I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE (2023) Review by Steve Kirkham

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE (2023)
4 stars
Arrow Video. Blu ray. 5th May

Richard Marwood (Kenneth Trujillo) is about to be released from prison, where he has been serving a sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Because of trauma he doesn’t speak. In order for his release to go ahead he agrees to be part of a brand new programme, which involves him being a real estate “watchman”.

He is picked up by the Realtor (Kimberley Maxwell) who explains he is to stay six days in a house. No contact with anyone and he is not to leave. It’s somewhere where someone died and his job is to “evict” any evil spirits that might remain there, before the property can be sold. Not the sort of service usually offered by your friendly neighbourhood estate agency I imagine.

The place has been empty for three years, after an old man and his wife perished there. It is how they left it. Each day at dusk he is to light one of six candles and say some words – and this will cleanse it of any lingering ghostly presence. Seems simple enough.

However, Richard isn’t in the best place mentally, and has flashbacks to his life with his wife Emma (Katherine Eichenberger), which are often nightmarish, showing how he ended up in prison and why he now doesn’t talk. He only speaks in these throw backs.

Inevitably, things don’t go to plan. Odd noises and strange things start to happen. Then he finds a note ‘I Will Never Leave You Alone’! He also chats to Mike (Christopher Genovese), the handyman, who fills in the darker history of the building, which dates back to the 1800s. Let’s just say it may not end well…

Writer/director DW Medoff has created an effective ghost story, which has a sense of sadness that runs through it. The flashbacks are a bit overplayed and disrupt the flow somewhat, but they do play into the narrative. There are a couple of WTF moments. The film is crisply and moodily shot by Blake Studwell and enhanced with a creepy score by Chris Campbell. There is also excellent use of sound throughout.

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS
Interview with Director DW Medoff (24 mins)

Scene Select Commentary with Medoff

3 of Medoff’s shorts – AWOL (5 mins), I’m Down Here (7 min) and Yahrzeit (6 mins)

Trailer