Director: Taratoa Stappard
Year: 2026
Country: New Zealand/United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
Arriving at a lavish mansion, a young Maori woman looking into her broken past is tasked with being the governess for a young girl who interrupts her search for answers about her culture and heritage, eventually finding the truth far darker than she expected, and tries to protect her heritage.
Review:
Overall, this was a rather fun if slightly flawed genre effort. One of the film’s better features is a rather strong and generally likable setup that provides this with more of a psychological touch to Gothic horror than more overtly physical manifestations. The central premise involving the woman’s search for her sister and taking her to a large, lavish mansion in the English countryside where she begins to serve as a caretaker to the daughter of a man that might know more than he lets on about the situation serves as a hallmark of the genre as the setup allows for a standard sot of approach to the genre. Featuring enough clues that something is hiding within the walls of the mansion and that something is happening which requires her to be there, this is a fantastic starting point to the larger series of reveals about how the world operates that she’s stumbled into. Dropped far away from her roots and traditions and now placed in a place of class, elegance, and etiquette that’s far removed from what she knows, this type of approach makes it quite clear that her culture and identity are far more crucial than anything to understanding what's going on.
This establishes the primary crux of the film, where the series of cultural disappropriations manages to infuriate her the longer she stays there. Arriving at a house where the last vestiges of her heritage and identity are bought about as cheap parlor objects designed to amuse party guests with the savagery and otherworldly beauty they possess by being far removed from a proper civilized society that’s expected of them, it becomes far more infuriating and enraging to see them mocking such a rich culture in that manner. It all leads into the standout finale, where it brings about some strong action involving the confrontation at the house, where everything is involved in a big reveal about what actually happened to their family, and leading to some effective moments that offer up some likable qualities. Where the film struggles slightly is in the somewhat sluggish and slow-going pace, where the reliance on slow-burning energy and atmosphere doesn’t make this all that easy to get into. It takes a while to get going and is more subdued than would be expected since it forgoes jump scares or more modern scare tactics, which isn’t bad but does hold it up slightly.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely effective and enjoyable Gothic horror effort, there’s not a whole lot to dislike with this one, as it manages to offer up quite a lot to like while only being let down just slightly by its negatives. Those with an interest in this style or genre fare, who are curious about it, or who don’t mind the negatives, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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