The Fated Hour is well-suited to its runtime of 35 minutes, being able to hold onto its gothic mystique without overstaying its welcome.
Peter Hengl’s gothic The Fated Hour is based on the nineteenth-century story "The Relationship with the Spirit World" (Die Verwandschaft mit der Geisterwelt) by Friedrich Laun.
We are introduced to Florentine (Alina Schaller), who is engaged to be married to minister Bruno (Daniel Holzberg) in three days time. It becomes quickly apparent that something is troubling her, and her fiancée presses for details over a candlelit dinner. Florentine’s visit to a gravestone bearing the name ‘Seraphine’ reveals her tragic past, and the loss of a sister (Fanny Altenburger) whom she was closer to than anyone. The strange, otherworldly circumstances surrounding Seraphine’s death seem to have left Florentine (and perhaps even her father, played by Cornelius Obonya) with unanswered questions. But what exactly happened to the young Seraphine?
The story takes us between past and present, fading back and forth as Florentine narrates her beloved, sensitive sister’s untimely death. This framing — a story within a story — is made even more effective by the gorgeous use of fades throughout the film, allowing the transitions between timelines to feel seamless and dreamlike. These fading shots extend, at times, so that we are seeing two (or even three) images at once, weaving the faces of this haunted family together in a way that’s only fitting for such a story.
Everything from the lighting to the costuming in the film is beautiful, immersing us completely in the gothic world it inhabits. All of this sensory delight makes the sometimes-slow-paced tale easier to follow, as the environment itself is so compelling. In the end, it manages to capture the feeling of a classic ghost story, or morbid fairy tale, offering an alluring little package full of spectral whispers.
The Fated Hour had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival
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