THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW (2020)

Studio:      Epic Pictures
Director:    Thomas Robert Lee
Writer:      Thomas Robert Lee
Producer:  Gianna Isabella
Stars:     Catherine Walker, Jared Abrahamson, Hannah Emily Anderson, Geraldine O’Rawe, Don McKellar, Sean McGinley, Jessica Reynolds

Review Score:

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Summary:

In a desperate farming community stricken by pestilence, an outcast suspected of witchcraft tries to keep her teenage daughter’s existence a secret.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Continuing to live according to 19th-century Irish customs, a small farming village suspects Agatha Earnshaw of heresy when her farm is the only land spared from a pestilence dubbed ‘The Eclipse.’ During this 1956 event, Agatha gives birth to her daughter Audrey, but keeps Audrey secret from the community.

17 years later in 1973, the community continues to struggle. Desperate villager Lochlan Bell tries bartering for crops from Agatha, but Agatha turns Lochlan away. Having overheard their exchange from her hiding place, Audrey asks her mother about the man. Agatha warns Lochlan is another “villain” who would steal Audrey away if he knew about her existence.

Agatha passes through town while Colm and Bridget Dwyer hold a funeral for their young son Liam. Colm accuses Agatha of being responsible for Liam’s death and strikes her, which Audrey witnesses from her hiding place in Agatha’s cart. Colm’s father Seamus, a reverend, intervenes so Agatha can proceed safely.

Agatha takes Audrey to a coven assembly where witches perform a ritual around Audrey involving blood, skin, and cuticle clippings. When Audrey tells the high priestess about Agatha’s confrontation with Lochlan, the witch gives Audrey instructions for an incantation to take revenge since Agatha refuses to act.

Agatha runs into villager Bernard Buckley on the road. Bernard sees Audrey, but Agatha gives him bread and milk in exchange for his silence. Audrey then has an argument with Agatha over her mother’s weakness that ends with Audrey running away.

I: INCANTATION

Audrey pretends to collapse on Colm’s farm. Colm brings Audrey inside. After Colm passes out from drunkenness, Audrey performs an incantation that results in Colm’s wife Bridget behaving strangely. Colm summons Doctor Burke, who diagnoses Bridget as pregnant. Bridget fears something feels off about the baby.

Audrey returns home. Fearful Audrey did something to Cole, Agatha realizes she can no longer keep her daughter controlled.

Colm and Bernard find a mutilated two-headed calf along with rotten food belonging to Lochlan. Lochlan shoots the animal and uses its diseased meat to poison his wife and daughter.

II: DESCENT

Bernard’s wife Deirdre tells Seamus she worries about her husband’s suddenly strange behavior. Bernard privately tells Seamus he hasn’t been the same since meeting Audrey, whom he claims is so beautiful, he felt insignificant in her presence.

III: FALLOUT

Bernard interrupts Seamus’ sermon to curse God while inferring he has been obsessed with Audrey since their encounter. Bernard suddenly shoots himself in front of the congregation.

Lochlan blames having to kill his family on Agatha’s reluctance to spare her food. Seeing her mother threatened, Audrey stabs Lochlan from behind before slitting his throat.

Urged by Deirdre’s desire to know the truth about her husband’s suicide, Seamus visits Agatha. Seamus tells Agatha about the recent tragedies plaguing their village. Agatha denies having a secret daughter who could be to blame. After Seamus leaves, Agatha proposes fleeing their farm, but Audrey defiantly insists on standing up to the community.

Colm storms out of his house after fighting with his wife over Bridget’s desire to abort their unborn child. Colm later comes home to discover Bridget slaughtered their last lamb. Bridget also mutilates her womb with a razor blade and begins convulsing when Burke arrives to sedate her.

Seamus tells Colm about Bernard supposedly meeting Agatha’s secret daughter. Colm reveals he too had an encounter with Audrey when she came to his house following Liam’s funeral.

Audrey appears before Seamus. Seamus asks what her purpose is and why her existence was kept secret. Audrey shows Seamus a vision where entranced villagers assemble around the two of them. Audrey seduces Seamus with a kiss that compels him to drink from a chalice. Seamus returns to reality.

Aware that she was attempting to run away with Audrey, the coven takes Agatha captive.

Seamus has dinner with Colm and Deirdre, who discovered Lochlan’s body. Deirdre observes Seamus acting strangely and connects his changed behavior to an encounter with Audrey. Deirdre shoots Seamus in front of Colm when she sees Seamus transform into Bernard.

Audrey arrives at Colm’s house with the witches holding Agatha hostage. Agatha pleads that she was able to carry Audrey to term when other women weren’t strong enough. Colm asks who Audrey’s father is. Agatha claims there isn’t one and she is still a virgin.

Audrey tells Colm he can have whatever he desires if he kills Agatha. The witches hold down Agatha while Colm stabs a knife into her heart. Bridget suddenly recovers.

IV: SPRING

A passing truck picks up Audrey on the road in the light of day. Nine months later, Bridget gives birth to an unseen abomination.

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Review:

I ordinarily subscribe to Roger Ebert’s philosophy that popular film reviews should present the author’s opinion while leaving leeway for someone who thinks differently to gather the objective notes needed to fit a personalized frame. Pauline Kael-like critical dissection offers another approach, although that level of analysis frankly doesn’t apply all that well to indie horror as a whole.

Consumer Reports-style reviews provide a third option. Other critics disapprove of these on the basis that they aren’t academic enough. Plus, if a reader wants insight to help process a movie’s content, ‘Why to Buy/Not Buy’ bullet points don’t do much good for someone who has already seen the film.

Sometimes though, it just makes sense to almost divest myself of a firm personal perspective to instead imagine writing for a composite person with midline tastes. “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” serves up one such plate where simply describing it in mostly straight terms offers a fair assessment of the film. Maybe that doesn’t result in a thumb committed in one direction over the other. But it should define the movie for “what it is” so anyone can independently determine if the film sounds right for him/her.

“The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” was known as “The Ballad of Audrey Earnshaw” once upon a time. “Curse” is of course the flashier word, and one that better positions marketability. “Ballad” more appropriately represents the movie’s actual tone. Not in the “sweet song” sense, but as an indication of poetic style. The film even segments itself with chapter headings complete with roman numerals to further identify the literary construction behind every major building block.

Heightening the “book brought to life” feel, several sentences of text set the stage after opening logos. After emigrating away from the Church of England in the late 1800s, Irish farmers settled a community where they continued living according to 19th-century customs. This continued through 1956, when pestilence devastated their land. Only Agatha Earnshaw’s farm was strangely spared, causing neighbors to call her a heretic who used witchcraft to prosper. Agatha gave birth to a daughter during this time, but knew it would be wise to keep Audrey’s existence a secret, lest she invite additional invectives or even worse from incensed villagers blaming her for the blight.

The written narration doesn’t use quite as many words, though you should now have a basic germ of what “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” looks like. Picture an A24 dramatic thriller without as much cerebral seasoning. We’re working with an atmospheric period piece along the lines of “The Witch” (review here) with only a fraction of the arthouse flavoring. While “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” does have a thematic layer about how facts influence where we invest our faith, and includes dreamy vision sequences too, don’t expect it to also equal “The Witch” in open-to-interpretation gothic moodiness.

When the black screen finally fades up on imagery, Audrey turns 17 in the autumn of 1973. She’s still in hiding and it still looks like the area around the Earnshaw farm hasn’t advanced a day in 100 years. Agatha continues to harvest healthy crops while the community continues to struggle with survival in the face of famine, disease, and death.

Secretly spying an uncomfortable encounter between her reclusive mother and a desperate farmer inspires questions from Audrey. Witnessing Agatha’s open harassment at the hands of an angry villager then strikes a match of rage in the girl. Agatha only warns that the world is a fearful place full of “villains” best left to their own business. Scratching a post-adolescent itch to step out of Agatha’s shadow, Audrey forms her own suspicions about their neighbors while a desire to forge her own path grows. Audrey doesn’t get encouragement from her mother, but she does get it from their coven, who not only exist, but agree Audrey should assert the dominance assured by her destiny, even if Agatha would rather continue to cower in secret.

By now, the seed planted earlier should have sprouted into an impression of “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” adding a dark coming-of-age edge. Village-oriented drama where grieving families deal with suicide, familicide, and a problematic pregnancy stay in front while Audrey moves into the center.

Like anyone of her age, Audrey faces an ordinary crossroads of maturation, but under extraordinary circumstances of occultism and plagues. Audrey unfortunately isn’t an overly sympathetic figure. Her urge to break Agatha’s leash remains understandable yet her maddened methods of authoritatively acting out make her more waywardly petulant than justifiably defiant. She isn’t hard to figure out, but it can be a challenging chore to see the situation from her side given her quick-tempered whining. Maybe she’s merely more of a typical teenager than anyone could have imagined.

Completing the “what it is” circle, “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” rounds out as what a 1990s Merchant Ivory production might have looked like if they ever made a slow-burn horror fable. It’s a sleepy story that someone will certainly call “hauntingly beautiful,” two words which translate to “snoozefest” in more viscerally-oriented vocabularies.

Arid auras and dusty colors in the production design reflect the bleakness of the setting and associated era. Actors invest deeply in characters, even if they are all dourly frowning folks confronting crippling depression. “The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw” achieves elegant technical execution yet has such little personal resonance in its “leathery old novel” tone, much of it won’t be left in my mind by the time you read this. The indifference inspired leads me to conclude 50/100 is the safest score. I can only hope enough impartial information exists above that you can figure out which side of that slash you’re most likely to land on.

Review Score: 50

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