Matriarch

Wasn't sure what to make of this, and in many ways it's a few different films put together. It's a mother/daughter relationship drama, it's an addiction drama, it's a folk horror and it's a body horror.

The actors are tremendous - Kate Dickie is always good value and is deliciously insincere.

Jemima Rooper manages to make a pretty unsympathetic character somewhat likeable, though that is a bit of a flaw in the film.

The cinematography is lovely - the British countryside has never looked so desolate or haunting.

The music and sound design is incredibly atmospheric, and works in conjunction with the editing to really keep you uneasy throughout.

Perhaps by the end of the film one too many ideas have been thrown into the pot, but I really enjoyed the journey and would happily recommend it.

To get that out of the way .. i rate this movie to be a bit above average.

If i wanted to describe a feeling in one word .. i would probably go with : uncomfortable

A bit like a Lars von Trier movie, but only half way.

Acting is good - although not very nuanced. Cinematography is sometimes good .. but not stellar - and characters act in a very artificial way .. only to support the plot, not in any way realistic (on the basis of the supernatural that is going on)

The CGI was poor ... i mean, Playstation 2 cutscene poor. It was kind of rare .. and i wonder why the movie did not use practical effects .. those would not have been too hard .. and may not have broken immersion as much as those really terrible CGI scenes.

All in all, it was worth watching - for me. But other than that ... a fairly forgettable movie without much depth or meaning (well, unless you are into rural folklore of that region or so .. maybe than there is more to get from it)

First off, Jemima Rooper is entirely awful to observe throughout the whole film. She's dreadful and not in a good way. She's a miserable, atrocious mess of a disaster from the start. The first third of the movie is all about her and her nasty habits and behavior.

Then she goes home to her mother, played by the always-awesome Kate Dickie. And then you kinda see why the daughter is a loathsome person. But by contrast, Kate Dickie can portray appalling without being unconscionably annoying.

Then it turns into a Village of the Wicker Song kinda thing, I guess. The reveal of what is going with the townspeople is a big "um, okay".

The special effects are cheesy in places.

The fudge looked good. Better than the film which, sadly, Kate Dickie can't save.

Intriguing beginning. Story contains good mix of mystery with supernatural horror for the first 4/5ths, but the end and the story is very unsatisfactory. The draw-in is good but Is almost as if they ran out money and concluded amongst poor lighting and severely curtail final scenes. Another way to put it was that critical scenes near the end are missing. Also, on a fear/suspense scale it's falls flat all throughout. I enjoyed the pace of the mystery and unraveling backstory. The acting is ok to good. The few special effects probably were poor so they resolve it by by under exposing, the problem is that I couldn't tell what happened in the the in the climax and the parts we do see clearly, there's no explanation.

Not a movie for everybody or indeed anybody but if you want something different then it is worth a watch.. Like it or not, it's admirable that the movie is totally weird and refuses to follow any formula but it's own. It does not even care about alienating people, it is that daring.

During the short run-time it takes all sorts of twists and turns and you never know what will happen. It might at the end of the day try to much and gets lost in it's own story. But Kate Dickie is as usually great in another eccentric unhinged lady role. Going all in, she knows exactly what kind of movie it is....