Gemma Files

A former film critic searches for the connection between a socialite's mysterious disappearance and the haunted celluloid she left behind.

Experimental Film

Geoffrey Froggatt

Former film critic turned teacher Lois Cairns is caught in a depressive downward spiral, convinced she's a failure who's spent half her adult life writing about other people's dreams without ever seeing any of her own come true. One night Lois attends a program of experimental film and emerges convinced she's seen something no one else has - a sampled piece of silver nitrate silent film footage whose existence might prove that an eccentric early 20th-century socialite who disappeared under mysterious circumstances was also one of Canada's first female movie-makers. Though it raises her spirits and revitalizes her creatively, Lois's headlong quest to discover the truth about Mrs. A. Macalla Whitcomb almost immediately begins to send her much further than she ever wanted to go, revealing increasingly troubling links between her subject's life and her own. Slowly but surely, the malign influence of Mrs Whitcomb's muse begins to creep into every aspect of Lois's life, even placing her son in danger. But how can one increasingly ill and unstable woman possibly hope to defeat a threat that's half long-lost folklore, half cinematically framed hallucination - an existential nightmare made physical, projected off the screen and into real life? 

Content warning for ableism, body horror, gore, child abuse, child death and mention of genocide. There was a lot of things that this book did right. There was an immediate atmosphere that drew me in. I loved the exploration of film studies and a character who is passionate about film history. I liked that this was set in Canada and gave perspective on the Canadian film industry. I like that this book has shown an autistic character that wasn't demonized or shown to be a sinful burden on their parents and caretakers, or generally treated like a morality lesson for other characters to learn from. A lot of books that I love have misrepresented or depicted autistic characters poorly, so it was nice to see it done right here. In this story, Lois loves her son Clark. This is not a selfless love, and I appreciated that. The complexity gives it depth and makes it heartwarming and heartwrenching. Something significant to me is that Lois is also on the spectrum. I like that it acknowledges the hereditary aspect of neurodivergence. While there is explicit ableism in this book, I think it is handled well and not glorified. The story itself meanders and becomes heavy in exposition in the middle of the book which makes it lose a lot of steam. The pacing is definitely slow and could have been edited down in certain parts. Despite my love for the premise and all the individual pieces, it did not converge together or add up in a way that felt rewarding. I just wasn’t as invested in this story as I could have been. I can only recommend this book for those who are intrigued by the premise and wouldn’t mind a slow-burn exploration of the story and film studies.

The plot was interesting and unique, but the protagonist was thoroughly unlikeable.  She whined and complained about everything including her son's teacher and the police.  Yes, your son's teacher does get to send him home at the end of the day, but he/she probably has 3-4 other special needs children in the same class.  This is also another example of a middle aged, liberal, white female author making political commentary where none is needed.  If the protagonist had not been a whiner, this probably would have been a 4 star rating.

shellybn

Maggie Gordon

Experimental Film is filled with a slow, creeping terror of a plot that builds to a horrifying, yet triumphant conclusion. It's a story about an aging film academic with an autistic child and a burgeoning painkiller addiction. It's about the film industry in Canada and family histories and frightening fairy tales where babies are buried in soil to feed the land. It is so many things and it does them all exquisitely well. Files captures the intimate details of her protagonist's daily life in an incredibly convincing manner. At first, readers may get the impression that this is not a speculative fiction piece, but slowly, ever so slowly, Files introduces the meat of our story through Lois' attempts to win herself acclaim by uncovering a history of one of Canada's earliest filmmakers, Mrs. Whitcomb. Her videos are strange, unnerving clips, filled with odd imagery that lingers in a person's memory long after the film has ended. As soon as Lois watches them, her life begins to unravel, and she must uncover the history of their strange creator before she loses her son and perhaps herself. The explanation feels like a fairy tale, but something from much darker days, and divorced the usual stories that we tell our kids. It s a fairy tale and a ghost story and a cautionary narrative all in one. It's arresting and beautifully written, and a definitely must read for those who enjoy a story that can send shivers up your spine.

While not the most accessible book for your average horror fan, I did find this pretty enjoyable! A lot of the film talk was a bit boring and confusing, and the writing shifted in style from being lofty and lyrical to being more straight forward, but the story was super interesting and definitely creeped me out at times!

I did find during the more overwritten passages, I lost the plot a bit, especially during the climax of the book. Once I figured out what was going on though, it was really cool. There were also lots of nuggets of what would happen later in the book, briefly described, or cut scenes back and forth in the action. Both of these, I found a bit tedious after awhile, especially since the cut scenes weren't always super clear that they weren't immediately following the previous passage.

All of these criticisms go back to accessibility. It made the book difficult to follow at times, despite how interesting it was. The story, the mythology, and the film history was all woven together really well despite these issues, however.

Bryan Alexander

I read Gemma Files' 2015 Experimental Film as part of my ongoing quest to find the best 21st-century horror novel. And I was very pleased.

Briefly, without spoilers, the plot concerns the discovery of a previously unknown movie, shot during the silent era by an unusual, haunted creator. Our narrator, a film scholar, obsesses over this work, only to find it connected to a terrifying force.

There is so much to like in Experimental Film, starting with that terrifying entity, which is a compelling and innovative entry into horror. Spoiler shields up: (view spoiler)[I like the Midday goddess, with her connection to agricultural sacrifice, folklore, gender, a specific setting, and the upgrade through film. Passages describing her were high points of the novel. (hide spoiler)]

As a movie buff, I also enjoyed the immersion within film history and practice. Picking Canadian film history is especially fascinating, at least to me as a (United States) outsider. Indeed, building a novel around lost experimental Canadian silent film is a pretty audacious plan.

The narrator is a fine character. Lois Cairns (good name) is hyper, ill, tormented, possessed by self-confidence, often an unpleasant person... a well-rounded character who's interesting to read, and whose flaws make for a richer viewpoint into the novel than would a simpler heroine.

Heroine is key, because this is a very gynocentric novel. The protagonists tend to be female and they rely on female relationships, such as the ones between Lois and her mother and her former student. The supernatural entity is (without much spoilery) also female, as are her human servants. As one, a classic crone, puts it in a crucial scene at the book's center, "I can see he [husband] loves you dearly, daughter, and that his intentions are good, but these are matters only women should deal with, not men, or outsiders. As to the other, only She can say." (181)Male characters are quite different. Wrob, a gay man (hence removed from romance plots) is the leading human antagonist, and (view spoiler)[is brutally, spectacularly defeated by the goddess in the end (hide spoiler)]. Lois' husband, Simon, while enjoying an S- name (so many heroines have these: Safie and Soraya, for example), is simply good and often clueless. He rarely accomplishes anything beyond being supportive, including feeding people and caring for a child: the opposite of many male protagonists. Although married to Lois, their relationship is largely depicted without sex. I don't know Canadian culture well enough to catch all gender cues, but seeing "I'd left knowing that Simon and Mom were talking Clark to a Movies for Mommies screening" (202) certainly seems to code Simon as something far from typically masculine. 

Sidla (another S- name) is male, but very passive, being solely a conduit for others, and essentially disabled by extreme age: again, not a typical male protagonist. No, this is primarily a novel about women. What a delight, even in the 21st century.
 
So what's not to like? The biggest flaw of the book is that it's too long, meaning repetitious. We see versions of key scenes too often without development. Some of the transits go on too long. The basic idea is fully fleshed out by page 200, and took some time getting there; what follows is too mechanical. This could have been a novella and had a stronger impact. I know that's not as viable in today's publishing scene, unfortunately... although perhaps it will be as more readers read ebooks.

This is the first book I've read by Gemma Files. I suspect the north-of-Toronto settings are her own creation, and appear in other books. I look forward to reading them.

Experimental Film

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