Director: Charlotte Colbert
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following a devastating surgery, an aging film star heads to a remote retreat in the Scottish countryside to help heal herself alongside her nurse, but when the whole experience is seemingly interrupted by supernatural forces must discover the truth about them to save herself.
Review:
For the most part, this was a pretty decent genre effort. Among the film's brighter factors is a strong, immersive opening that creates an emotionally resonant setup. The idea of the trip being undertaken to the remote house so that they can help recover and heal following the surgery, which is itself an incredibly humiliating and debilitating procedure for someone like her, and wanting to go through the process with the kind of quiet and solitude not afforded by particular locale as it’s hosting a special summit at the same time gives this a strong setup. With the two of them becoming closer over time as they find themselves offering the kind of thrilling immersion into her relationship and mindset, exacerbated by the constant flashbacks and memories of her career and what it meant to be a star during that part of her life, creates a genuinely touching main relationship at the core of this one. Focusing on this series of interactions between them makes everything all the more intriguing, as it introduces them as a necessary factor in each other’s lives to help them provide a strong point within here.
Once this is established, the supernatural brown interjections here make everything all the more dreamy and ethereal. The background information on the various witch ceremonies and rituals said to have been performed on the grounds of the retreat hundreds of years ago is a solid way to approach this, with a touch of the supernatural intruding on their idyllic mission. The later scenes where everything starts to turn into a dream-like take where the witch exerts her influence on a possessed individual where everything is suddenly filled with the kind of overtly distorted imagery and unnatural influence over the environment makes it all come together in the later half when the belief is that she’s being cured of her pain and suffering by being around the sacred healing grounds of the retreat. This is accomplished with some great scenes of the environment taking on a life of its own, and the different effects to bring it to life make it all feel quite unnatural and chilling. Overall, these all give the film a lot to like.
There isn't much that holds this one down. The main issue here is a generally bland and sluggish tempo that has very little life in what’s going on, and makes everything so draining and lifeless that it’s easy to get bored with what’s going on. A presentation that presents itself more as a relationship drama that has so few incidents of genuine genre content that it might not feel overly tied into the genre until the finale when it starts to tie itself to that type of content more readily, leaving a lot of the interactions and conversations they share at the beginning to potentially be somewhat of a struggle to get through. It’s not helped at all by the fact that there’s just not much of a threat generated by the witch itself as it’s somewhat difficult to understand what the point of everything is going to be about and why we should be afraid of them since it all makes their purpose and presence to be a mysterious bit without much in the way of explaining what they’re about or doing there. It’s not highly detrimental, but it does enough to lower the film's overall quality.
Overview: ****/5
An enjoyable genre/drama that has some drawbacks, this one manages to get enough to enjoy that it remains an immensely likable take on the style, even with those issues holding it back. Those with an interest in this style or approach featured here, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most clothes might want to heed caution.
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