Movies
[Sundance Review] ‘Amulet’ Sleepwalks Through Philosophical Horror Until Audacious Finale
If a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Former soldier Tomaz (Alec Secareanu), currently homeless in London, is offered free room and board in a dilapidated home inhabited by lonely woman Magda (Carla Juri) and her ill mother. In trade, Tomaz is expected to work on repairing the rotting house. Naturally, the more he settles in, the deeper his suspicions grow that there’s something seriously amiss with the house and its inhabitants. This haunted household isn’t quite what you think, and Amulet chooses to prolong its mystery as long as painfully possible until a ballsy conclusion.
In writer/director Romola Garai‘s feature debut, Amulet bounces back and forth in time between Tomaz’s past and present. In the past, we meet him as a clean-shaven soldier stationed at an isolated guard post deep in the forest. In the present, he meets Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton) after a nasty spill, who brings him to Magda’s household in the deal of the century. Initially, these transitions are confusing and disjointed. Much of the 99-minute runtime tends to feel disconnected, a series of unconnected scenes that all contribute to the central thesis.
Garai is unhurried in her unfurling of what’s happening in this bizarre home. We get a string of scenes that feature close-ups of Magda feeding Tomaz meat-heavy meals. Or of Tomaz explaining his study of philosophy, which in a way feels apropos of the film’s overall style; it’s a study of an idea rather than a coherent narrative. Some shots and moments simply feel superfluous. In between Magda and Tomaz’s budding relationship, and snippets of his past where he encounters a woman on the run, we occasionally get moments of intriguing horror. Mother’s weird moaning and scratching from the attic space. A monstrous bat uncovered in the bathroom’s plumbing- which earns a goofy line of dialogue from Tomaz, “it’s a rat, with wings. It’s a bat.” The entire proceeding, though it’s armed with a typical runtime, drags on as if it’s sleepwalking through the madness.
Eventually, Garai drops the pretense and unleashes an explosive finale. A feminist manifesto of blood and violence, Amulet finally wakes up to deliver retribution and deliciously twisted horror. It’s the type of ending that retroactively explains the context of the narrative’s structure. Except, it’s just a little too late. It’s also not as effective as perhaps Garai may have envisioned. There’s an intentional disconnect between how characters see themselves versus who they really are, but Garai keeps these mysteries too close to the chest for too long. While the ultimate point of this mean little story is fantastic, and the way Garai plays with gender roles is smart, the build-up getting to that point lacks finesse. Keeping things so enigmatic that you have to beat your audience over the head with the truth to drive the point home is jarring.
There are moments of great creativity, and a gnarly and cathartic finale to be found in Amulet. Staunton turns in a delightful and ranged performance that indicates she was having a ball in her role. But this is a severe slow-burn where the payoff doesn’t quite make the preceding two-thirds of the film feel worth the wait.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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