SHE WILL (2021)

Studio:     IFC Midnight/Shudder
Director:    Charlotte Colbert
Writer:     Kitty Percy, Charlotte Colbert
Producer:  Jessica Malik, Bob Last
Stars:     Alice Krige, Kota Eberhardt, Jonathan Aris, Amy Manson, Daniel Lapaine, Rupert Everett, Malcolm McDowell

Review Score:

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Summary:

An aging movie star travels to a remote Scottish retreat whose haunting history compels her to supernaturally seek revenge for a past trauma.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Accompanied by her personal nurse Desi, aging actress Veronica Ghent travels to a remote retreat in the Scottish Highlands to recover from a double mastectomy. Veronica is distressed to discover it is a group retreat populated by various staff members and other patients, but a raging storm and lack of cellular service prevent Veronica from leaving.

Veronica and Desi choose to stay in a secluded woodland cabin. Veronica begins experiencing haunting visions of past abuse suffered as a 13-year-old when she worked on the famous film “Navajo Frontier” with legendary director Eric Hathbourne.

Veronica also starts having strange dreams of women assembled around a blazing pyre in the forest. While her dream self watches the women, seemingly sentient mud collects at Veronica’s feet. In the morning after Veronica’s first dream experience, Desi is surprised to find mounds of mud inside the cabin.

Art instructor Tirador leads Veronica and other patients in an outdoor painting activity. Tirador remarks that the surrounding soil is believed to have therapeutic properties due to the high proportion of human ashes from women who were burned as witches. Veronica becomes fascinated by the mud as a vision of a tortured witch inspires her to create an unusual painting.

As Veronica’s nighttime visions continue, she gains a remote viewing ability. Veronica psychically projects her unseen presence into a TV studio where Eric Hathbourne is promoting his “Navajo Frontier” sequel and upcoming knighthood on a late night talk show hosted by Podrick Lochran. Veronica’s presence compels Podrick to ask invasive questions about Eric’s controversial relationship with Veronica when she was underage. Veronica also compels Eric to embarrass himself with his responses before he chokes on a glass of tainted water. Veronica vomits the following morning as she once again finds herself covered in dirt and imperceptibly transformed.

While Desi reads a historical book on the area’s rumored witches, Tirador leads a peer critique of the paintings created earlier. Veronica supernaturally causes one man’s hand to spontaneously combust when he cynically cites the term “patriarchy” as a dog-whistle for “hysterical women.”

After a heart to heart conversation with Veronica, Desi goes to a local pub to meet Owen, a retreat employee who previously expressed an interest in her. Owen ends up drugging Desi and sexually assaults her in the woods. Using her dream-walking ability, Veronica causes mud to swallow Owen into the ground like quicksand.

The next morning, Desi wakes from a confused stupor to find Veronica lying on the ground outside their cabin. After Veronica recovers, she gives Desi a necklace and then tells her to leave and never come back. Desi tearfully exits.

During another dream-walk, Veronica confronts a drunken Eric about his abuse and the ongoing trauma he inflicted upon her. With Eric in denial, Veronica supernaturally swarms him with ash that causes Eric to fall over a banister to his death. Eric’s demise is later deemed a suicide.

Desi decides to come back for Veronica. As Veronica’s dream self tries venturing into the forest to permanently join the coven, Desi manages to revive Veronica and bring her back to reality. Veronica thanks Desi for returning for her and the two women subsequently leave the retreat.

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Review:

Traditional thought holds that the primary purpose of a film review should be to give an audience enough information to decide if a movie sounds right for them regardless of the critic’s personal opinion. If that’s the true goal, then I’ll bet I can tell you everything you need to know about “She Will” in largely literal terms without ever really “reviewing” it at all. Let’s start with the movie’s official marketing summary:

“SHE WILL is a gothic-tinged drama about a declining movie star, Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige) who after a difficult surgery, goes to a healing retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt). With her own identity in doubt, Veronica starts to confront past traumas endured on movie sets. The two women develop an unlikely bond as mysterious natural (sic – seems a word like “properties” is missing here) of the wilderness give Veronica the power to enact revenge.” A remote location surrounded by Scottish bogs, an arc of self-discovery, and a supernatural link to seemingly sentient woodlands pour a particular mold. Should more shape be needed, the press release additionally cites “She Will” an “an inventive and provocative directorial debut” that’s “a timely feminist critique.”

To the distress of Veronica, who is protective of her privacy, she discovers upon arrival that the retreat is for groups, meaning other patients are present. Guests drink champagne from crystal flutes. A man in a turtleneck chats with a man in a dress scarf. Acting like an overzealous philosophy professor holding court at a tenure party, eccentric artist Tirador (Rupert Everett) greets Veronica with a whimsical embrace she wants no part of. In short, the people here are as particular as the setting.

Veronica later learns that the soil surrounding the resort supposedly holds unusual therapeutic properties due to a large amount of human ash left over from women who were once burned as witches. As Veronica slowly succumbs to the supernatural spell cast by these moody moors, she starts suffering from strange visions. Before eventually gaining the ability to project her dream self to walk in reality, which she ultimately uses to turn her trauma against the man who inflicted it (Malcolm McDowell playing in something that isn’t an embarrassing DTV zombie flick for a change), her dreamy experiences are illustrated as cryptic montages with no initial context. In one, a redheaded girl alternately runs or stands still while shots of a blade slicing skin abruptly interrupt. In another, animated mud collects around Veronica’s feet as she watches white-robed women assembling to stand silently around a fiery pyre.

“She Will’s” cinematography collects more slow creeps than a convention of dimwitted perverts. Gradual zooms into dark trees. Gradual zooms into an old stone mansion. Scene segues cycle through establishing shots of fog misting through a forest, storm clouds drifting in front of a full moon, spiders spinning webs, even an owl turning its head. One shot showcases Veronica staring contemplatively into a rain-spattered window while a flash of lightning symbolically reveals the youthful reflection her memory longs for.

If I were to write a formal review of “She Will,” by now I would have long since used familiar phrases such as “slow burn, arthouse atmosphere, dreamily interpretive,” and probably “slow burn” at least one more time. Instead, I can stay on a purely descriptive track and add that “She Will” includes monologue musings in bookending voiceover narrations and held-note music where an operatic voice sings an echoing “ah-ah-ah-ahhh” or else chants in what sounds like Latin. Surely, you catch my drift, yeah?

What did I think of the movie? What material difference would my personal opinion really make? What matters most is what you think of it and I’ll make another wager that you already have a fair idea how “She Will” will hit your head without even seeing a single frame of the film.

Review Score: 50

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