AMULET (2020)

Studio:      Magnet Releasing
Director:    Romola Garai
Writer:      Romola Garai
Producer:  Matthew James Wilkinson, Maggie Monteith
Stars:     Carla Juri, Alec Secareanu, Angeliki Papoulia, Imelda Staunton

Review Score:

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Summary:

A homeless war veteran haunted by his past takes up residence with a beguiling woman in a house hiding a horrible secret.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Now a homeless handyman with PTSD, military veteran Tomaz suffers from recurring nightmares of his time in a war. In these flashbacks, Tomaz serves as the lone guard at a remote forest checkpoint where he finds a strangely entrancing carved figurine. Tomaz rescues and befriends a refugee named Miriam who is trying to reunite with her daughter. Miriam becomes fascinated with the amulet. Tomaz becomes haunted by his memory of raping Miriam when she tried to leave.

In the present, Sister Claire rescues Tomaz when the shelter where he sleeps burns down during the night. Claire convinces Tomaz to move into a rotting old house with young recluse Magda. Claire explains that Magda cares for her invalid mother, who lives in the attic where no one but Magda is permitted, and Tomaz can help her by fixing up the house.

Magda explains the house previously belonged to a man. Magda dresses Tomaz in the man’s clothing and Tomaz uses his tools.

Tomaz finds an albino bat while repairing the toilet. The creature bites Tomaz before he smashes it to death.

Tomaz asks Magda about the wounds she receives whenever she tends to her mother. Tomaz learns Magda only leaves the house to walk to a farmer’s market for the food she cooks. The two of them also talk about romance.

Tomaz falls from a ladder when he finds a shell embedded in the ceiling he is repairing. The shell vanishes. Tomaz tells Magda the shell was painted on houses to ward against evil.

Tomaz finally sees Magda’s mother is a withered woman curled up on the floor in the attic’s shadows. The woman attacks Magda. Tomaz rescues Magda. Tomaz considers leaving the house upon witnessing the encounter, but Magda convinces him to stay.

Tomaz takes Magda dancing. Feeling guilty after kissing Magda, Tomaz suddenly runs to see Sister Claire. Magda continues dancing. Tomaz and Claire discuss forgiveness as Tomaz recounts how he once tried to help someone and she got hurt. Tomaz and Magda sleep together when he returns home.

Magda’s mother slashes Magda’s face when she tries peering through the attic keyhole. Tomaz and Magda find Magda’s mother painfully contorting as she bloodily births another bat creature like the one Tomaz found in the toilet.

Shocked and confused, Tomaz returns to Sister Claire. The nun reveals that the woman is a demon and Magda is its caretaking slave. Claire adds that the demon is dying, but she expects it will kill Magda first. She also claims that containing the evil has been Claire’s duty and Tomaz’s destiny is to protect Magda.

Tomaz returns to the house vowing to free Magda by killing the demon. Magda’s mother bites Tomaz. Tomaz stabs the woman in her throat. The woman pulls out the knife and prepares to kill Tomaz with it.

Magda stops her mother by calmly telling her to leave Tomaz be. Magda says she and her mother belong together before telling Tomaz to leave them alone.

Tomaz recovers from the ordeal two days later. Tomaz tells Magda he thought he would have a right to be happy again if he could free Magda. Tomaz claims there is something stronger than he is inside of him. Tomaz and Magda sleep together again.

Tomaz wakes up vomiting. Dressed in normal clothes that reveal she isn’t really a nun, Claire condescendingly greets Tomaz. Given a mirror, Tomaz sees he is transforming into the next demon. When he asks why, Claire responds, “I think you know the answer to that, don’t you?”

Claire pulls out a notebook as she begins interviewing Tomaz regarding what qualities he wants in his caretaker. Tomaz insists he wants Magda. Claire instructs him to “finish it then.”

Tomaz goes to the attic and stabs Magda’s mother to death. Tomaz discovers Magda’s mother is actually Christopher General, the man whom the house, clothes, and tools belonged to. A nearby newspaper headline reads, “Missing: Man Accused of Murdering Wife and Mother of Six to Marry Daughter.”

Tomaz has a vision of a giant shell. Tomaz enters the shell and encounters the strange figure from the amulet he found in the woods. Tomaz collapses. The woman from the amulet tells Claire she chose well. A bat creature bursts from Tomaz’s stomach. The amulet tells Tomaz he will make a wonderful mother.

Magda visits the gas station where Miriam now works and purchases a pouch of ragu. Magda and Miriam have a cryptic conversation that ends with Magda giving Miriam the amulet, which Miriam remembers. Miriam and her daughter watch Magda drive away. Magda tosses the ragu to Tomaz under a blanket in her backseat.

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Review:

Remember a few years back when someone tried to coin a new term for a subgenre of horror that was pretty much the same category as “mumblegore?” As evidenced by my inability to recall its name (deathcore?), the word never caught on, although it did get a hot round of debate in dueling editorials on whatever site where the phrase originated. It basically seemed like someone craved recognition for inventing a label no one had any use for.

A person can appear just as desperate for “hot take” attention by trying to cancel a common phrase. I once read an opinion piece on a video game website that proposed getting rid of the term “metroidvania” for describing a specific style of gameplay. Plenty of nonplussed readers reacted by pointing out the obvious. Why do away with an assimilated word whose exact meaning is instantly understood by everyone who hears it?

Having said that, I admit I have wished for certain phrases to be purged from every horror critic’s vernacular for the crime of being overused. If I never read another review comparing something to a “fever dream” again, it’ll be too soon. The one that nags me most however is “slow burn,” even though I use it often since the term brings to mind an impression that says more than those two words.

I could describe “Amulet” as a “slow burn” and immediately present an accurate picture of how the film plays. But author Grady Hendrix’s non-fiction retrospective “Paperbacks from Hell” recently reminded me of famed writer and editor Charles L. Grant’s legacy. Grant popularized what came to be called “dark fantasy” or “quiet horror,” both of which describe “Amulet” more distinctly than “slow burn,” which nowadays gets incorrectly interpreted as shorthand for simply “dull.”

Hendrix’s book recalls how Grant wrote about modern characters “taking midnight strolls down empty streets.” Grant transacted in themes about “suburban ennui” and “families crumbling under pressure from suspected infidelity.” “Amulet” isn’t really rooted in the nightmares of a normal neighborhood in quite the same way. But its nature as a disturbing fairy tale, one focused on cerebral dread only occasionally punctuated by sudden goriness, earns classification as darkly fantastical “quiet horror” that suggests more terror than it shows or tells.

Alec Secareanu stars as Tomaz, a homeless military vet haunted by nightmares of his troubled past. Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton) takes pity on his PTSD and sets up Tomaz in a decaying old home where young recluse Magda (Carla Juri) lives with her ill mother. Details on how these living arrangements work are hazy. Tomaz just has to use his handyman skills to make repairs in lieu of rent. And he is to never enter the attic, where Magda’s invalid mother lives in hiding behind a locked door.

“Amulet’s” second story occurs in flashbacks. As a soldier posted alone at a remote forest checkpoint during wartime, Tomaz ends up rescuing Miriam, a refugee desperate to reunite with her daughter. Tomaz gradually grows closer to Miriam, just as he does with Magda in the present. Yet an awful act at the end of his prior trail turns Tomaz into the shattered shell he is now.

Magda and her mother might be Tomaz’s opportunity for redemption. But the mystery creeping through the house’s moldy walls threatens to further frighten the man’s fragile mind. Particularly when he has his first encounter with a bat-like creature and then discovers the truth about Magda’s mother.

Writer/director Romola Garai molds her movie into a message about determining deservedness for forgiveness. A theme that heady has a tough time breathing for a full feature. This kind of smolder burns through air quickly, leaving “Amulet” to continue coughing in lengthened moments that belabor points already made. Because it gradually unfolds like a macabre fable as opposed to a narrative-rich thriller or “shock and awe” suspense, “Amulet” would work better in a shorter runtime not occupied by as much busywork developing a problematic protagonist.

“Amulet” features two twists, one of which entirely upends our perception of Tomaz with only 20 minutes remaining in the movie. By effectively removing all sympathy for a person we’ve been conditioned to believe is terribly tormented, this revelation has a possibly unintended effect regarding how we relate to his character. When Tomaz becomes as much of a monster as anyone else, “Amulet” uncouples from the audience to become a detached parable we’re only passively watching, no longer actively participating in.

“Amulet” plays like “Relic” (review here) without the same depth of emotional resonance. They’re both cold movies about human connection built on metaphors of decay. Even with a small handful of characters in controlled locations, “Amulet” isn’t as intimate. It doesn’t seep into the soul on a personal level. Its alienating people exist further outside of a relatable reality, extending arms to ward us away from investing in its meaning.

Call “Amulet” a slow burn if that helps calibrate personal perspective. I’ll call it “quiet horror.” Too quiet, in fact.

Already an accomplished actress, Romola Garai demonstrates stewarding confidence indicative of a seasoned veteran, not a first-time feature filmmaker. Her instincts regarding where the lens should guide our attention and skill at tuning performances down to minute fractions of detail establish her as an auteur in the making. The story she chooses to tell merely has difficulty maintaining the mood her artistry effortlessly creates. “Amulet” aches to scream louder. Garai does too. But “Amulet” cements an alluring building block whose minor intrigue nevertheless indicates major talent.

Review Score: 55

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