Fantasia 2024 Review: ‘Kryptic’ is a Surreal Character Study with No Satisfying Pay-off
Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie) doesn’t know who she is, but neither do we. The aptly named Kryptic, which screened at Fantasia Festival last week, doesn’t spend much time developing its equilibrium before it’s broken. In an attempt to make friends, shy Kay joins the Cedar Spring Women’s Walking Club for a hike in Krypto Peak where monster hunter Barb Valentine went missing while searching for a mythological beast called the Sooka. When Kay wanders off, she has a bizarre encounter with the creature which makes her forget who she is.
After being driven out of her own home, Kay becomes obsessed with Barb Valentine and sets out on a quest to discover what really happened to her. Along the way, she meets a bunch of eccentric women who help Kay dive deeper into her psyche, enabling her to get closer to the truth about Barb and her own connection to the Sooka. Kay also experiences strange, nightmarish visions, often slimy and confusing, which become increasingly more sexual and cause goop to ooze from her ears. “Residue from the megacosm, but stinks like semen,” one of the women tells her. During her journey, Kay embraces sexuality and desire which increases her confidence and strengthens her connection to the creature.
Directed by Kourtney Roy and written by Paul Bromley in their feature debut, Kryptic is a surrealist tale of discovery that doesn’t follow a coherent narrative. Lynchian in its roots and execution, it keeps the audience just as confused as Kay is, focusing less on the creature and more on the way it transforms Kay. Despite her entertaining yet mystifying journey, there is a little character development. This is largely because we don’t learn much about Kay before the inciting incident, other than that she leads a mundane, seemingly friendless life, and lives in a house with gorgeous pastel-coloured mise-en-scène, which we unfortunately don’t get to spend much time in. It’s a shame the plot is not fleshed out by further insight into the protagonist — or even some cryptid lore — but there is a reason for this that is never explicitly clarified, which makes it all the more frustrating: Kay bears a striking resemblance to Barb, which allows the audience to wonder if they are the same person, or if the Sooka’s unworldly powers are at play.
As a quiet and introverted protagonist, who remains somewhat mysterious even as she begins to unravel the truth, Kay’s mannerisms and facial expressions are key to the character’s success. With a forgotten identity, Pirrie’s strong and nuanced performance takes us from fear and paranoia, to wonder and curiosity, which supports the film’s tonal shifts while bringing to life Kay’s experience of re-discovering who she is.
While Kryptic opens with some beautiful shots of the Canadian wilderness, which never quite return, the cinematography by David Bird is often fuzzy and glowy, creating a nostalgic ambiance reminiscent of 2000s horror. It’s both saturated and colourful, but dark and dingy. The film indulges in its fair share of body horror with fun practical effects full of gore and gloop. Kay’s adventures in sex show us more of the inner workings of the creature, with naked human bodies groaning in ecstasy while intertwined and squashed against slimy limbs. No one is entirely sure what the Sooka is nor what its purpose seems to be, but it surely has something to do with desire and “wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff,” to quote David Tennant’s The Doctor.
As a psychological thriller, Kryptic embarks on an intriguing character study but the film is shrouded in ambiguity with no satisfying pay-off. Its relatively meandering and open-ended story is certainly going to be polarising to audiences. While confusing, Kryptic is still rather alluring and boasts a beautiful and impressive visual experience, making it one of my favourites from the festival, which I hope to decipher further upon a rewatch. Roy and Bromley achieve something magical here, cementing themselves as two filmmakers to keep a close eye on.
