Slash and burn
THE RECKONING I Neil Marshall returns to horror with a disturbing study of witch-hunting…
Iwanted to get back to scary movies because it’s a lot of fun, splashing the blood around on set,” grins Neil Marshall. “But I wanted to do something different to what I’ve done before, and different to what’s out there. The Reckoning is a horror film but it’s also a British western: Once Upon A Time In The West meets Witchfinder General.”
Set during the Great Plague, Marshall’s first horror movie since 2005’s The Descent presents us with the plight of Grace (Charlotte Kirk), who is struggling to make rent after her husband’s suicide. The Squire (Steven Waddington) knows just how she might pay, but Grace forcibly rejects his lewd advances. And before you can say “toxic male entitlement”, Grace finds herself facing witchfinder general Moorcroft (Marshall’s old mucker, Sean Pertwee).
“The subject matter is so relevant,” says Marshall, who co-wrote the script with his fiancée Kirk and Edward EversSwindell, who did some of the Crawler sound effects on The Descent and is a writer-director in his own right. “I don’t mean the plague, because we had no idea that was going to happen. I mean
cancel culture and misogyny and female persecution. I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to do something gothic and horror that has something relevant for audiences today, even though it’s a period film.’”
A low-budget shocker shot in Hungary, The Reckoning was just what Marshall needed after the catastrophe that was Hellboy (“I never had any control; there’s nothing of me in that movie”). But as excited as he was to return to the genre of Dog Soldiers and The Descent after exploring other flavours of storytelling with Doomsday, Centurion and episodes of such stellar TV shows as Game Of Thrones, Hannibal and Westworld, he was wary of turning in a torture porn movie. Tricky, given the ‘witches’ were indeed tortured in the 17th century…
“I don’t like torture porn movies. So it was, ‘How can I deal with this?’ My whole thing was I wanted to imply or suggest what is going to happen, and then cut away and not dwell on it in any way, shape or form.” He pauses. “This is horror, and psychological horror, and religious horror. I’ve never done the devil before, so that was fun!”
Ah, yes – at night, in her cell, Grace is tormented by visions of Beelzebub. And so will you be once you see the design Marshall settled upon. “I had a strict rule for the designers – it’s not going to be red! He’s going to be sickly, pallid and grotesque. [Concept artist] Paul Gerrard came up with an unnerving creation.” Seems like Marshall is intent on being the Prince of Darkness once more. JG
ETA | 16 APRIL / THE RECKONING OPENS THIS SPRING.