A large, half-abandoned manor house. Hooded figures. A little girl playing with some distinctly unnerving dolls.
When you break down the various components, The Banishing is nothing new. Many of the scares and tropes will be more than familiar to horror fans. But while the set-up might not be the most original in the world, Christopher Smith’s latest horror still ticks a lot of the right boxes, resulting in an effectively creepy chiller that’s dripping with religious guilt and 1930s stiff-upper-lip repression.
Set in England on the brink of World War II, the film follows a young reverend (John Heffernan) moving into a new house with his wife Marianne (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her daughter Adelaide (Anya McKenna-Bruce), under the shadow of a rising Nazi presence in Europe and the (seemingly closer-to-home) shadow of whatever happened to the manor’s previous occupants. It’s a new chapter in their lives that seems doomed from the outset as the reverend struggles with his own feelings towards his wife. and Marianne grows increasingly convinced that the house contains a malevolent presence.
Happy families?
Image: shudder
This presence, as I mentioned earlier, doesn’t manifest in the most original way. Adelaide quickly begins to act strangely after the family moves in, discovering some old dolls in her new room, of course, and beginning to confuse people she knows. There are also sinister mirror reflections, games of hide and seek in the dark recesses of the manor, and disturbing nightmares — all fairly well-worn tricks of the haunted house horror trade, in other words.
But these scare tactics are well-worn for a reason, and in Creep director Smith’s hands they still feel original, with the film offering plenty of unsettling moments that are helped along by impressive performances from the whole cast.
You’d better believe this little girl says some creepy things.
Image: shudder
Brown Findlay (who will be well known to Downton Abbey fans) is particularly excellent as Marianne, refusing to take any of her husband’s buttoned-up nonsense while struggling against the poisonous effects of whatever inhabits her unhappy new home. Heffernan, too, is great as her awkward husband Linus, striking an effectively uncomfortable note between piety and jealousy, while John Lynch’s role as the ominous church leader Malachi is scene-stealing enough to make me wish he’d seen a bit more screen time.
All in all, there’s a lot to like about The Banishing. Does the film re-invent the wheel, adding something to the genre that escalates it to the heights of His House, Host or Hereditary? No.
But it’s well done enough to offer a spine-tingling distraction that’s sure to at least squeeze a jump or two out of you.
The Banishing is available to stream now on Shudder.