Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth are incredible actors who gave arguably two of the most underrated performances of the past year, in David Bruckner's psychological horror film The Night House and Michel Franco's provocative thriller Sundown, respectively. Pitting such dynamic and exciting artists against each other in a trauma-ridden horror film invites dynamite expectations, so for Andrew Semans (Nancy, Please) Resurrection, it's sure to be one of the most provocative and polarizing offerings at Sundance 2022.
Margaret (Rebecca Hall) lives a seemingly full life, successfully juggling a high-flying career and single parenthood while raising a daughter, Abbie (Grace Kaufman), soon to be off to college. But Margaret's regimented status quo is shaken violently when she notices a familiar man from her past, David (Tim Roth), at a work conference. David then continues to reappear in her neighborhood, forcing her to confront a deep trauma that she experienced more than two decades earlier.
Director: Andrew Semans
Writer: Andrew Semans
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman
It's almost a cliché these days to filter contemporary horror through the lens of trauma, but it's such a rich and intuitive vessel through which to wed confusion both personal and intense that you can't really blame the filmmakers, or even the critics, for invoking it. so often.
Trauma is far from a buzzy affectation in Semans' incredibly disturbing horror-thriller, which bleeds slowly with quiet intensity from its opening moments and doesn't let up until its final frames. The film's first act largely leaves viewers to their own devices to sink into an ambiguous mood without much context about who David is, beyond scattered hints of an incident that happened 22 years earlier and the stifling overprotectiveness of David. Margaret towards her. Understandably frustrated daughter. But as Margaret's healed existence falls off balance, the audience is forced to consider what, if anything, might be a fabrication of her fractured mind. It's typical tired psychological horror at this point, and yet Semans finds an entrance that feels entirely unique in its treatment of unresolved grief.
However, some of the more complicated story mechanics and concepts will leave more biased mainstream audiences absolutely clueless; anyone stumped by The Night House probably won't even make it through this entire movie. The biggest reveal is one that borders on the silly and creepy, working through some vividly horrifying concepts that, one way or another, will probably stick with you for a while. The truth of the situation becomes increasingly illusory, never mind that Semans essentially stops the film midway for a riveting exposition of Margaret detailing her past with David, a past rooted in abuse and something so material. strange, it would be criminal to spoil it.
This revealing confession marks a nexus point for the drama, launching the story into stranger territory while maintaining the understanding of "Is he imagining things or not?" mystery. Semans maintains this unsettling tension until the very end, where in the most exciting terms it feels like no wild idea is off the table. The twisted payoff and subsequent ambiguous epilogue are sure to infuriate as many audience members as they fascinate, but it's hard not to admire the director's commitment to the role.
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