Haunted houses have always been the subject of much intrigue. We have seen many movies steeped in the topic with various perspectives. Some find them interesting. Some find them ridiculous. Others may even have had experiences that make them believe. Anyway you look at it, in cinema, haunted habitations are a well established form of the horror genre.
For me, the haunted house is an interesting subject. I am a skeptic personally. I think a lot of so-called evidence can be explained when you really get to in-depth analysis. However, it doesn’t make the idea and subject of haunted houses any less intriguing. That is a large reason why I find haunted horror to be a fun category in the overwhelming catalogue of horror in movies. The first haunting I ever saw growing up was Poltergeist back in the 80s. Something about “This house is clear” or “They’re Here!” always brings back excellent memories of my first scares. It also may be why it’s also one of my favorite horror subcategories.
As with any haunting film, you typically have two standard ways of telling the story. One is showing a snippet of the past and then building off that snippet as the story builds in whatever time period the main story takes place. The other path is to let you learn what happened in the past as the story progresses. This brings us to The Banishing. The Banishing takes place in the 1930s. Supposedly it is based on a true story but with cinematic creative liberties, who knows how close it really is to actual events. With an opening showing you a murder scene and bringing in one of the story’s major characters from the Catholic church, it sets the tone of what’s to come. Jump forward a few years and a new priest, his wife Marianne, and her daughter move into this overwhelmingly huge house. It doesn’t take long to see that something else is inhabiting the mansion and influencing its new tenants. Marianne starts looking into the house’s sordid past and history as her husband goes further towards insanity and her daughter becomes more disrespectful and belligerent.
One of the interesting aspects of The Banishing is how it brings the scares. Where big budget Hollywood relies on jump scares, computers, and special effects, this journey leans heavily on practical effects, storytelling, and atmosphere. Anything that happens in this creepy old mansion happens to be done with traditional, practical effects. In some cases, I wasn’t sure how they did it exactly, but it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t done with computer graphics. It makes everything seem that much more authentic and real. One of the fascinating things with the story is that you have two main stories that come together while feeding off each other. Add to that a third storyline that ties to some of the lesser seen characters and you would think it would be an overly complicated viewing. You would be incorrect. They all come together in the end in what, for me, was a satisfying ending.
Two things really ended up being detractors from the overall experience. With a lot of horror, there are darkly lit scenes. In a few places, The Banishing suffers from this issue. When wandering through catacombs with little light, it typically is more intense and creepier to see the brick walls and remains or markings for remains instead of having it so dark that you pretty much only see the character and their light source. For me that is a bit of a drag. I want to see the environment to help sustain the overall feel of the movie. The other issue is one storyline involving the head priest that shows up on occasion to give advice. If you don’t know your history well then you won’t understand a certain event pertaining to the ending. For me, I knew what was going on, but for others, it may be confusing, leaving you scratching your head going, “But why?” It doesn’t ruin the ending but it can be a little bit of a detractor when it isn’t clear as to why something is happening.
As a haunting flick, The Banishing accomplishes everything that the subject should and does it with all practical effects and story. Not lacking in its overall uneasy atmosphere and tension building, it satisfies in a semi-believable way. With it’s only real downside being a side story that you have to know some history to understand and some extremely poorly lit scenes that make it a little hard to see what is happening, they don’t make it any less enjoyable. It comes as an overall enjoyable experience if you happen to be a fan of the supernatural and hauntings. In the end it comes as a highly recommended viewing experience.
RORSHACH RATING:
Mental Health Moment: One of the stories in The Banishing revolves around Marianne and her regret of her history and past decisions. Regret can be something you learn from or get stuck in. When you regret past experiences, you can learn from it and grow, becoming stronger and never making those decisions again, but it is something that also can lead to things like depression and anxiety. These tend to come from those regrets forcing you to live in the past. Regrets happen in life. Everyone has them. How you choose to deal with them ultimately leads to who you will become as a person. Those past issues may haunt you. Not everything is easy to get past. That is why there are multitudes of outlets out there. Therapy is one of the most common, but you may just need a shoulder to cry on or an ear to vent to. In some cases, it can be life altering. Regret is something that ultimately becomes a challenging experience that can go on to define who you are in the future and how you deal with issues that arise.
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Victims and Villains is written (and produced) by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey and others, and edited by Cam Smith. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. The Banishing is property of West End Films. We do not own nor claim any rights.
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