Appearing at first to be a conventional horror movie, filmmaker Robin Aubert's first feature grafts genres together to make something more akin to a mutant than anything seen on screen.

Tabloid journalist Flauvien Juste (Chenier) is sent to research an article about people going missing in the rural village of St-Martyrs-des-Damnes. At first detached and sceptical, the disappearance of his photographer shortly after their arrival has him start his investigation and try to break the silence of the inhabitants.

“In Quebec they think I'm too weird,” says director Aubert, “I don't know whether they'll let me make another film.” His film is indeed strange. As Flavien explores the village we meet a eclectic variety of characters: a masked mechanic, henchmen of an insidious mayor dressed as fifties greasers, a stripper who runs the local diner and her mentally handicapped son who communicates the truth through his teddy bear. The best of these is a gypsy-cowgirl (Blais) who plays the steel guitar to her herd.

The characters are reminiscent of those lifted from other films. Indeed, Aubert's overall project seems to be the creation of a movie montage while keeping to a single structure. The film starts as a horror movie with typical imagery - a corpse bride, a black hand - but then begins to glean ideas from other genres. The setting with its desolate landscape is reminiscent of the western, it hints at comedy by not taking itself totally seriously, the denouement is science fiction, with occasional drifts towards romance. Aubert describes this as due to his generation's absorption of a thousand movies and a million TV shows. He says: “We've seen so much in the cinema that we're mixing genre – horror, western, suspense, even comedy and love story.” Indeed the film could be seen as an outlet for someone who has reached critical mass.

Aubert says the film is inspired by his home town and its inhabitants. This is enough to make you never want to set foot in Quebec on the off chance you might come across a real life Saint-Martyrs-des-Damnes, but he goes on to say he began the film after recording several of his dreams. Knowing this, the film slides into place; as a dreamscape it really works. Aubert possesses the technical proficiency to film the exaggerations of the unconscious; using light to create an unrealistic feel that compensates for the lack of a totally cohesive narrative.

His experience as a director of video clips and music videos is also evident. Despite occasionally being over contrived, the film is shot with the trained eye of someone who formerly had to impress in minutes. Hopefully, they will let him do more.