The Deeper You Dig (2019)

Directors: John Adams, Toby Poser

Writers: John Adams, Toby Poser

Cast: John Adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams

For as long as I’ve been a film fanatic, there’s one fact that has been fairly consistent: Very few people can pull off wearing multiple hats. Is it possible? Of course. Is it smart? Mostly not. It helps to have others wearing important hats in order to have a healthy amount of checks and balances on set. Every now and then it works. Mel Brooks and Kevin Smith are solid examples of people who can do it and give their audience quotable gold that withstand the test of time (for the most part). Most of the time, however, that challenge is met with stale, one-note stories that fail to transcend beyond the restrictions of stern creative vision, and end up being presented with all their potential resonating but never seeing the light of day. The Deeper You Dig was written by, directed by, produced by, shot by, and starred one or more of the trio made up of John Adams, Toby Poser, and Zelda Adams, with a little help by a few others, but you get the idea. There aren’t enough hooks on the hat rack for so many jobs, and it shows in this film.

When a drunk driving Kurt (John Adams) accidentally hits Echo (Zelda Adams) he panics and tries to get rid of the body, only to discover that she didn’t die. He then finishes her off and continues with the burial. While Zelda’s mother and tarot reader, Ivy (Toby Poser) searches for her missing daughter—both in this realm and by communicating with one beyond—Echo starts to haunt Kurt in hopes to set the record straight about her fate.

For an hour and thirty-five minutes we’re fed almost nothing. There’s an incredible vagueness that shrouds the entire film. In the beginning, and throughout, we’re given very little in terms of exposition. No indication of who Kurt is, how close Echo and Ivy were, or the significance of the Seven Circles, a realm where some people go when they die. All of these plot devices were obviously significant pieces of the story, but we’re left in the dark with them. The impact of Kurt’s plight probably would have hit harder if we knew anything about him. Was he a bad person before all this, explaining why it seemed so easy for him to kill and bury a 14-year-old (booze doesn’t turn your blood cold)? Where was his wife (He blatantly wears a wedding band, which was likely an oversight and belonged to Adams, not the character he played)? Why wasn’t the incident and the haunting that preceded enough to drive him insane before being possessed? Those are questions solely about Kurt. There are more when we look at Ivy regarding her history with tarot reading, her lack of devastation over her daughter going missing, and her entrance into the Seven Circles. Particularly this: It was mentioned that once she opens the gate to that realm, there’s no closing it. She ceased to have visions once Echo fully took over Kurt’s body and reunited with her. So…there really is a way? Was she still in it? I’m pulling my hair out asking these questions. If they had answers, there would have been so many layers to the story and strong connections between the characters and the audience. Instead, we get mostly silence and vast nothingness.

That’s a lot of drama to be had, and this is supposed to be a horror flick…I think. It played more like a crime drama with a ghost. There isn’t very much horror to be seen here. Darkness, yes, but not horror. When Echo haunts Kurt it’s creepy in most places and there’s one effectively done jump scare, but unfortunately that’s pretty much all we get. I’ll admit, those were entertaining scenes. Many shots utilized foreground when they were wide in a way that gave us a fly-on-the-wall feel that made for an interesting perspective. But the good aspects only lasted so long. The valiant attempt at being egregiously artistic gave the movie an aura reminiscent of student films made by amateurs who haven’t yet realized that sometimes less is more. The sound design didn’t help much with that either. The inconsistent levels in dialogue from scene to scene paired with obvious foley and severe lack of room tone (rookie mistake) made it a tough piece to listen to. No one should be able to tell the difference between the sound that was recorded on set and the sound that was added in post.

So, why did I mention the danger of wearing multiple hats on a film? Well, if there were more eyes on this production there possibly would have been answers to the questions asked. There would have been someone there to make sure little rookie mistakes weren’t made. Having less to manage help with focus. Now, I wasn’t on set so I can’t definitively speak to this next observation, but whenever I see one name—or a small handful—with more than two jobs credited to them, it screams “control freak”. A filmmaker cannot improve when there’s no one there for perspective, and that could easily be the demise of a film that inherently has incredible potential and is conceptually compelling, such as The Deeper You Dig.

The Deeper You Dig is available to stream on Shudder.