Director: Scott Jeffrey and Rebecca Matthews
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Exorcism
Plot:
After a death in the family, a grieving family finds themselves dealing with a hard-edge priest who arrives informing them of an ancient evil plaguing the family and tries to use his powers to save the family from the demonic influence that’s infected the house trying to tear them apart.
Review:
On the whole, this one wasn’t that bad of a genre effort. Among the finer aspects present here is the films’ willingness to signal the start of the possession rather early and have it sweep through the family members. From the initial transference sequence where it leaves the ailing grandmother and passes over into the new girl that no one is aware of, the series of incidents that she has with the rest of the family trying to help deal with the tragedy but are turned off by her growing signs of obvious possession, and the concurrent investigation by the priest into the actions that the demon has over the family starts this off rather much on a cliched path but is still an entertaining one.
With the setup established, there’s a lot to like with the actual action in the various ceremonies used to showcase the possessed state of the girl and the eventual first exorcism attempt. Knowing for the interactions she has that there’s something going on and his attempts at showing that to the family provide a few touches on the genre’s tropes including the altered voices, lunging violently, and reaction to crosses that all leave them in a rather shocking matter. That main exorcism sequence offers nothing new but the performance itself is greatly appreciated with the shaking and levitating as well as various other commonly-associated tactics that provide a fun time. The rest of the film, featuring a sort of supernatural-tinged murder mystery into the deaths that keep occurring and realizing the true culprit behind everything manages to be quite entertaining and feature some solid action. Along with some impressive practical make-up and gore, these give this one enough to hold it up.
There are some minor issues to be had here. The main issue here is that there’s not a whole lot that makes sense here in terms of tying together the various storylines at play. Since the possession is known only from a crime-scene photo and then almost immediately goes to turn the priests’ arrival into the first exorcism attempt that same day, the amount of logic that got skipped over to go for this kind of setup without much else to set it up. As well, other elements along the way that get introduced, from the subtle incestuous relationship between several of the siblings, a mysterious black-robed killer that pops up out of nowhere, and a sudden revelation that mentions the strange backstory of the houses’ origins also make no sense all just get introduced into the film rather randomly. As well as some obviously cheesy effects-work at times that stand out against those more impressive practical effects, these are what hold this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable genre effort that has quite a lot to like about it and only a few minor drawbacks that hold it back somewhat slightly, there’s a lot to like here which makes for a likable enough time with this one. Give it a look if you’re a fan of the creative crew or appreciate these kinds of indie genre efforts while those who don’t appreciate any of those factors should heed caution.
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