Rating of
3/4
An impressive project from director Remi Weekes
Matthew Brady - wrote on 03/12/21
“Your ghost follows you. They never leave. They live with you. It’s when I let them in, I could start to face myself.”
If I must be honest, I only checked this one out because of the BAFTA nomination, because this being nominated was so random for me, as I have never heard of it. I guess award season are not always pointless after all, since it introduces people to different movies that would be easily overlooked, especially for mainstream audiences.
But yeah, the movie focus on a refugee couple arriving to England to hopefully start a new life and forget their past. The house they are saying in is an absolute shit hole. Decayed, holes in the wall, and school kids urinating on the property because they thought the house was abandoned. Outside is no better. People either not helpful or just awful. However, if that wasn’t worst, there’s something sinister happening in the house. Behind the walls, behind every corner, there is something supernatural. The house itself is not haunted, it’s them. When they left Africa, a dark spirit followed them. They have been marked by a Witch.
The movie has got fantastic cinematography that effectively uses lights and shadows in open spaces to make for one unnerving movie. Everything looks so bleak and hopeless. The performances from Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu were both terrific. It felt natural and haunting. Matt Smith also makes a small appearance in a couple of scenes and he was good as well. Then again, I have never seen Smith give a bad performance yet.
However, towards the end of the movie it did get a little too carried away with its ghost elements where I felt it could’ve gone down a more subtle psychological climax. And while I am aware of the small budget, but some of the visual effects looked phony and unnecessary condensing they could have been done in a more practical way, with make-up etc.
I went into this knowing nothing but came out surprised.
