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[Review] ‘The Banishing’ Brings Infamous Haunting to Life with Ambitious Psychological Horror

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Director Christopher Smith‘s genre output runs the gamut in style and tone, demonstrating a filmmaker consistently looking to explore various horror angles. From a brutal underground chiller in Creep to the mind-bending slasher at sea, Triangle, to Black Death’s introspective Middle-Aged epic, Smith gives unique spins on familiar subgenres. That continues with his latest, The Banishing, a period ghost story that brings one of England’s most notoriously haunted houses to life on screen. True to form, Smith approaches this Gothic haunted house tale with an emphasis on psychological horror in a slow-burn character study.

After an opening that highlights a defaced bible and a grisly murder/suicide, the late ’30s set haunter introduces Marianne (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her young daughter Adelaide (Anya McKenna-Bruce). They’re traveling to a rural estate to meet Marianne’s husband Linus (John Heffernan). Linus has been assigned to serve as the new priest for this parish, and the sprawling countryside estate- built on the ruins of an abbey- will be his family’s new home. The same house in which the opening’s murder took place, and it’s far from the only dark secret dwelling within the labyrinthine walls. Nearly straight away, Adelaide develops a new imaginary friend, and Marianne suffers increasingly bizarre visions. As the eerie occurrences ramp up with an alarming frequency, Marianne seeks help from oddball spiritualist Harry Price (Sean Harris), an enemy of the Church.

The Gothic estate at the center of The Banishing is based on the infamous Borley Rectory, a haunting made famous thanks to the investigation by true-life psychic researcher Harry Price. Yet screenwriters David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich, and Dean Lines are more interested in exploring the house’s new inhabitants rather than its sordid history. In Gothic story fashion, Marianne presents a standard damsel in distress as her husband and his intimidating boss Malachi (John Lynch) discount her claims that something is supernaturally amiss about the place. It pushes her toward the eccentric Harry Price, played to scene-chewing, flamboyant perfection by Harris. The narrative explores Marianne’s precarious relationship with Linus, especially as the Church threatens to pull him further away from her as it entrenches him within a larger conspiracy and the strain in the parental bond with adoptive daughter Adelaide as the house tempts her away.

Much of these plot threads ultimately wind up underdeveloped. The narrative gets bogged down under the weight of its ambition. With World War II just getting started, the screenwriters want to tie the central theme of religious repression to the rise of fascism. While much of Marianne’s conflict with Linus stems from his duties to an oppressive Church, its connection to a fascist Europe isn’t explored in an organic and meaningful way. Nor does it bother to flesh out Adelaide and how her adoption factors into the family dynamics, outside of a simplified explanation of how she fell under the houses’ sway so quickly. 

The Banishing is at its strongest when it focuses on the unique paranormal elements. Psychological time loops, an eerie mirror, and nightmarish hallucinations are all bolstered by stunning cinematography and off-kilter camerawork to convey a claustrophobic and evil presence closing in on Marianne. Findlay makes for an effective lead as a woman struggling against societal pressures as well as the paranormal. There are genuine scares dispersed throughout, but the horror gets lost a bit in an overly crowded story that takes on far too much for its short runtime. Still, Harris’s charismatic portrayal of a historical figure and some fresh ideas makes this haunted house story worth exploring.

The Banishing releases on Shudder on April 15, 2021.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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