Director: Richard John Taylor
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Taking on a new job, a reporter and her friend head back to her ancestral house to look into a series of strange child killings that are taking place in the area, and when she finds it’s the returning Winter Witch that her family has dealt with before must find out how to stop the rampage.
Review:
This was a rather disappointing and underwhelming genre effort. One of the film’s positive points comes from the solid enough setup that allows for the titular witch to get loose and run rampant. The central idea of the series of attacks carried out by the witch against the family in he past and her quest to stop it from continuing makes for a traditionally worthwhile if convoluted tale here as the idea of her being released at the center of everything happening in the town creates some intriguing enough setup that allows for a bit of atmospheric touches to occur in the final confrontation in the woods. It’s all decent enough and has enough going on to be an enjoyable touch to end this on the best note it can.
There are some big issues with this one that hold it down. The most glaring factor here is the absolutely banal and just plain dreadful pace that saps anything gathered here in terms of potentially exciting action right out of the film from the very beginning. Realizing that the entire film consists of endless banter between the sisters and the residents of town about the history of the area and the witch’s purpose for returning, it’s got nothing resembling action or thrills at all in the first hour as the witch isn’t even on-screen until the final few minutes is just plain dreadful to sit through. That’s not helped at all by the lack of emotion or urgency that takes place, so it all comes off even more devoid of energy than it already was.
The other big factor to get over with this one is the confusing narrative that takes place throughout here. Early on we get an idea of the witch running wild through the area as there’s a massive speech about the origins of the best and what’s going on, yet none of it makes any sense or adds to the coherence of the storyline by trying to tie the purpose of her return to the village, what the confines of the curse mean, or why it’s even returning now. Nothing in here comes together into any kind of linear throughline for what’s going on, and with the attempts to explain anything cluttered up by plot points that don’t need to be included, it’s a potentially intriguing setup that doesn’t mean much. Combined with the cheap feel and tone here, it has a lot of factors to get over.
Overview: */5
A generally sluggish and confusing effort, there are a few worthwhile aspects to be had here, which are overwhelmed by the somewhat more damaging flaws, as there’s more wrong with it. Give it a shot more if you’re curious about it or are fans of this style of low-key genre fare, while most others out there should heed caution with it.
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