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. Read more…
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