Director: Neil Marshall
Writer: Neil Marshall, Charlotte Kirk, Edward Evers-Swindell (Screenplay) Antony Jones, Edward Evers-Swindell (Story ‘Red Hex’)
Starring: Charlotte Kirk, Sean Pertwee, Steven Waddington, Joe Anderson, Suzanne Magowan
Plot: Evelyn, a young widow haunted by the recent suicide of her husband Joseph, is falsely accused of being a witch by her Landlord after she rejects his advances.
Tagline – Fear spreads like the plague.
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Reckoning starts when Grace Haverstock (Kirk) finds her husband Joseph returning home with the sickness, the plague of the 1665. When he kills himself to save Grace and their baby, the landlord Squire Pendleton (Waddington) looks to take advantage of the situation, only to turn on her, claiming she is a witch.
This accusation will lead to the Witch Finder John Moorcroft (Pertwee) to come to the village to perform the tortures to get her to confess, only Grace won’t give up, using the image of husband to keep her from losing her mind, with each day putting her through an even more intensely painfully experience.
Thoughts on Reckoning
Characters & Performances – Grace Haverstock is a widowed mother that finds herself being pressure for rent for her landlord, which will see her getting accused of being a witch. She knows the truth and isn’t going to just give up to the pressure, letting herself go through the torture, refusing to become another one of the women falsely accused. Charlotte Kirk is good in the leading role, she brings the resistance needed in the character put through so much pain. John Moorcroft is the Witch Finder that has put countless women through the pain to make them confess, he is convinced his is correct in what he is doing, showing no remorse in what he is doing. Sean Pertwee is the star of the show with his disturbing figure that is convinced he hasn’t done anything wrong. Squire Pendleton is the man that accuses Grace of being a witch and gets caught up in how the trial goes. We get to see the other people in the village and their reaction mixed with the plague too.
Story – The story here follows a widowed mother that gets accused of being a witch and is put through the trials by a witch finder who is determined to make her confess. This is a look at how the witch trials mixed with the plague caused chaos of finger pointing, which led to the pain suffering caused by these actions. This is an interesting look at everything, as we could have gone darker in the trials, even if everything is leading down to a big reveal behind everything going on. The story does seem to dip in the middle and could have been trimmed down a little but more.
Themes – The Reckoning is a horror that uses the experiences that the women would have gone through the add all the horror, filling the pain they were put through for the unknown belief of witches. The film does keep the settings within the time period of the 1665, during the plague going through the nation, adding to the behavior going on.
The Reckoning is a horror that is more about what was done, rather than what we are seeing happening.
