A woman grieves over her toddler's death, is it paranoia when she begins to suspect her neighbors are part of a satanic cult or THE horrific truth?
Leah, June, and their toddler daughter, Lyle, move into a gorgeous brownstone in Brooklyn. Leah is the stay at home mom who looks after Lyle. She is also pregnant with their second child. June is the up and coming music producer who works a lot to try and keep up with their lifestyle. Life for the three is looking absolutely awesome…until tragedy hits and their baby girl Lyle dies. As the film progresses, we see that Leah is completely falling apart. Her despair turns into paranoia, while June seems to become more prosperous with her career. Eventually, Leah suspects that Lyle’s demise was not an accident and fears for her unborn baby.
Although, this film is only 65 minutes long, the plot and characters are strong. The woman who plays Leah, (Gaby Hoffmann) did a pretty amazing job, though at times, although she was a bit melodramatic. Aside from baby Lyle, one of my favorite characters was the creepy landlady, Karen. I would loved to have known more about her. The rest of the cast did a passable job.
There were a couple of things I loved about the film: I really appreciated that the lesbian couple at the forefront of the story was not portrayed as being something subversive. They are just characters in the story. It’s was nice to see them painted as regular people doing regular things. They were not portrayed as a part of the story and I appreciated that.
Another thing I loved was the creepy undertone. Although this film is of the horror genre, it’s not a typical horror film. Most of the scares are of the psychological variety with plenty of drama and a touch of horror. The cinematography is beautiful and effectively added to the tension of the film.
Lyle is an incredible film that is entertaining from the beginning to the very end. As the viewer, we cannot ignore Leah’s hysteria. Her emotions are raw and full of paranoia and tension. Overall, I highly recommend Lyle. It reminded me of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) with a hint of The Sentinel (1977). I’m looking forward to director Stewart Thorndike’s next horror film.
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