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- The Banishing is a very fine horror: A slow burn, drip feed delivery of menace and dread that also explores issues of repression and deceit, as well as tensions both familial and political. Like many a ghost tale, The Banishing uses the possibility of a spectral presence as a metaphor for past fears and regrets, and especially sin.
thecriticalcritics.com › reviews › movie-review-the-banishingMovie Review: The Banishing (2020) - The Critical Movie Critics
Apr 15, 2021 · The bulk of “The Banishing” consists of Marianne facing the demons that have emerged from the tarnished history of Borley, and she meets a local psychic named Harry Price, who is played by Sean Harris as if he’s in an entirely different and superior film.
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Nov 9, 2023 · The ending of The Banishing is both chilling and thought-provoking, leaving viewers with a sense of unease and lingering questions. The movie builds up tension throughout its runtime, gradually revealing the sinister history of the house and the evil presence that resides within it.
Apr 10, 2021 · The Banishing achieves an unexpected timeliness by probing fears of regression. The question of what stance to take on the looming war exacerbates domestic tensions in the film.
- The Banishing (2020) Movie Plot Explained
- The Banishing (2020) Movie Ending Explained
- The Banishing (2020) Movie Themes & Visual Motifs Analyzed
A Haunted Manor’s New Residents
The Banishing opens with a vicar sitting in front of a tri-fold mirror and reading from his Bible; the verses related to ‘sexual immorality.’ The verse warns about ‘lustful passions’ and having sex for pleasure. He is interrupted by a sound from the next room. The vicar goes to investigate it and sees himself brutally murdering his wife. Before we conclude whether the vicar is suffering from a hallucination, the scene cuts to a man arriving in a car to the manor. His identity is later reveale...
The Looming Specter of Fascism
Later in the night, as Marianne tucks Adelaide into her bed, she looks at the weird doll and also at the even more creepy monk dolls of three adorned with brown hoods. As it’s the case with most of the haunted house films featuring kids, Adelaide has an imaginary friend or companion named Veronica, who ‘whispers things’ to her. Later, Marianne tries to consummate her marriage with Linus. However, the Reverend feels great shame as he is about to kiss his wife. He rebuffs her advances, and they...
What Does the Red-Haired Stranger Say About the Morley Manor?
At the church, Linus is visited by the same stranger. Linus is seen practicing for his first sermon. He is of the opinion that violence begets violence, and hence the war, whether waged for right or wrong reasons, is a sin. Upon hearing this, the stranger, a veteran of the Great War, ridicules him for his judgment. The stranger knows everything about Linus and talks about the Minassian Order, to which the local monastery belonged long ago. He says the manor the reverend’s family has taken res...
Who is the Tortured Blind Woman?
In the night, Marianne sees Adelaide standing in front of the mirror. Marianne is unable to move while a blind woman walks into the mirror, and Adelaide follows her. Having lost Adelaide to the ghostly realm, Marianne seeks her husband’s help, who is heavily drunk and ready to burst into violence. Therefore, she goes to Harry Reed. They come back to see Linus in a trance, possibly possessed by the evil monk, and he has brutally killed Betsy (just like in her vision). Harry reveals that the mo...
What’s the Ulterior Motive of Bishop Malachi?
Keeping up with the promise, Linus gives a proper Christian burial to the woman and her child (their bones are found in the cell). The eyeless doll is also buried in the casket. However, some men unearth the coffin at night and take out the remains of the woman who haunted the manor. It was acquired by none other than our Bishop Malachi. He travels with it to Stuttgart, Germany. It looks like the Bishop’s reason behind housing families at the evil Morley manor is to find the woman’s bones. As...
Sexism & Misogyny
The Banishing indicts faith-based sexism and misogyny. The Catholic Church’s harsh treatment of women over different centuries is well-documented. Though the Church has undergone many reforms by the time the narrative is set, it’s evident how the ideas of sin and shame are still associated with female bodies and sexuality. While Reverend Linus accepts his wife, Marianne, and her child, Adelaide, his strong religious beliefs inculcate internalized notions of misogyny in him. This, combined wit...
Extremist Beliefs
Whether old, twisted Christian beliefs or the rise of fascism, The Banishing shows that extremist ideas always threaten humanity and our reasoning. Morley Manor houses the evil that carried out sick crimes against women. But a larger evil seems to have plagued the continent in the late 1930s, which also commits the unpardonable crime of dehumanization. As shown in the film’s ending, extremism denies peace even to the dead.
Mirrors & Doppelgangers
The Banishing is the only film in British filmmaker Christopher Smith’s oeuvre where he isn’t involved in the scripting process. Yet the film carries some of his familiar visual motifs, including the use of mirrors and doppelgangers. Smith and his cinematographer Sarah Cunnigham have done an excellent job in creating an authentic atmosphere of the manor, though the narrative doesn’t provide plenty of scares. Like in Triangle(2009), mirrors are everywhere, and in Banishing, the reflective surf...
Apr 12, 2021 · The Gothic estate at the center of The Banishing is based on the infamous Borley Rectory, a haunting made famous thanks to the investigation by true-life psychic researcher Harry Price.
- Meagan Navarro
The Banishing is a 2020 British gothic horror film directed by Christopher Smith, starring Jessica Brown Findlay, John Heffernan, John Lynch and Sean Harris. It premiered at the Sitges Film Festival and London FrightFest Film Festival in October 2020, before being released digitally in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2021.
Apr 17, 2021 · “The Banishing” is a haunted house film, and a Chris Smith film too, which means each of his characters in their own way are helplessly trapped in cycles of torment. But it’s also a film about repression and persecution of desire, both in its present and its past.
