A horror drama that uses surrealism and symbolism to address grief and loss, but mostly hope and the love that mother and daughter have for each other. 

• Drama factor: ★★★★☆
• Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
• Surreal factor: ★★★★★
• Supernatural factor: ★★★★☆
• Dark humor factor: ★★★☆☆

The Deeper You Dig is a horror drama that tells the story of a mother and daughter who love each other and want to get back to each other even in death. With surreal scenes and symbolism and dark humor this is an original and surprising film that addresses grief and loss in an unconventional way. The fun part is that this film was made by a family, the Adams family. Mother, father and daughter made the film and starred in it as well. That makes this an even more original project. It stars Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, John Adams. Directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser. Written by John Adams, Toby Poser.

Duration: 1h 35m

Plot

Ivy is a single mother of 14-year-old goth girl Echo. Echo doesn’t really fit in at school but the relationship with her mother is good. They do a lot of things together, but when Echo wants to do something that evening, Ivy has to go to a client. She is a tarot card reader and gives readings to people who want to make contact with their deceased loved ones. That evening in the dark Echo decides to go sledding alone. However she gets hit by a car. 

Kurt is the new neighbor a few houses down the street, who is fixing up a house to sell it. He was at a bar drinking a is driving home when he hits Echo. He puts her into his car and drives home. There he puts her into the bathtub but then she starts to cough. Shocked she is still alive, he chokes her to death. From then on, Kurt is haunted by the ghost of Echo, who wants him to tell her mother what he did. 

In the meantime Ivy is looking for Echo who didn’t come home that night. She is sure something has happened to her. She reaches out to one of her pupils who since then has turned into a huge medium and advises her to use the Seven Circles and gives her a box. But the use is not without consequence. It leads her on a surreal search for Echo. While Echo is trying to get inside Kurt’s head to force him to tell her mother what he did. 

Both actions of mother and daughter lead to an original but twisted ending. 

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Short Review

While it’s more a drama of grief and loss and the search for a lost loved one, it does have some scary scenes. Scenes that will trick you and are not alway what they seem. There’s a lot of use of surreal scenes that are symbolic in Ivy’s search and supernatural quest to find Echo and to find out what happened to her. These scenes are full of symbolism, are disturbing and uncanny and are dreamlike sequences of events that touch Ivy in the real world as well. 

While Echo is trying to scare Kurt in such a way that he has no choice to confess. These scenes are scary and even a bit surreal as well, although more vision like or more like tricks and hallucinations. 

The effort of both women eventually leads them to find each other. Echo gets more hold on Kurt each time and Kurt and Ivy even seem to befriend each other, without Kurt’s conscious consent. That results in some peculiar but also funny scenes, where Ivy is talking to Kurt, but it’s actually Echo, who can’t or won’t reveal herself to her mother just yet. 

Although Ivy is a medium, she’s a rational woman, maybe too rational who has lost her faith in her own abilities. Echo is a bad ass girl who likes the strange and the weird and also a bit vindictive. Their characters navigate their actions what pushes the plot forwards. While Kurt’s behavior is egocentric and he threatens Echo to kill her mother if she doesn’t leave him alone. But his character gets more and more pushed out by Echo. The first example is when he goes to see Ivy. Echo wants him to force him to tell her, but Echo isn’t strong enough yet. Still she has a hold on him when he goes to the bathroom and stands before the toilet and sees himself in the mirror and then decides to sit down instead. It might be a weird scene, but it clearly shows that it’s now Echo sitting on the toilet. 

The film is a very intimate and quiet one. With very few accompanying music, but music from the radio and natural sounds, mainly from the wind. The sound of the wind refers to Echo herself. An Echo gets carried by the wind and she is trying to get to her mother. Her name is symbolic as well, as she uses Kurt as an echo of herself, to speak the words she wants to say. The film is full of symbolism and surreal scenes that emphasize the bond between Ivy and Echo and through what lengths they are prepared to go to, to find each other again.

SPOILERS And they do. Echo shows herself as a ghost to her mother. She tries to communicate through Kurt with her. Small things, but it makes Ivy wonder. When Ivy and Kurt go out hunting together, it’s something he says, that makes Ivy go to his place. There she finds Echo’s sled and she knows he has done something to her. He tells her it was an accident. They fight, with some surreal scenes to emphasize the dire situation. Ivy eventually knocks him out and Kurt says to Ivy as Echo “We Won.” But it’s not about revenge, or killing Kurt. It’s about having found each other. The final scene shows Ivy and Kurt sitting together at the table. Ivy has made chocolate milk with marshmallows, just how Echo likes it. They smile and it’s not Kurt sitting at the table but Echo and her mother.