Reviews

The events in this episode verified what we experienced when a realtor took us through in May 2009. I found the 'murder room' behind a false wall. Concrete floors, no windows no doors. The crew went in with a floodlight, pulled the sink back to reveal 6" of caked blood. In the front bedroom is a balconey that gave me the willys. Behind that balconey wall is a false door into the attic where the mob counted their skim where the wife heard lewd comments while she showered. At 107 degrees outside it was a cool and drafty 67 degrees inside without AC on and no one having lived in the home for over a year. I first thought good insulation, but have heard spirits makes houses cold.

It is frightening that there are cold blooded heartless killers and ignorant insecure people that follow them. It was gut wrenching watching a young family with their baby and a newlywed couple executed in cold blood by cowards. Used to Hollywood movie scripts, you can't help but anticipating the innocent people somehow escape and overcome their captors. Having lived in the Mohave desert, the screen can not come close to capturing the constant oppressive heat that can kill a person without water in hours as well as invoking heat stroke along with confused thinking. If Tison was in anything like Sheriff Joe's outdoor prison, I'd do anything to escape that hell hole.

I started watching this movie anticipating a 'horror flick. I kept waiting for the usual horror of blood, guts, shock, ghastly images and loud abrupt sounds. None of that is present. With Welsh language and english subscript, in a sublime remote mountain valley setting, one is drawn in to watch an intriguing sad story reveal itself at a painstaking pace. Other reviews reveal the subplots, so I'll not go into details. However, the ending was abrupt and I found it confusing. So, this morning I just had to investigate the meaning that I couldn't comprehend to fully appreciate The Passing.

The cinematography, the Valley, the continuous references to water, headstones, going away, the incestual relationship, the condescending and spiteful attitudes toward Stanley and the overwhelming sadness make sense when you study the history of Capel Celyn, a tiny Welsh hamlet, that was flooded to make way for the Trywern Reservoir to provide water for Liverpool England nearly 60 years ago. The Welsh had no say in England's decision to permanently end the last purely Welsh speaking village and all it's residents were forced to leave and carry on as opposed to drowning with the flooding death of their beloved home. One of the main controversies was the removal of headstones and relocation of the cemetary.