Screened as a feature of the 2015 Mardi Gras Film Festival, curated by QueerScreen, Lyle is a sharp horror narrative starring indie film darling Gaby Hoffmann, better known for her work in TV series Louie, Girls and the excellent Transparent. If you’re yet to be familiar Hoffmann as a performer, I highly recommend you start doing your research (thank me later).
Hoffmann plays Leah, partner to a rising music producer and homemaker parent to their toddler daughter. Looking for a property together to begin a new life in affluence, their arrival in a new home brings promise of an idyllic future. As you may suspect, tragedy is destined for the happy couple, and Leah’s sanity is tested by their misfortunes.
Having been billed as a “lesbian Rosemary’s Baby“, my assumptions were as I walked into the cinema that this would be a difficult film to market, that a cultural shorthand was required in selling a difficult queer film. Too short for a feature and too long to be a short film and shot on a visibly low budget, Lyle is a hard fit for a wide distribution and for a time has been available for streaming online free to audiences.
In truth, Lyle delivers much greater things than this suggested premise, it being more in the likeness of feminist “reboot” than a thematic nod.
The scope of the film is constrained to a single building and hinges primarily on Hoffmann’s performance. If Hoffmann’s At times, the visual style is a little overwhelming, but this aligns well with the tension that builds throughout, closing with such spectacular feminist justice that could not have been imagined for Rosemary.
Lyle is indeed a testament to female made and driven horror, shot with such an artful elegance that carries an uneasy atmosphere, it is an excellent argument for the case. Director Stewart Thorndike (born Megan Stewart Thorndike) aims to match Lyle with two additional films in a trilogy featuring similar horror tropes but are female-led, a pleasure to hear considering how gratifying this film was.
Mardi Gras Film Festival continues through to 5 March in Sydney.
