The Shadow Scarf
2018 · 21m
Genres: drama, mystery, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
On a foggy New York night, bartender Jeffrey falls into the company of an alluring stranger, in a suspenseful tale about the culpability of the bystander.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
The bystander-culpability angle could've been a genuine subversion of noir, but instead it settles into the fog and mood like every other atmospheric thriller made in Brooklyn—competent, handsome, totally predictable.
A formally assured entry in the stranger-in-the-night lineage, with the kind of measured pacing and tonal control that suggests a filmmaker conscious of Hitchcock's shadow play and how suspense lives in the spaces between dialogue.
The decision to keep Jeffrey almost passive—watching rather than acting—is elegant in theory, but the film doesn't quite commit to the strangled energy that choice demands, missing the chance to make restraint itself the engine.
Reviews
The Shadow Scarf sets out to explore an interesting premise, boasts of a good background score and alluring look. With the plugging of a few crucial misses, it could easily make for a thriller that people would want to revisit.