The Banishing (2021)
Directed by Christopher Smith
In the 1930s, a young reverend and his family are forced to confront their worst fears when they discover their new home holds a horrifying secret.
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6 films that influenced The Banishing
What critics say influenced The Banishing
There are moments which recall The Orphanage (a creepy game of 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?', for instance) and it's certainly in that classier vein of period horror – see also The Innocents and The Others – with its credibility enhanced immeasurably by Brown Findlay, who brings guts and pathos to Marianne's plight.
The effort from director Christopher Smith is undoubtedly inspired by the likes of The Others , The Changeling , and most recently Crimson Peak .
The same goes for obvious inspirations on this project like “The Innocents” or “The Others.”
This has led to classics like 1961’s The Innocents , the more recent The Others , and the underrated The Little Stranger .
In substance and tenor, this costume piece fits nicely into the general category of Brit period ghost stories, like The Woman in Black and The Others .
— whisper-sniveling dialogue like “Denial is the teat on which the beast will suckle,” and you’re well on your way toward sating a Gothic horror fan’s lifelong hunger for new films in the spirit of “The Innocents,” “The Haunting,” and “The Others.”
There's plenty to fear and enough pre- The Conjuring inspirations to exist outside formidable competition, yet not enough to generate overwhelming reactions.
Of course, most films based on first-hand accounts of haunted houses are heavily altered if not out-right fabricated, perhaps none more frequently than those which recount the cases of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, among them Amityville Horror and The Conjuring franchise.
If the story had been kept simple, The Banishing could have been another The Woman in Black or The Conjuring ; but no.
However, if you’re looking for the kind of scares that movies like The Conjuring and Poltergeist offer, you won’t find them here.
There are moments which recall The Orphanage (a creepy game of 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?', for instance) and it's certainly in that classier vein of period horror – see also The Innocents and The Others – with its credibility enhanced immeasurably by Brown Findlay, who brings guts and pathos to Marianne's plight.
Sean Harris chews the scenery as a quirky occultist, with a haircut reminiscent of Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland .
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The effort from director Christopher Smith is undoubtedly inspired by the likes of The Others , The Changeling , and most recently Crimson Peak .
Best known for his noughties horrors like Triangle and Severance, British director Christopher Smith demonstrates some real verve in ratcheting up the tension, with a scene focused on a unnerving, disturbing game of What’s the Time Mister Wolf? and another involving a reflection staying in place, two of the best visual frights I’ve “experienced” in some time.
The Gist: Christopher Smith, the British horror director who took on time-looping ghost ships in Triangle , led Sean Bean through medieval plagues in Black Death , and turned an office team-building exercise into a bloodbath in Severance , proves again he can create ominous and creepy worlds with just a few brushstrokes.
Christopher Smith has brought audiences such inventive thrills as the slasher/workplace comedy Severance, the historical horror of Black Death, and the time-loop terror of Triangle.
Christopher Smith ( Triangle , Severance ) helms this supernatural thriller written by David Beton ( The Hatton Garden Job ), Ray Bogdanovich ( The Hatton Garden Job ), and Dean Lines ( The Hatton Garden Job ).
Smith came to renown in the mid-2000s thanks to early work like Creep (2004), Severance (2006) and Triangle (2009), amid a surge of Brit genre talents that included Paul Andrew Williams ( The Cottage ; London to Brighton ) and Tom Shankland ( The Children ).
This rather handsome British ghost story is helmed by Christopher Smith, who you may remember as the director of enjoyable noughties horrors like Creep , Severance and Triangle , as well as the likeably leftfield Christmas flick Get Santa in 2014.