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She Who Must Burn (2015) Review

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SHE_WHO_MUST_BURN_2D_DVDSHE WHO MUST BURN (2015)

Starring Sarah Smyth, Steve Bradley, Jewel Staite and Shane Twerdum

Directed by Larry Kent

Written by Larry Kent and Shane Twerdum

Out Now on iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/she-who-must-burn/id1138405689

“When Angela refuses to leave her planned-parenthood clinic after it is shut down by the state, a family of fanatical evangelists vow to make her pay”.

“There’s a storm comin’…”

It’s a phrase that has stuck with me ever since Mother Abigail uttered it in Stephen King’s The Stand, and it’s often used in many a horror now. It’s that foreboding, of something slowly creeping up on you. It’s a sense of inevitability. An escalation you are powerless to stop. It’s this feeling that simmers through every frame of She Who Must Burn. Everyone in the film is driven by their belief. Different beliefs. And they refuse to budge. Which means, inevitably, things are going to go wrong. A storm will come…

swmb2In a small mining town suffering from a desperate economy and polluted water, Angela (Sarah Smyth) is sticking to her guns. Her clinic has been shut down but she is refusing to leave, much to the chagrin of not only her deputy partner Daryl (Steve Bradley) but also the Baarker family, a pack of Christian extremists who hold a powerful grip over the town. With Angela holding firm and continuing to cancel the desperate women who need her, events escalate. And all the while, a storm is coming…

Religion is terrifying. It has to be. Why else would their be so many religious themed horror films? But while many use the Devil and his minions to I still fear in us, what I find more terrifying is what absolute devotion to God can bring a person to doing. It’s that mindset, which, if you don’t think it, is impossible to understand, that scares me. It’s unpredictable. It can be right in front of you. There’s nothing scarier than a person doing bad things with the absolute belief that they are doing good. And by exploring this in such an intimate, grounded fashion, She Who Must Burn really was preaching to this choir.

swmb3Smyth is fantastic as Angela, holding the film together and being the rational centre of the story. She isn’t an atheist, she just wants to help her fellow women. As things get more insane, Smyth stays incredibly realistic, as if she is genuinely stunned by what is happening around her. There’s also a sympathetic turn from an unrecognisable Jewel Staite, but it’s more of a cameo. Filling out the “villains” of the peace, Missy Cross and Andrew Dunbar are superbly creepy in very different ways, but Shane Twerdum, who co-scripted with Kent, steals the show with his quietly menacing, always half-smiling Jeremiah, the pastor and leader of the Baarker brood.

Kent directs with an unassuming eye, with long takes often in close-up really allowing the actors to bare their soul. There is something refreshingly restrained about the piece as a whole. Don’t expect a film of trailer moments and action. This is more akin to smaller, seventies set chillers. It’s the sort of style that only comes with a seasoned filmmaker, no hairs and graces, just a good story well told.

Speaking of the story, the script is fantastically pared down. Eschewing the usual Hollywood structure, there aren’t really plot points. Although this may seem meandering to some, it only added to the air of gritty realism for me. The story moves forward not by plot, but by decisions and actions taken by the characters. It’s a character driven horror film, and it all feels entirely plausible, like a true crime documentary reconstruction.

swmb4As the storm gets closer and things proceed to a harrowing end, She Who Must Burn tightens a vice-like grip that you probably didn’t even realise it had on you.

Although it can be rough around the edges, with some scenes that go on for longer than necessary and a sometimes annoying shaky cam in the quieter scenes, She Who Must Burn is yet another example of the sort of brave material a filmmaker can come up with when free from the controlling shackles of a studio.

8/10


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