Written and directed by well known Horror favourite Elias, this film brings together a sense of obscurity and loneliness and throws a heap of confusion into the mix. Ayla tells the story of Elton (played by Nicholas Wilder) who misses his sister, who died over 30 years ago. Every now and then he sees flashes of her in the corner of his eye and then somehow from the earth, she is (randomly) reborn into a present day adult yet still with a child-like mind.
People always tell you to never judge a film by its trailer, (as you do with books and their covers) but with this film you can. It’s dull, too long and the storyline is simply confusing… and that’s just from the trailer. It’s long winded, vague, messy and has no purpose. Granted it’s peculiar, but not for the right reasons. It doesn’t make you think, or make you question the meaning of life – it just makes you bored. Albeit some scenes had their moments and were well captured, with a few lines raising a smile. However, for the majority of the 80 minutes I felt like I could’ve done with a nap or I just wanted to make a cup of tea, because even that would’ve been a lot more interesting than watching Ayla – and I don’t even drink tea.
The acting is average and the only people I think do a decent job are Elton’s brother James (played by D’Angelo Midili) and Susan, their mother (played by Dee Wallace). They give their characters heart and emotion whilst Wilder does an honest job in portraying an anaemic, lonely and mentally confused thirty-something man with the need to fulfill his life with something other than sex. The two major sex scenes seem to have been thrown in last minute and don’t add a sense of purpose at all. They only give off the element of frustration with Elton’s character (along with his girlfriend Alex played by Sarah Schoofs) and are generally pointless and cringeworthy.
The last thing you want to do is fall asleep within the first half an hour of watching any film, and by all my might I stopped myself from turning it off completely just for the sake of seeing it through until the bitter end. Regrets? No… but my mind never changed from the moment I pressed play to the moment the credits started to roll (I sighed with relief at this point). I would admit that the soundtrack is competent enough and adds a slight creepiness to the ‘story’, but all in all this film isn’t worth the ticket fee.
