him run around the countryside.

Now that the reviews are in for The Third Day – Autumn, however, I might have to reconsider.

Two of my favourite mind-bending cult films of all time are hands down Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man and the more recent Midsommar, directed by Ari Aster.

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British folk horror film that follows Police Sergeant Neil Howie on his visit to the isolated island of Summerisle. He finds himself knee-deep in a form of paganism practised by the locals who are about to celebrate the harvest. I won’t tell you how it ends, but I will tell you that it doesn’t end well for Howie.

In the same vein, Midsommar also takes the folk horror genre to the next level with a little human sacrifice thrown into the mix.

The Third Day is reminiscent of these films. It was originally a series with Jude Law playing Sam, a dad who is lured to Osea and discovers an ancestral connection to the locals. Things get creepy, cults are uncovered, and so on.

While The Telegraph calls the series “a bit of a soggy stab at pastoral horror”, they’re calling the more recent version of it, a 720-minute marathon produced by interactive theatre company Punchdrunk, a ” day-long tour de force”.

No familiarity with the story thus far was required. All you needed to know was that Sam had been revealed to be the hereditary ruler of Osea. Now he was required to prove his worthiness via a Stations of the Cross-style procession of endurance.

Here’s some background from Law and others involved in the project:

While the first two hours of the film seem to centre on a brooding local stretched out on a tractor eating a sandwich, it really picks up after that.

Throughout, the drowsy pacing, absence of dialogue and harsh splendour of Osea proved an irresistible blend. This was the high-concept equivalent of watching paint dry. But Punchdrunk made it absorbing and, thanks to the spooky soundtrack, completely unnerving. Minutes ebbed by without anything at all happening. Yet it was impossible to look away from the single-camera tracking shot.

The concept came about in response to the pandemic, which has forced the film and television industry to reimagine what it means to produce content.

The rest of The Telegraph’s review is packed full of spoilers. If you’re keen to read it anyway, you can do so here.

The 12-hour test of the mind is available for viewing on Sky and HBO if you have access to such things.

You might want to save this one for the weekend.

[source:telegraph]