The Reckoning
From what I’ve seen of his work, Neil Marshall is not a subtle director. In his directing work from “Game of Thrones,” spectacle came into the equation on a grand scale. Those two impulses of his collide in his film “The Reckoning,” which debuted at Fantasia Fest, and is now making its way to Shudder. I have been waiting that long to finally watch it; I’m not going to lie- it was worth it, and not in the way I expected.
“The Reckoning” is set at the tail end of The Great Plague, where fear ran rampant across Europe and England as to what could be causing the suffering. In these times, religious zealots turned to witchcraft as a reason for great suffering inflicted upon the land. (Spoiler alert- many still do.) It is in that hotbed of death and paranoia where the story of Grace Haverstock (Charlotte Kirk) takes place. At age 7, she watched as her mother was accused of witchcraft, and was sentenced to death after she confessed to save Grace. Now a married woman, with a daughter of her own, Grace is living on a farm with her husband when he catches the Plague; rather than suffer, he hangs himself, leaving Grace and his daughter behind. The Squire over their lands (Steven Waddington), however, demands payment from Grace, and when she does not approve of the price he’s asking, the Squire gets the town to think she’s a witch; after all, it runs in the family. Welcome to “The Passion of the Grace” from there on out.
It’s fascinating to watch some movies go about their business. For some reason, movies fly off the rails so far that it’s hard to know what to make of it. I have no doubt Marshall and Kirk, who co-wrote the screenplay with Edward Evers-Swindell, wanted to make a straight-up revenge torture porn film about female strength through a society that chastised them, saw them as lesser, and was not above accusing them of witchcraft if the men in power did not get their way, and were not really interested in subtlety. At least, that’s what came through in watching “The Reckoning.” Marshall’s stylistic approach as a director is delirious fever dream, pitched so far over-the-top that sometimes, normal human behavior is barely recognizable. I’ll be truthful here- I kind of love it for that. This did not feel like a serious dissection of period or themes, but a moderately-budgeted thriller set in a time period where other filmmakers would acknowledge the grave death taking place around their main characters with reverence, but Marshall does in crawls at the beginning and end of the film, and not really anywhere else in the film. It’s a wild experience for that reason.
Much of the film centers around Grace’s “trial,” at the hands of a “Witch Finder,” John Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee). For four days, she is put through unimaginable torture- Mel Gibson would be proud- at the hands of Moorcroft and his wife, Ursula (Suzanne Magowan). Ursula is disfigured, the result of her own trial for witchcraft, which she survived. This presents a fascinating dynamic to be played out during the trial, which comes to a head during the most brutal scene of implied torture we’ve probably ever seen in a movie. The way Grace conducts herself with both Moorcroft and Ursula help bring some intriguing drama to what feels like a ridiculous movie at times, and watching the way it is played off by the end, you’re either going to go with Marshall and Kirk on this story arc, or you won’t. I can understand either way.
The titular “Reckoning” comes at the end, and I’ll be honest, the ending kind of disappointed me. It has at least two set ups that don’t go the way you expect them to- I was with them on the first one, but the latter one implies an ending, and a continuation of the story, this film is not asking for. Movie justice exists for certain reasons, and this movie violates that here with its actual ending. Up until then, the film is stylish, magnificently produced in its design and costuming, and has some interesting performances and choices along the way that don’t always work, but don’t work in a way that keeps us interested. The last shots in “The Reckoning” didn’t live up to that interest; I still had a weird amount of fun along the way.
