Well, I have to say that this film wasn't really what I expected at all.  It's pretty rare that I get to review a film that's at this level of production quality and with such a strong cast that really matches the feel that the film was going after.

I don't usually do this, but I'm going to take the lazy way out this time and paste a couple of paragraphs from the description of the story directly from the film's website since it actually says it better than I could...

Imagine if you will, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Robert Louis Stevenson sitting around a table drinking and doing what eccentric artists of the day did. And as they partied and bantered like rock stars, they began to formulate a twisted story of coincidence, betrayal, love and personal choice based on Poe's "The Tale-Tale Heart", Hawthorne's "Dr. Heideggers Experiment", and Stevenson's "Markheim".

A Gothic Tale is a haunting story that examines emotional greed and personal choice, while challenging one's own sense of good judgment, morality, love, and human ethics. Three twisted and tortured souls forever linked by their ties to an unnamed Stranger, at the mercy of one another and the compromises they made to prove their love, remembered by a haunted and dedicated host who narrates their tale from just outside the abandoned building where they lived for many years.

Now, let me just say that I had a bit of a shock when I looked at the film's website just now.  Why?  Well, I've been really pressed for time this month, and as such I haven't really paid attention to the credits in the films I've been watching.  So as I've been writing my reviews for this issue, I've been going through the credits on IMDB and on the films' websites as I write each review.  It was only a few moments ago, that I found out that the bum who narrated the story in this film was actually Roddy Piper!  I had no freakin' clue!  It didn't sound like Roddy Piper, and it sure as hell didn't look like him.  They had him made up REAL good, and I must say, he did one hell of an acting job.  He's always been a cool actor though.  Most people would know him as a wrestler, or as the star of the cult film "They Live", but he's also appeared in lots of other great films including "Hell Comes to Frogtown".  Apparently he's really focusing on his acting at the moment, as IMDB shows that including this film, he's appearing seven different films so far in 2009.  It's nice to see because I always liked Roddy Piper and thought he had a lot more talent than people gave him credit for.

Since I'm talking about the cast, I'll mention the other notables now before moving on to my comments about the story and the production itself.

This film really had four characters that were lead characters (aside from the narrator who was kind of a lead character in his own way) and the rest were all basically side characters with smaller roles.  Though all did a great job, for the sake of brevity, I'm only going to cover the four mains.

The Stranger (Ryan McGivern): This guy is actually the devil, though that's never explicitly stated.  He has a metal suitcase that holds the greatest wish of those who fulfill their end of the deal he makes with them, often driving them to do things they'd never consider doing otherwise, such as murder.  I'm not really sure how I feel about Ryan McGivern's portrayal as The Stranger.  For me it was ok, but all through the movie I felt that there was a distinct lack of evil emanating from him.  I think if he had played the role with more of a sinister coolness, it would have been a lot more spine chilling.  The way it was played however just didn't do it for me.  I'm not saying he's a bad actor, because he's not.  I'm just saying I would have liked to have seen the character played differently.  There was a lot of lost potential here for an overwhelming sense of evil that could have permeated every scene he was in.

Marshal Hilton (Mark Heim): Mark was taken in by a scientist after The Stranger enticed him to kill Mark's parents as part of a deal to get the suitcase.  The scientist, Thomas, killed the boy's parents, but I guess he was supposed to have killed the boy too, because The Stranger wouldn't give him the suitcase since he didn't fulfill his part of the bargain.  Marshal's portrayal of Mark was quite good, and yet at times unbalanced.  Sometimes he acted like a meth addict, other times he acted like and alcoholic, and other times he was a bit more solid.  I'm still trying to figure out if it was scripted this way or if that's how he chose to play it, but in any case, he did a great job.  Marshal Hilton has had a long career in film and his experience shows in how he handled this difficult performance.  It had to have been insanely difficult to keep running through all the emotional cycles of this character, but Marshal Hilton managed it with the ease of a true professional.

Jamey Hood (Lillian): Lillian is the daughter of the scientist, Thomas.  Her and Mark developed a special relationship after her father killed Mark's parents and took him in.  She could always see a lot of potential in Mark, if he would only go after it, and yet he never did.  Still, she always hoped for the best for him.  After he killed her father though in an effort to get the case, she discovered her father's body in a pool of blood on the floor and basically went insane, which in a delusional state, leads to her eventually killing an old woman at the church shelter she's staying at.  She keeps hallucinating and seeing the old woman as Mark.  Jamey Hood is made up to be very plain Jane in this film, but if you look beneath that you can see how strikingly beautiful she is.  Her eyes are amazing, and she can say more with a facial expression and a look than most actors can say with a full page of dialogue.  She's an amazing actress and handled her role beautifully, bringing a perfect sense of timidness, vulnerability, hope and insanity to her character.

C J Baker (Dr. Thomas Heidegger): Thomas was a scientist who was desperately working on a way to restore dead things to full life and freshness.  The answer was to be found in the case that The Stranger promised him, if only he'd kill Mark's parents...and Mark.  He killed Mark's parents, but couldn't bring himself to kill Mark.  Instead, he took Mark in and took care of him, which led to him not getting the case, or the answer he needed to complete his life's work.  C J Baker is another fine actor.  He played his role in such as way as that he came off not only as a dedicated scientist, but also as a crochety old man who's gone through a lot and has some bad things on his conscience.  His relationship with Mark is practically non-existent because Mark never lived up to his potential and has basically become a petty criminal.  He also doesn't want Mark around his daughter Lillian, whom he loves very much.  C J manages all of the aspects of his character well, and actually brings a surprisingly fresh feel to a role that so easily could have been played differently.

As for the production quality of this film, it was absolutely amazing.  Everything about the look of this film was absolutely gorgeous.  The set design was incredibly well done, and the look of the entire film was just beautiful.  Visually, this film was just stunning.  The sound was excellent as well, and so was the lighting.  I think the only technical thing I could ding this film on was that the editing made things a bit confusing at times.

A Gotic Tale is one of those films that exemplifies what independent cinema can be with the right amount of work, talent and financing.  It's definitely worth your time to check it out.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can visit the film's website at http://www.agothictale.com.