Leave

Leave certainly can't be taken as a horror film, but as a mystery about a girl's search for her deceased mother, their Nordic roots and the circumstances of her death, the film is a fairly solid affair. The likeable face of the main character and the sort of mystery surrounding the family is quite enjoyable, you feel that something is in the air and just wait for the final reveal of the cards, and while the film is nothing extraordinary and doesn't deviate too strongly from the template of similar films, I certainly wasn't bored by it. What remains a mystery to me, though, is why the film leans heavily into the horror genre when the "ghost" only appears once and in a completely inconsequential way at that. Leave should have done perfectly with just the mystery-quest genre instead of playing at something it's not. A decent average, and it’s a pity that it has so few reviews and only 50%, because it would probably deserve the attention of the average viewer. (04/16/2023)