After a young man's brother is murdered, he finds himself haunted by him and naturally seeks help, finding it in a mysterious psychiatrist whose treatment methods can only be explained as unorthodox. To say more might constitute a spoiler, but I will say that the presented concept is an interesting one. The script almost works and probably would have with another pass or two, but if unfortunately falls victim to amateur camerawork and performing. Our lead and our psychiatrist are decently enough performed but that's about it, with everybody else veering between decent and flat out awful. The camerawork feels like a student production and dampens the obviously stylistic nature they're going for. Low budget can be excused for some of these things but SURELY they could have cobbled together some resources to fix the flaws. The premise is so interesting that it deserves a good film behind it, but as is the only thing that's properly handled here is the ending, which is great but unfortunately doesn't feel earned. The filmmaking team behind this is probably one to look out for in the future, if only they manage to learn where to improve. More like a 3 or 4, but giving a generous 5 for a strong effort.
Review of Mantra
