This impressive feature debut by Japanese-Australian director Natalie Erika James is an atmospheric haunted house story which inspired equal measures of terror and tears when it bewitched audiences at last year’s digital Frightfest, before garnering rave reviews from critics.
When Kay (Emily Mortimer) receives word that her elderly mother who lives alone in rural Victoria, Australia, hasn’t been seen for a few days, she ups sticks and, along with her adult daughter (an understated performance from Bella Heathcote), returns to her mother’s remote, shadowy, gradually dilapidating house. Haunted by disturbing visions, and with an increasing sense that all isn’t right in the creaky house, Kay and Sam soon find themselves reassessing their familial legacy as well as their own mother-daughter relationship. A heady sense of decay (and allegory) hangs thick in the air of this beguiling film, culminating in a final scene which will stick with you long after the credits have rolled.
English
Australia