There’s a sub-sub genre in horror affectionately known as “are men ok?” and the films within it constantly remind us “no, they absolutely are not!” Men seem to be particularly not ok in the Irish countryside in the bleak and ferocious ‘Bring Them Down.’ This is the first feature for director Chris Andrews and he comes out ready to leave you depressed but ruminating after watching this one. Did I say ruminating? This film is about two shepherding families each facing their own internal struggles while battling each other.
The film starts in a car on a winding rural road where, from the point of view of the driver, Mikey (Christopher Abbott), we see a mother in the passenger seat and a girlfriend in the back begging him to slow down. Mikey does the opposite and a chilling crash ensues. The timeline then picks up maybe 20 years later, maybe not quite that long, it is difficult to tell. Mikey, now Michael, is tending the flock while also caring for his father (Colm Meaney). The former girlfriend, Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone) lives at the neighboring farm with her husband Gary (Paul Ready) and son Jack (Barry Keoghan). We get the impression that they don’t interact all that much when Gary has to call to tell Michael that two of his rams have been found dead on their property.
As Michael tries to uncover what has happened to his rams the tension builds and you can feel anger bubbling just under the surface of every character. Like a dam in need of repair, you know one of the cracks is about to give but you don’t know which one. Turns out all of them really. As everyone’s anger explodes in various ways the film employs a shuffled timeline to move through the story. In general I don’t mind this technique but here I found it difficult to follow. The wasn’t enough visual variation in the scenes and settings to always realize that we had jumped to a different time in the story and it made it a little difficult to keep up.
If you’re going to have a film that revolves almost entirely around brooding looks you could do a lot worse than casting Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan. Keoghan has been having a real moment, and is so quietly unhinged here but I believe we aren’t talking enough about how great Abbott is in general. Abbott, an American actor, not only convincingly becomes Irish, but also learned Gaelic for the role. Watching Keoghan and Abbott take their characters on a journey violently towards each other is the most gratifying part of the film. Like the opening car crash we know they are going to collide, but as we watch it happen, almost in slow motion, we wish we could stop it. The characters themselves seem to wish they could stop it, but their bottled up pain was always destined to explode.
In addition to the incredible acting the Irish countryside, as usual, is a character in itself making it easy to keep the film feeling desolate and dreary. The inevitable bloodshed becomes a welcome break in the muted gray color palette. The music also does a lot of heavy lifting to help the viewer understand the threat of unwanted change that is driving much of the film. Alternating between a more traditionally Irish score and modern hip hop that fills the scenes driven by Jack, the music helps define the struggle between the old, conventional ways of thinking and doing, and the new ways that are coming to take their place.
You aren’t meant to feel good after watching ‘Bring Them Down’ and you certainly aren’t meant to think that men are emotionally thriving. This film could serve as a call to action to get a therapy outreach program started in probably all rural areas in the western world. With a couple of missteps Andrews definitely accomplishes what he set out to do with this bleak and brutal film.
‘Bring Them Down’ had it’s US Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024.
