Elyse (Morgan Holstrom), tired of battling both her mental health and her combative sister Nikki (Darla Contois), escapes to her aunt’s abandoned house in the Canadian countryside. Any hopes for a respite are dashed thanks to a creepy neighbour (Josh Strait), animals getting into the dilapidated cabin, and difficulties negotiating with her insurance company. Elyse also grows convinced that something malevolent is lurking beneath the foundations of the house.

To an extent if you have seen one supernatural thriller using horror elements as a metaphor for real-world social issues, you have seen them all. Writer and director Tim Riedel is certainly ploughing well-furrowed ground with Ancestral Beasts, and there is an unavoidable familiarity to Elyse’s experience that is either going to comfort horror enthusiasts like a warm blanket or frustrate them by playing out some very predictable beats.

This is not to say that the film is not effectively made. Justin Delorme’s soundtrack is effective, and Joey Forte’s photography is solidly presented. The slow build-up of the narrative, and the hints of some otherworldly presence beneath the floorboards, are well-staged and effectively exploit the film’s modest budget. The truth is that these genre stereotypes only ever develop because they work, and certainly for the first two acts Ancestral Beasts does a reasonably decent job.

Performances are generally strong. Morgan Holstrom is captivating in the lead, and balances both the audience’s empathy and uncontrolled moments of rage and depression that might test it. Josh Strait is bleakly amusing as an inappropriate male neighbour, who belittles Elyse’s lack of trust while engaging in every single act that would remove it. Darla Contois is blessed with the showiest role: an awful – and awfully believable – sister from hell who runs roughshod over Elyse while demanding gratitude for her attention.

The trick to these sorts of genre works is to find a fresh angle, and in Ancestral Beasts it is indigenous culture. Tim Riedel is of Métis heritage, and his screenplay is directly inspired by personal experience: particularly the mental health damage caused to his mother, a victim of the “60s Scoop” where children would be removed from their families and placed with white adopters. I am writing this review from Australia, where we inflicted a very similar affront on our indigenous peoples in what is referred to as “the Stolen Generation”, and so I know its effect and legacy all too well.

Sadly I do not think Riedel mines this material enough, and this leaves Ancestral Beasts with a lot of unmet creative potential. A little too much is left unsaid and unexplored, and nowhere does it damage the film more than in its messy and underwhelming climax. Horror elements that are largely kept out of sight for the bulk of the film are over-exposed, and lose their potential. Character motivations and events shift too suddenly and without enough justification. It is fair to say that Riedel’s film collapses in its conclusion, and it is a deep shame because the journey there shows so much promise. It is the journey that is worth focusing on here, rather than the destination. Ancestral Beasts is promising, fascinating, but flawed.

Ancestral Beasts had its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival on 22 July. It screens again on 28 July. Click here for more information.