The Banishing

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Streaming service Shudder has added another ambitious film to its catalog with Christopher Smith’s The Banishing. Inspired by one of England’s most haunted houses, The Banishing is a commendable entry to the gothic horror subgenre that tends to get lost in its atmosphere. Though not without its flaws, The Banishing is a darkly enchanting journey through time that supplies ample scares and social commentary through layered storylines and a charismatic cast.

Set in a fictional rendering of the Borley Rectory, The Banishing opens to a religiously motivated murder/suicide. Not too long after Marianne (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her daughter Adelaide (Anya McKenna-Bruce) meet with her husband Linus (John Heffernan) in their new home, which is none other than the haunted estate. It doesn’t take long for the home’s insidious history to grab ahold of the family. In typical fashion, the young girl acquires an imaginary friend while her mother begins to see and experience things. Little by little the supernatural indiscretions and severity of the haunting build-up. Marianne’s episodes capture the attention of Linus, who doesn’t believe that something is amiss.

Desperate for relief from haunting visions of murder and violent hooded figures, Marianne turns to psychic Harry Price (Sean Harris). The version of Harry Price in The Banishing is more or less an exaggeration of the real Borley Rectory case breaker and is expertly portrayed to provide levity to an otherwise solemn film. This is where the plot splinters and the filmmakers struggle to focus on the film’s strengths – the unlikely alliance between Harry and Marianne. The movie introduces elements of fascism, the Nazi regime and the oppressive misogyny of the Catholic church – all of which align with the film’s setting, but don’t quite fit into the narrative.

Wherever The Banishing fails, Jessica Brown Findlay is there to pick up the pieces. Captivating to watch, this actress knows the kind of movie that she’s in and uses her talent to help it reach its fullest potential. From moments of hysteria to a highly effective scare involving a mirror, to the banalities of being married to a priest, Brown Findlay delivers. The character of Marianne eventually becomes a fully formed protagonist, shedding the skin of a damsel of distress by becoming both the damsel and knight in shining armor. Any film that isn’t afraid to show a woman embracing her fear to face the horrors down below is worthy of applause.

This isn’t Christopher Smith’s first venture into horror and is the most recent in a long line of inventive horror-thrillers. The Banishing is among the most traditional of Smith’s horror features, but it still dips into the frays of dark magic, spiritualism and gothic horror’s obsession with supposed damsels in distress. His direction is fueled by a mostly competent script by David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich and Dean Lines, but this is a film that bites off more than it can chew. It looks and sounds great, but the narrative weaves itself into a web that it can’t escape.