Abatement is the feature debut of director Gary Rogers and actor-screenwriter Sharni Tapako-Brown, and sure enough this thriller starts off deep in the woods. A group of four Masters students are camping out, intending to monitor the local fox population for their coursework. There’s sensible Ethan (Andre Pierre), who’s not about this tent malarkey; cheerful supervisor Jess (Amelia Renard), whose smile hides a tragic past; ladsy Jamie (Andrew Reeves), who’s quick with banter but quicker to anger; and soulful Keira (Tapako-Brown) whose interest in foxes is outmatched by her interest in making out with Jamie.

All academic endeavours are forgotten, however, when a gunshot rings out through the trees and a dead body is discovered, a mysterious figure fleeing through the under-brush. Wildlife photographer Michael (Nathan Blyth) is on-site and has some pictures – placing them at the scene of the crime, with no evidence of the killer Jamie and Keira claim to have seen.

Soon the friends are at each other’s throats: what really happened? Could Michael himself be involved? Does Jess really listen to music loud enough to drown out a gunshot, or does she have something to hide? And of course the big question: what do we do now?

This opening act is riveting. We get some great character stuff as the group set up camp, establishing everything neatly and making sure we like these folks enough to care about them when the shit hits the fan, which it does nice and quickly. We don’t have to wait long at all until the body’s discovered, and the bonds between the friends quickly start to break down. Tension runs high and Rogers handles it well, keeping us on the back-foot and unsure who’s telling the truth and who could be lying.

Unfortunately this mood doesn’t last long as once they leave the woods the plot starts to run out of steam and slow right down during the difficult second act. Still reeling from the incident, all but Keira go to the pub – and seem to have a great time, laughing and joking as if nothing’s happened at all.

Now the main conflict has shifted to troubles in Keira and Jamie’s relationship, something there was no evidence of before this. It suddenly veers into melodrama, aided by the soundtrack going into plinky piano territory that doesn’t exactly keep the thriller vibes going. There’s a game attempt to bring the mystery back, leading to a twisty midpoint that raises interesting questions – but from there it’s back to slow meandering until the much more dramatic climax… which is followed by a disappointing denouement in which a revelation is made that should be fascinating and should put a new spin on everything but was barely seeded and is handled so matter-of-factly that it just feels flat.

That’s Abatement’s biggest problem: for too much of the film, it just feels too flat to be an effective thriller. It’s got a great opening act, but the rot sets in during the second act and it just can’t recover. It’s not helped by the fact that the entire conflict could have been avoided by simply not returning to the body and contacting the police – no reason has been given to distrust them, and the police don’t usually require photographic evidence before they investigate reports of a body. Once that decision’s made, it’s hard not to think that honestly our heroes brought this on themselves a bit.

Bear in mind that this is Tapako-Brown’s first feature script and to jump straight in without writing and producing shorts first is an ambitious proposal. Getting lost in the second act is super-common, and the sort of thing that practice and experience takes care of. Ditto the occasional expository dialogue (where characters tell each other info they already know, for the audience’s benefit) and the tendency towards telling through dialogue rather than showing through action.

There’s definitely talent on show here, it just needed to be honed through a few more drafts of the script. As for the acting, for the most part the leads do an excellent job. Tapako-Brown and Reeves shine, while Pierre is convincing as the unheeded voice of reason. Renard’s performance does get a little wobbly at times, but she plays Jess with honest emotion and is very endearing. Blyth is the weak link, unfortunately, but this is his only role so far and there’s always room to improve. It’s the side characters like the two investigating officers who let things down the most, as all the energy is sucked from the film whenever we cut to them.

It’s a competently made film, and it looks good in the daylight – it’s just that when it’s dark it’s not sufficiently lit, so we can’t see enough to make out what’s going on. A mystery is intriguing, but confusion is frustrating. That said, moments like the appearance of the body after it’s been moved are very effective, and the action at the climax is handled well too. Some of the scenes could do with more judicious editing, as well; some scenes linger for much too long, and having a character say goodbye and then everyone saying goodbye to him as he leaves just takes up space that could be put to better use with some more meaningful action. 

The soundtrack by Daniel Bremmer is good but as mentioned earlier it doesn’t always fir the mood. Right at the beginning, with the pulsing bass, it really sells the mood and gets you in the mood for a mystery thriller, but the maudlin piano over the later scenes is just too much at times.

I really wanted to like Abatement. There’s a lot of potential here, and a decent mystery with a good twist at its heart. It just feels undercooked. If more time had been spent developing it, it could have been a really special taut little indie thriller. I do hope that Rogers and Tapako-Brown keep working together and honing their craft, I’m sure there’s some cracking stories ahead