Horror Movie Review: Shepherd (2021)

A disappointing and incomprehensible horror movie, Shepherd does a lot right but unfortunately does way more wrong. A movie that promises a satisfying story, quality tension and effective scares but ends up falling flat in almost all departments.

Written and directed by Russell Owen, Shepherd stars Tom Hughes, Kate Dickie, Gaia Weiss and Greta Scacchi.

We’re introduced to Eric Black (Hughes) who is grief stricken following the recent death of his pregnant wife, Rachel (Weiss). Haunted by the events that led to her death, he suffers from reoccurring nightmares and decides he needs some isolation and space to work through it.

Seeing an ad in a newspaper for work as a shepherd on a remote island in the Scottish Highlands, he decides to take the job. Not before visiting his religious mother, who massively disapproved of his relationship with Rachel. It goes as well as you might think.

Eric makes his way to the island via boat along with his dog companion, Baxter and meets the boat operator, Fisher (Dickie). She is an odd one and gives him a journal to record his thoughts while on the island.

Once there, he finds a peaceful and serene landscape and a dilapidated cottage by an unlit lighthouse. It doesn’t work but the bell still rings regularly to warn of fog. Eric then does what he can to settle in but finds the isolation is not as beneficial as he hoped. Strange events begin to occur, he suffers from intense delusions and starts to wonder if he is actually alone on the island.

What follows is… confusing to say the least.

Calling Shepherd vague is to put mildly just how unclear a lot of what happens on the island is. The movie seems tempted to play around with the idea that all of what happens is inside Eric’s head but doesn’t do a convincing job of it. Far too many events, far too many visions or experiences are too elaborate to dismiss.

So almost immediately, you know something supernatural is going on. Now you just need the how, why and what of it all. Which is where the film falls apart. The how is never probably explained, the why is alluded too in a ‘sort of’ twist but left vague and the what is exactly the word that most will be saying come the end.

There’s nothing wrong with a movie leaving things open to interpretation but Shepherd fails to answer even the most basic of questions.

It’s such a shame too as the movie looks wonderful. Seriously, if there’s one reason to watch Shepherd it is for the cinematography. Though great acting from a minimalistic number of cast members, some decently constructed character narratives and a sinister sounding score are things to praise too.

Enough to make this a recommendation? Sadly, no as that brings us to tension and scares. The former has moments, where it builds nicely but dissipates far too often into nothingness. The latter is absent almost completely. Aside from a handful of jump-scares that will likely elect more eye-rolls then yelps of fright.

Such a disappointing movie.