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Quebec writer and director Onur Karaman (Respire, Guilt) brings his latest feature film, Emptiness, to this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. In this world premiere, audiences are introduced to the dark world of a woman named Suzanne. When two women come to watch over Suzanne after her husband’s disappearance, Suzanne becomes increasingly mistrustful and paranoid, especially when she begins to see strange apparitions around her home.

At first glance, Emptiness feels reminiscent of films such as Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. Not only are both films done primarily in black and white, but they also focus on a single woman as she seemingly looses her mind. Emptiness wastes no time creating a sense of unease. The audience is introduced to the small cast and gradually learns the social dynamics between everyone. Yet there also seems to be a very purposeful effort to create confusion. Only small bits of information are divulged at a time, mostly leaving the audience in the dark. As the various pieces come together, the plot begins to make more and more sense. This method does help to create tension and effectively puts the audience in Suzanne’s shoes. Because it is her story, the audience is seeing everything from her perspective. There is so much disorientation throughout the plot because Suzanne herself is uncertain of what’s really going on.

This is the kind of experimental horror film where many will appreciate what the filmmaker was trying to convey in regards to mental health struggles, but the end result doesn’t quite work. It takes too long for the lingering questions to finally get answers, while other things are never answered at all. With how much mental effort it takes to make sense of the events in Emptiness, it makes the destination not quite seem worth the journey. While the film has a quick 76-minute runtime, there is also a lot of dead space between events and a meandering plot, which leads me to believe this story could have come together in a more cohesive way if done as a short film rather than a feature. At times, there are also issues with the dialogue. Especially in the earlier scenes, many conversations between characters don’t have a flow and cadence that feels true to real life.

With such a small cast, the performances are an important part of Emptiness. Stephanie Breton (A Majestic Christmas, The Woods) stars as Suzanne. While there are some ups and downs, overall Breton does a great job of conveying the mental and emotional turmoil her character experiences. There is a near-constant sense of trepidation in how Suzanne acts and reacts to those around her, which also lends to the suspense being built for the audience. The other standout performance comes from Anana Rydvald (Gothika, Mother!) as Suzanne’s caretaker, Nicole. Nicole’s presence always has a sinister edge and adds a lot of tension to any scene where she interacts with Suzanne. Rydvald excels at conveying her character’s disdain, and likely even hatred, for the woman she is meant to care for. These two performances particularly shine when the characters are at odds with one another, and these are also the scenes with the most intensity, drawing the audience in.

One of the stronger elements of Emptiness is the visuals. The use of color, or lack of color, plays an important role throughout the film. A vast majority of Emptiness is shot in black and white. At times the black and white is done in such dark settings that it is difficult to see what is going on, but overall this stylistic choice pays off. It adds to the sense of unease and mystery. There are also some scenes done in red and black tones. While this color scheme seems to be reserved more for flashbacks or dream sequences, occasionally the red bleeds over into the black and white world. There is even one brief scene done in full color. While watching the film, the different color schemes at first seem like a simple stylistic choice, but by the end audiences will learn the coloring is a very intentional decision that helps to tell the story.

Emptiness has elements that could have led to a powerful film, but the end result feels too laborious for the average moviegoer. Karaman has a strong vision and an important story to tell in the film. The primary issue is simply that there needs to be more. There isn’t enough going on in the plot or enough resolution by the end, which is unfortunate given how compelling many scenes are. That being said, the film does have two very strong performances and a unique color palette that helps to tell the story. There is definitely an audience out there for Emptiness, it simply didn’t work for me in its current form.

OVERALL RATING: 4.5/10