The Reckoning has, in theory, a great storyline—I just wish it had delivered the way I was hoping after reading the pitch.
The film, set in 1665, follows Grace (Charlotte Kirk), a young British widow and mother. Her husband, Joseph (Joe Anderson), has just killed himself after contracting the bubonic plague. Pendleton (Steven Waddington), their creepy, slimy landlord, is attracted to her and relishes the fact that she’s now alone, without Joseph’s protection.
After Grace rebukes his disgusting advances, she finds herself being accused of a witch, and promptly tortured and beaten by a notorious, bloodthirsty witch hunter.
Initially, I loved the thought of this film. Witches, in general, are some of the most fascinating and exciting women to watch in the cinema. They kick ass and take names and typically do not put up with any bullshit. I also am an admirer of Neil Marshall’s films, particularly Dog Soldiers and The Descent.
However, this one didn’t really feel like a Marshall flick to me—the melodrama was overpowering to the point of eye-rolling. While I wanted to like Grace, I found Charlotte Kirk (and, well, the rest of the cast) to be overacting throughout the duration of the film. It felt like a Game of Thrones imitation rooted in witchcraft, where their words were meant to be powerful and dire, but it translated off the script and onto the screen like a theatrical play—and it just didn’t sit right with me.
Most of the dialogue in the film felt like it was taken from bits and pieces of every other Middle Ages show we’ve seen—think of the back and forth of The Hound and Arya’s lines in Game of Thrones. It was as if the filmmakers weren’t quite sure what to say, or worse, didn’t have anything original and had to resort to recycled lines from the genre’s past.
Joe Anderson—a talent from the likes of Hannibal and Across the Universe—is, sadly, wasted here. His lines, like the rest, are painfully delivered; they’re contrived and strained, as if Kirk and Marshall were trying to fill in the blanks. I didn’t buy the relationship between Grace and her husband, which made it more difficult for me to feel for her when he passed.
Had the dialogue been more strongly written, I think I would have liked the film much better. Kirk’s delivery of lines, and her overall acting, can be cringe-worthy—particularly in a scene where she wakes from a nightmare where she has sex with Joseph, only to reveal minutes later that he’s a rotting corpse. She jolts up in bed from the nightmare (fair, fine) but then proceeds to scream to the point of nearly blowing out her lungs.
Just too much for me.
I wanted to love The Reckoning. It would have stood a better chance with stronger writing and stronger edits to the script, as well as toning down the drama in the actors’ physicality.
I get that you’re in the middle of the bubonic plague, Neil Marshall—but that doesn’t mean you have to make every single line seem like it’s your last.
The Reckoning
2020
dir. Neil Marshall
80 min.
Now streaming on Shudder
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