Logger was written and directed by Steffen Geypens. It is a dark fantasy about a logger who finds a dead body in the woods. I know that isn’t the most informative description, but finding out what this film is really about is a mission left to the audience, and it is a task best experienced with as little knowledge as possible.

A major aspect of Logger is mystery. Mystery is not only central to the plot but nearly all of the characters are mysterious figures. In this case, that means there isn’t a whole lot of character depth. We don’t really know these characters, and that is largely true from beginning to end. The character relationships are unexplored or non-existent depending on the characters in question. The dialogue is good, but there isn’t a lot of it. That doesn’t matter so much because the performances are great. Everyone is able to get everything they need across without relying on too much dialogue.

Another major aspect of Logger is mood. I do consider Logger to be a mood piece. It aims to contort and play with the audiences’ emotions and conceptions, and I find that it does so expertly. Absolutely everything reinforces its mood. It’s a short experience. It is barely more than an hour long. It could be shorter, but anything that doesn’t directly affect the story contributes to the mood and the atmosphere. There is a healthy amount of slow motion here, and I wouldn’t dream of removing or hastening any of it. The cinematography is the most valuable player. The imagery depicted is absorbing. The editing reinforces the imagery. Logger depicts the beautiful, the grotesque, and the uncanny in almost equal measure. I was left in suspense through much of the experience and fascinated throughout its entirety. The sound quality is nice and crisp, and the score, like everything else, perfectly contributes to the mood. The practical effects are good, although it is worth noting that this is not an effects-heavy film. The blood doesn’t look realistic and may conceivably cause one to write-off the quality of the effects. If you want to cherry-pick the gore, you will absolutely be able to. I don’t think it is that important. This is a fantasy film, so the depiction of blood, guts, etc. doesn’t need to be realistic, and the cinematography and imagery more than make up for any failings one might have with Logger‘s depiction of gore.

If you are the type of person who needs clear answers to every question, I don’t think Logger is for you. It is very surreal and dream-like, and despite going out of its way to answer some things, it will probably not win over people who crave clarity. Otherwise, I highly recommend it. It is only asking for an hour of your time, and it is absolutely worth it. The reason it isn’t rated higher is that despite enjoying it, I could have been more invested. It didn’t give me the opportunity to connect with or invest in any of the characters, and for me, that is almost necessary to help push all the things here that are already good into the upper echelon.