Five years since his last feature, Irish horror director Ivan Kavanagh returns with The Canal. David (Rupert Evans) is a film archivist, happily married and with a young child. His life is turned upside down when in an apparent accident his wife is found dead in the canal near their house, during the same week he receives grisly police footage from the early 20th century detailing a murder in his own home.
Kavanagh’s subversion of usual haunted house tropes prove somewhat successful in showing David’s subsequent descent into obsession and madness but the scares suffer due to Kavanagh’s willingness to show the audience too much. The reappearance of what is haunting his house takes the chills out of the proceedings. Kavanagh has found a great lead in Evans, and great support from Steve Oram as a skeptical detective is darkly funny. The Canal is worth a visit but do not be surprised if you find you’ve seen this all before.
Words: Stephen McCabe
