The Banishing Review: Was it as creepy as its trailer?

The Banishing started streaming on Shudder on April 15. When I first saw the trailer and wrote about it, I kept using the word “creepy” to describe it.

• “Basically, it looks creepy AF!”
• “It’s got disembodied voices in the night, creepy figures, and even creepier dolls. Oh, and some kind of creepy game.”

I admitted then, as I do now, that I know it’s bad to repeat descriptors over and over again like that. I couldn’t help it. “Creepy” just seemed to work best.

In case you missed the trailer, here it is. You can judge for yourself.

But now that I’ve had a chance to watch the movie, was The Banishing as creepy as its trailer, and did it live up to the hype? Or was it one of those cases where the trailer proved more interesting than the movie?

The Banishing Review

The Banishing is based on the (allegedly) true story of a reverend and his family who once lived in Borley Rectory: Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne, and their adopted daughter, Adelaide.

In the movie, the home becomes Morley Rectory. The character names stay pretty much the same, with the exception that Lionel becomes Linus (played by John Heffernan) and the last name is changed to Forster.

Jessica Brown Findlay shines in her performance as Marianne, who’s haunted not only by Morley Rectory’s past but also her own.

Some of the creepiest performances come from Anya McKenna-Bruce as Adelaide, though. What is it about sweet, mild-mannered, somber little girls who say seemingly innocent things but the words make your skin crawl?

The part in the trailer where her mom asks, “What room is this?” and Adelaide responds, “You’re not to go there. You’re forbidden,” is one of The Banishing’s creepier moments. But there are also three disturbing dolls, which represent three creepy monks, who also have the potential to invoke shivers.

I say potential because there are some tense moments in the movie, as well as a couple of gory ones, but overall? It’s forgettable.

I liked how Brian Tallerico from RogerEbert.com summed it up in the first paragraph of his review:

It blends what one would expect from something like “The Haunting of Bly Manor” (and there’s a dose of Mike Flanagan’s “Oculus” along the way too) with elements taken from the giallo kitchen sink, and it all disappears in the British fog. Despite a few strong production values and performances, Smith’s film simply crosses the lane into incoherency and not the surreal David Lynch-esque kind of incoherency that sets a tone, but the this-needed-a-better-edit-or-rewrite kind of incoherency that gets people wondering what else is on Shudder.

Yeah. That.

I was curious to see how it ended, so I stuck it out, but I wasn’t satisfied and even said out loud as the credits started rolling, “Really? That’s how you’re going to end it?”

To say I felt ripped off for spending that hour and a half of my life watching that movie would be an understatement. At least I didn’t have the added insult of having wasted money seeing it in a theater. Also, I got two buckets of laundry folded during the time so it wasn’t a total loss.

The Banishing Ratings

How’s it fairing with critics and other viewers?

It has a surprising 64% Tomatometer approval with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a less surprising 50% audience score. It’s got 4.5 out of 10 stars on IMDB. 58% of Google users liked it.

The Skeleton Crew gives it two out of 5 skulls. Mostly because while the storyline needed help, the acting, costumes, and setting salvaged it from being an utter disappointment.

 

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