Amulet

Attic Electricity

Amulet
UK/United Arab Emirates 2020
Directed by Romola Garai
Head Gear Films

Warning: Some minor spoilers.

 Amulet is the feature length writing/directorial debut of actress Romola Garai which had its UK premiere at the Halloween edition of FrightFest this year. It’s a kind of folk horror tale of feminist justice/revenge but it’s one of those that starts off with its roots in the folklore of one country... but then brings it into a slightly more urban environment, following a character to England.

The film starts off with some beautiful photography of lush, colourful and woodland region, as main protagonist Tomas (played by Alec Secareanu) is a solider in his own country who, because of a favour to his father, has been assigned a quiet outpost guarding a woodland border on his own, not seeing much action. We then see him wake up to the dingy colours of England and discover that he dreams about his past most nights. In England, he sleeps rough with a small enclave of homeless people, lining up for ‘cash in hand’ work and just trying to survive each day.

After a fire at the place where he sleeps and with his savings stolen, he is picked up by a nun (played by Imelda Staunton) who takes him to a run down house where he can stay and eat for free as long as he helps out around the place. Here lives Magda (played by Carla Juri from Blade Runner 2049), a somewhat isolated soul who is caring for her dying mother, mostly unseen in the attic. A lady who seems to be dying fairly loudly at times. As Tomas tries to fix up the place and to understand why the water in the house, all black and sludgy, is blocked up with strange looking ‘bat creatures’, we also get regular flashes of his back story during the conflict in his own country, where he befriends a mother trying to cross the border to be reunited with her daughter (played by Angeliki Papoulia, from Dogtooth).

The two different strands of the story play out in tandem, after Tomas finds an amulet in the woods (in the loosest sense of the word... it’s not what I would associate as an amulet but it is within the standard dictionary definition... yes, I checked) of an ancient Goddess, which makes me assume his soldiering was done in an Islamic country... although I noticed on the credits the location work seems to have been done in Dartmoor? As the two narratives play out, the events which happen in the soldier’s past and which cause him to tape his hands up each night so he doesn’t scratch his face off, reliving them in his dreams, informs the impetus of the story arc as he builds a closer relationship to Magda and tries to come to terms with what happens in the house.

It’s pretty good and the director emphasises the differences between the country of the soldier (and also, I think, once watched all the way through, the differences between before and after a certain incident), which are lush and green and full of colour... and the muted tones of the English setting. The dull and dingy streets, the light bleached pastel shades of the downstairs of the house and the dingy browns and hellish, mute oranges of the upstairs environment of the building. It’s nicely done to pitch both a physical contrast and a metaphorical contrast... if I’m not reading this movie totally wrong.

The actors are all great in this and work very well together. Staunton does, of course, shine but really everyone is top notch. The real star of the show, as far as I am concerned, is  Carla Juri as Magda. You think you are witnessing a slow, coming out of her shell approach to the character when, in fact, there's more than this actually happening... but I don’t want to say what because it will spoil the movie for you. The real genius of this character is the absolutely wild and off kilter, totally alien dance moves she throws... especially when she accompanies Tomas to a disco and the contrast between ‘her style’ and everybody else’s is an almost feral but joyful thing... which also, to some fair degree, informs the character as much as anything else which is a spoken revelation in the movie.

By the end of the film I found myself somewhat puzzled. I understood the reasons why what happens does but I couldn’t understand why the form in which the film’s powerful last card which is played seems so convoluted. Ditto to the little epilogue scene bringing two characters together who had not met previously in the running time. I was initially thinking that the last 20 minutes was not a great ending to the movie but, now I’ve slept on it, I think I realise more of the reasoning behind the final fate of one of the central characters and I think I possibly understand a little more about the final ‘punchline’ scene in the movie too.

All in all the cinematography is good, the direction and acting absolutely fine and even the special creature effects are pretty nice. There’s a touch of surrealism about one of the final scenes in the movie too which I think should please a certain section of the audience (I kinda loved the boldness of it in contrast to some of the more subtle decisions throughout the movie). Amulet is a pretty good, tight little genre movie which lovers of horror and specifically, despite its partial urban environment, lovers of folk horror especially should have a good time with. It’s definitely a film coming from the same kind of stance as the ‘me too’ generation too, if that floats your boat and I hope this director gets a lot more projects coming up because I suspect this is just the beginning (fingers crossed). Certainly one to take a look at... it has a good message at its heart and you won’t see many horror films around at the moment doing this like Amulet does it. Definitely try to catch this one. 

The Awakening

Waking Dreams

The Awakening 2011 UK

Directed by Nick Murphy

Screening at UK cinemas.

Warning: Silently stalking spoilers will rise up from

this article to haunt the doll’s house of your mind.

Okay, there are good and bad things sharing the load in equal number in The Awakening... not to be confused with the second of the three adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Jewel of the Seven Stars, which shares the same title as this movie.

The real problems this film has, if you agree it has any problems at all, lie within the script but only, it seems to me, in terms of the story and not the dialogue. I got a real split reaction to this movie but, overall, I think the positives on this one far outweigh the, frankly inevitable, negative points about this piece.

So let me share with you first, by way of showing you why this movie is worth seeing, the main positive on offer here. The main, central character... and she really is the main character as she’s pretty much in almost every shot apart from a few establishing shots and a couple of minor sequences where the camera has to follow another character... is something of a great, literary pulp creation and it’ll be a shame if this movie is the only thing this character ever turns up in. The character’s name is Florence Cathcart and I don’t care if she turns up again in a film, a TV series, a series of novels or what... this character is great and I want more of her.

Florence Cathcart, who I might normally call the main protagonist but in this case I’ll make and exception and call her... our heroine, is a professional sceptic. Set in 1921, a few years after she loses her lover to World War I, Miss. Cathcart makes her living by publishing her books about her exploits as... well... as a professional sceptic I guess would be an apt term. That is to say, she goes around with various parapsychology detecting equipment and disproves the existence of the ghostly and, often, exposing fraudulent practitioners of spiritualist endeavours who are out to make a quick buck off of the less fortunate.

And this is, in fact, how our story starts... by setting up the character and showing her breaking up a spiritualist seance. In this opening sequence, we see we have a director who knows how to be efficient with his cinematic shorthand. We see the seance as it takes place, see Florence expose them and call in the police, see the culprits taken away and then, in a brilliant little moment, we see her slapped in the face in a really great little cinematic “jump” shot and this shows the way in which, even the people whom she has saved from throwing away good money after bad, resent her from taking away their illusions of an afterlife... and then this basic set up is used to depict the distressed/depressed darker part of Cathcart’s character... it’s all filmed in the most economical manner. Florence is played quite brilliantly by actress Rebecca Hall who delivers some quite intelligent and witty dialogue against some other quite splendid actors and actresses which, at the same time, also manages to add real depth to the character... a character who, we will later find out, we know nothing about really after all.

However, if the script is brilliant in terms of dialogue and the way it informs the characters, it lacks in other areas because, frankly, it’s very unlikely that anything much in this movie is going to take you by surprise and, although I am blaming the writing for this (obviously) I do feel, since I did have a good time with this movie, that it’s not entirely the fault of the people writing this film.

You see, the plot of this one involves our newly established and cynical heroine called in to help the teachers and boys in a boarding school rid themselves of the ghost who has been appearing in their school photos for years on end and who seems to have killed someone recently... and herein lies the problem with what ails the script. The trouble with these kinds of ghostly, haunted house horror films is that the audience, whether they are aware there’s going to be some kind of twist or not, are always on the lookout for any such twist to occur, often without even knowing about it... and more often than not (and such is the case on this one I’m afraid) the audience are going to guess the nature of the twist as soon as they see the first sign of a clue and these kinds of movies don’t really have a lot of options anyway when it comes to tricks up their sleeve. In this one, for example, I was already on my guard before Florence had even arrived at the school, taking part in that old horror film favourite of “trying to spot the character who isn’t actually alive”... and I have to say, it didn’t take me very long, on that characters first shot, in fact, before I’d spotted our undead friend and started trying to unravel the second big twist I knew would be coming after that.

I don’t want to spoil it too much for anyone who’s not seen it yet but I will say that the solution to the mystery at the heart of the movie is pretty obvious... but I also have to say that, even when you’ve put all the pieces together in your head, the sleight of hand in this one is such that you will probably forget about them or dismiss them as too obvious before they’re actually revealed... and that’s what horror films of this nature are all about really isn’t it? Sleight of hand?

Now there are some wonderful sequences in this film... including an absolutely brilliant set of rooms within a doll's house which mirror the haunting sequences which have just taken place... and it is such a brilliant and simple idea (however obvious). The heroine sees the scenes including the little recent episodes of “encounters” (even those from just 30 seconds before she starts looking in the doll's house)... only to eventually come to a room which has her looking in the doll's house... with a ghostly figure standing just behind her. Real nape of the neck stuff people. Very much from the Shirley Jackson/Steven Moffett school of... “never mind worrying about if it’s going to happen, it’s already happening, you just haven’t realised it yet” school of “fright delivering”. It has to be said though, The Awakening does tend to overplay its hand just a little too much as it gets closer to the actual reveal.

But the great thing about this movie is... it doesn’t matter! This film has great acting, great dialogue, sure and steady (nothing too flashy) but nicely composed camerawork and even a nice, haunting score going for it. And even though you know it’s going to be a bit obvious... the eerie atmosphere and occasional jump scares are so well done that you shouldn’t go away feeling too disappointed by the film. And did I mention it has a great character who, although she will go on a journey of self discovery as the film progresses (it’s in the title people!)... really should come back in something else please. Preferably as played by the delightful Rebecca Hall who really elevates this movie from being a competent time at the movies to a fun time at the cinema. Definitely one to watch out for if you are into your chilly, gothic hauntings. Give it a go.