The Girl Inside The Photograph

Ed Alexander makes his feature-length debut as a director and writer on The Girl Inside The Photograph. Co-writer/co-director David Michán has several titles to his name, though this parable horror title appears to be his first feature in English. Screenwriter Maria-Paula Garavito has no other credits, but also served as a producer here. Can the filmmakers overcome freshman jitters, so to speak, and deliver an intriguing and creepy motion picture?

Freya (Jaira Brownlee) is desperately looking for her cat. A person calls with information about the feline, and the teenager bolts from her home on Briar Road. Unfortunately, Freya’s cat isn’t about. Later that night, Hugo (Ivan Sadovsky) breaks into the house, startling the girl. The non-verbal man has been locked up since a tragic incident that took place in that very house. This sends Freya into research mode, as she attempts to uncover the sordid history of where she lives with her mom, Alice (Marie Issermann).

“…sends Freya into research mode, as she attempts to uncover the sordid history of where she lives…”

The clues she uncovers lead Freya to Ray (Donald A. Rogers), who also experienced tragedy at the house. Ray and Hugo are reluctant or unable to help, and Alice couldn’t care less about what her teenage ward is up to. This leaves only Detective Marcy (Abigail Hunt), the law enforcement officer in charge of the break-in, as the one adult Freya can turn to. Why has the Briar Road home seen more than its fair share of death, and who or what is behind?

The Girl Inside The Photograph has much to admire, but has some issues that hold it back a bit. The first flaw is that occasionally, scenes are so dark that it is very hard or impossible to see what’s going on. At one point, over an hour in, Freya dashes from one room of the house to another. The new room is completely dark, and it takes over 20 seconds for a light source to emerge. Whatever happens in that in-between time is indescribable as it cannot be seen. There are four or five such scenes throughout the 108-minute runtime, which bring the whole experience down.