BARE BONES: THE BANISHING (2020)

THE BANISHING (2020)

Haunted house chiller is set in 1930s England in the shadow of the rise of Nazi Germany. It finds a Vicar (John Heffernan), his wife (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her daughter (Anya McKenna-Bruce) being sent to a small village to live in a house with some dark secrets. Soon the dark nature of the house seeks to overwhelm them.

Flick is directed by Christopher Smith (The Black Death, Triangle, Creep) from a script by David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich and Dean Line. It’s an atmospheric, yet dull movie that takes far too long to get spooky and interesting and by that time, it’s too little and too late. It’s also predictable, with no better example than the end reveal for Bishop Malachi (John Lynch), which was obvious from the beginning. It’s also very cliché, as we have seen countless flicks with haunted old houses with terrible secrets being inhabited by characters with secrets of their own. Smith does direct well and the cast is certainly efficient, but they can’t overcome that it’s all blandly familiar, even with it’s undercurrent of religious commentary. A disappointing, tedious and routine flick from a director whose previous works have been noteworthy.

-MonsterZero NJ