THE RECKONING
Cert 15 ★ On digital now
This plodding period thriller takes us back to the foul and pestilent year of 1665 when the Black Death and dark suspicions were raging through the villages of England.
Director Neil Marshall, working with a script co-written with lead actress Charlotte Kirk, fails to summon up the energy of Vincent Price’s Witchfinder General as he creates a gruesome ordeal for Kirk’s plucky peasant Grace Haverstock.
After her plague-ridden husband hangs himself, Grace is left at the mercy of Steven Waddington’s lusty landlord. But she rebuffs his advances, packing him off to the local hostelry to talk trash and spread rumours of witchcraft. The
disease-ridden drinkers don’t need much encouragement. They are in desperate need of a scapegoat and the aloof Grace is an easy target.
It’s never mentioned, but I imagine her lip gloss couldn’t have helped her cause – a clear sign of devilry in 17th Century England.
So the superstitious townsfolk send for Witchfinder John Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee), who quickly rolls up with an array of terrifying painful looking equipment.
For the laborious next hour, Grace is tortured into confessing her love of Satan, who appears in fevered dream sequences cavorting with her oiled-up naked body.
Sadly, these vivid flashes of forgotten heavy metal album covers cannot distract from the film’s laboured plotting, thin characters or torturous dialogue.