The End of Times may be nearer than we think. A grieving man tries to find answers to his daughter’s murder, only to be met with religious dogma and a mystery surrounding the upcoming apocalypse. How many days does one need to survive such harsh eternal judgement? Forty Five.
Haunted by disturbing images and dreams of his daughter’s demise, Boyd Fallon (Kemal Yildirim) comes into contact with a cult and the dangerous prophecy about the end of life on Earth as we know it. As he endlessly goes from church to church looking for answers, it becomes apparent that as the forty-five days comes to a close, he will be stuck with the knowledge that all was for naught — and the devil lives on. Forty Five is 40 minutes of British storytelling, pinning the righteous against the fallen and a dad against evil.
We start off with the daughter’s murder and investigation. Immediately it is hinted that Satanic cults may have been behind it. Years later, Fallon hires a private eye to investigate who would come to be known as “Foty Five,” the leader of the cult. Despite being warned to let her murder go, Fallon continues his journey seeking out answers. But in the end, all is for naught as he meets the evil behind it all.
In solemn landscape shots and well-lit churches, Forty Five expresses the rigid structure of organized religion and how unintentionally cruel it can all feel. Punctuated with red-stained iconography and a black-cloaked villain that laughs both in the face of this broken man as well as in the face of God himself, this short embraces the dual nature of belief. On one end there is sanctuary — the other, Hell.
Forty Five is slightly longer than it needs to be, but I think that works in its favor, showing what Fallon is going through all while building up the Big Bad at the climax. Though I am not a religious person and am not easily swayed by this subgenre, I still found the subject matter interesting, especially when matched with biblical passages about the number of days until apocalypse. Forty Five was only made with a few thousand pounds (so definitely a small budget), but its legacy goes leaps and bounds past that with a cast packed with people, well-timed bloody effects, and a story that has some meat to it — whether you’re religious or not.
For more on Forty Five, visit White Raven Films on web and CEO Bazz Hancher on Instagram.
