Director: Jackson Batchelor
Year: 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving in a small English town, a woman taking over a small pub is continuously subjected to strange visions and hallucinations of a strange woman that she finds related to a curse on the land placed by a powerful witch centuries earlier and must find a way to stop it from spreading.
Review:
Overall, this is a pretty solid British indie effort. Among the more likable features of this one is a generally fun and worthwhile setup that builds things up quite nicely. The initial setup present involves the arrival at the pub taking over ownership of its property from the previous owner which starts off the series of renovation tactics and other means of getting used to owning the place that she’s not used to offers the kind of starting point to give her a great out of her element character. The strangeness of her being there and trying to make it work with a potential friendship or getting on good terms with the other customers provides a bit more to like about this setup so that when the hauntings and visions start happening which helps to spell out the concurrent curse that comes together about the witch setting off the curse as retribution for how her husband had been killed by the locals.
This allows for a strong and immensely enjoyable series of scenes here featuring the curse taking shape and how it affects her and her friend. The initial visions of the scarred figure appearing out of the darkness, deformed and grotesque in appearance which is perfectly unsettling in its own right, then disappearing into the darkness after an otherworldly scream or scare set up what’s going on quite well. The concurrent scenes showing her getting far more physical with them, either throwing them around or dragging the couple out of bed but not doing anything else as the scenes are treated more as warnings than anything else are all useful enough to warrant the need for supernatural protection to offset the curse. An epilogue about it not being over despite their best intentions is a fantastic addition to things based on how easily it was stopped as it begs the question of why they didn’t do it before as the twist about it to explain that is well-handled, giving this one quite a lot to like.
There aren't too many issues with this one holding it back. Among the only drawbacks to this one is a rather slowed-down and seemingly sluggish pace that tends to favor more psychological scares than full-scale genre antics. The main gist of the film is her arrival at the pub and trying to come to terms with owning it, keeping up with the locals, and the slow unraveling of the local legend involving the witch curse over the location. This handles more of a slow-burn folk-horror approach that goes well in hand with the discovery of everything that isn't necessarily problematic but does have the effect of keeping the witch action and countermeasures of the curse until the third act which is where it really comes into play. Those not interested in this kind of approach might find the film somewhat tiring and uneventful until then, but it's the main drawback on display alongside the expected factors in its budgetary limitations and obvious low-budget origins.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely enjoyable indie folk-horror outing, there’s a lot to like with this one that manages to make for a fun enough time and overcome the few slight issues present. Those who are curious about the approach, enjoy this kind of indie effort, or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while only those turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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