- Directed by Charlotte Colbert
- Written by Kitty Percy, Charlotte Colbert
- Stars Malcolm McDowell, Alice Krige, Amy Manson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh3tVvJdgnk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
An early trauma can affect a whole lifetime, and we get to see that here as an aging actress struggles to recover physically from illness and surgery. The performances are great. It’s a slow seeping kind of horror from witchery and Earth magic. Kind of gentle, slow, and quiet. Very different and entertaining.
Synopsis
Veronica Ghent talks about putting her mask on everyday. She’s an aging film star. She’s had some recent surgery, and she plans to return to her home in Scotland to recover. She takes the train with her caregiver, Desi, and it’s a rough trip. They’re going to a “solitary retreat” instead of a hotel. Veronica wants to get away from everyone, and this is the way to do it. Desi doesn’t think it’s a good idea, but she can’t tell the grumpy old woman anything.
When they arrive, they learn that there are other guests. It’s not as solitary as she expected. Many of the guests are fans of hers, so forget the whole privacy thing. She once starred in “Navajo Frontier” back in 1969. There is a planned remake, and it’s getting a lot of media attention. There’s no cell signal, and the land lines are down, so they’re stuck there, at least for tonight. They are offered a small cabin on the grounds to get away from the crowded main house.
Mr. Tirador is an artist, and he runs some kind of weird performance art ritual thing. It’s a once-in-a-hundred-years storm, and they are expecting some bad effects from the weather. On the way across the moors, their guide Lois, tells about how many of the locals died here in the last burning.
Veronica takes a bath, and something weird seeps into the tub from the spigot. She gets a vision about Hathburne, the man she worked with on the Navajo film. Late at night, she watches the peat from the bog gush around her feet. She has another vision of witches and burning. In the morning, she wakes up, and everything is normal.
Desi wakes up, and the peat from outside has oozed into the living room. She steps right into it. Veronica doesn’t want to do any stupid group activities, but Desi talks her into going to the painting class. Tirador suggests not “to draw the landscape; let the landscape draw you!” He says that a hundred years ago, this remote location was all industrial. The Earth was thought to have healing properties from the high number of women who were burned to ash in the area and decomposed here.
Suddenly, Veronica grabs a handful of mud and starts painting with it as if she’s possessed. On the walk back, she has a vision of herself as a young girl, face bruised and beaten. That night, she dreams of the burning witches again and goes back outside to the muddy woods. Back in the city, Hathborne walks alone at night, and he senses something as Veronica watches him in her vision.
Eric Hathborne appears on the late night show; he’s not “sir” Eric just yet, but that’s coming. He’s an acclaimed director. The interviewer says Hathbone thrives on controversy. Does he ever feel like he’s gone too far? Has he ever done anything unlawful in his films? Veronica was 13 when she made “Navajo Frontier.” But that was OK, because it was a completely different era, and they had a special bond. He then gets sick right there on camera.
Veronica, back at the retreat, also gets sick. It looks like she’s been eating the mud. When one of the men in the art class gets critical, his hand bursts into flame.
That night, Desi goes to the pub in the village for WiFi, where she meets a guy who offers her some mushrooms, “The peat makes them special.” She dances under the influence while Veronica floats above her bed back at the house. Veronica has more visions out in the woods. Black snow starts to fall, and Owen calls it “witch feathers.” Owen, the guy with the mushrooms, follows Desi home through the woods and tries to rape her, but he’s attacked by flowing peat mud.
When Desi wakes up in the morning, Veronica is gone. She’s out in the woods, covered in dirt. She says her pain is all gone. Desi says she feels like she’s losing touch with reality as well. Desi wants them both to leave, but Veronica wants to stay. Veronica orders Desi to go back to town and leave her there. Desi goes to town, gets a car, and comes back for Veronica.
The art group is out in the woods, and today they celebrate the witch burnings; there’s a big bonfire and chanting. Veronica is both in bed and at the bonfire. Meanwhile, she also watches Hathbourne in his apartment. She demands that he tell the truth. He says she knew exactly what she was doing and hits her. When he hits her, she dissolves into “witches feathers” and throws him over the staircase.
Desi returns for Veronica and finds her body covered in black dust. Veronica is also wandering out in the woods. She wakes up in the car with Desi, heading back to civilization. That’s OK, she got what she wanted.
They see on the news that Eric Hathborne has committed suicide. Veronica has had her revenge for what he did to her so many years ago. She’s healed and reinvigorated in the process.
Commentary
We’re told early on that there’s something in the water. There’s something in the peat. Yes, there definitely was.
Alice Krige and Kota Eberhardt are both very good here. Malcolm McDowell still gets top billing, but he’s barely in it, with what seems like five minutes of screen time.
It unfolds slowly, but the atmosphere is so good you don’t really notice. The music is really good, epic, but still “witchy.” The supernatural, or witchcraft, or magic mud is all very subtle for the most part and is really well done.