"The Banishing" more of a dull shrug than an old-fashioned slow burn

The Banishing (2021)

The infamous Borley Rectory, known as “the most haunted house in England,” just sounds like a surefire place in which to set an atmospheric period ghost story with a stiff upper lip. Having pedigreed British filmmaker Christopher Smith (whose filmography runs the gamut from 2007’s blackly comic workplace slasher “Severance” to 2009’s cleverly elliptical time-bender “Triangle”) as our guide also adds promise. As “The Banishing” proves, there is quite the fine line between a 1930s-set spookshow being a stately and shiver-inducing slow burn, and a muted, lackluster shrug. Unfortunately, the proceedings come across as more dusty and dull than patient and chilling, and somehow that happens in a story involving fascism, religious repression, time-traveling mirrors, cultish monks, and creepy dolls. 

In England with World War II looming, Marianne (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her daughter Adelaide/Addy (Anya McKenna-Bruce) join husband and father Linus (John Heffernan), a milquetoast vicar who’s been posted at the town’s parish by Nazi-sympathizing Bishop Malachi (John Lynch). They settle into their countryside estate, which has been built over the ruins of an abbey and left unoccupied for three years. Tasked to renew the villagers’ faith following the disappearance of the previous reverend’s family, Linus is the last person to realize something isn’t right about their new home. Already dealing with Linus disinterested in consummating their marriage, Marianne begins hearing voices and seeing things that might not really be there, like hooded figures dressed as monks. Her only hope, of course, might be occultist Harry Prince (Sean Harris), who’s known to be the local charlatan but has answers about what happened in the house.

“The Banishing” is packed with a lot of intriguing ideas, almost so many that the film seems disjointed at times. The script by David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich, and Dean Lines is ambitious enough to shake up standard haunters, but it never pays off most of its plot points beyond being window dressing. The phantoms in the house, the hallucinations Marianne experiences, and the mirrors that do more than reflect all represent the past, of course, but do they add up to a meaningful whole? As for Christopher Smith’s handsome production but plodding pacing, one isn’t even sure if the movie cares to scare. Creepy imagery and suspenseful moments exist and come at an ebb and flow. Marianne watches from a bedroom window as a monk approaches Marianne’s deaf housekeeper Betsy (Jean St. Clair) in the conservatory at night. A game of “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?” between Addy and her mother is innocence gone awry, and the sight of Marianne and several doppelgängers each facing the wall midair in a hallway is mighty unnerving. And then there’s the number of times “Addy” being uttered by Marianne, and it might just rival “Carol Anne” in “Poltergeist III.”

With the classic beauty of a 1930s starlet, Jessica Brown Findlay (2015’s “Victor Frankenstein”) plays Marianne as a fiery and free-thinking anchor. The costume design is also exquisite, Marianne’s bright, passionate presence conveyed in brightly floral dresses that clash with the floral wallpaper. Then there’s the flamboyantly dressed and flamingly red-haired Harry Prince lurking in the film’s margins, coming out of a different movie. Playing Harry as if he’s ready for the Moulin Rouge, Sean Harris (2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout") brings eccentric energy that’s more than welcome. Even Harry’s first scene, the opening credits, where he is ballroom dancing seems abruptly inserted after we have just witnessed the former haunted-house residents being found dead in a murder-suicide. Bloody hard to get excited about, “The Banishing” is supposed to be about “the most haunted house,” but this is either the sleepiest Hammer Horror homage or the most understatedly insane Masterpiece Theater.

Grade: C 

WestEnd Films is releasing “The Banishing” (97 min.) to stream on Shudder on April 15, 2021.