Film Review: Resurrection (2022)

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A cloud hangs permanently over the opening scene of Resurrection, as it becomes increasingly obvious that we’re having the story set out for us on a plate. A young woman is telling somebody about her relationship with her abusive boyfriend. The listener is off-camera initially but it’s clear when we see her that this is no counselling session, rather a conversation between a manager and her employee.

The issue is coercive control, although the words are never mentioned, and from the advice she gives her younger colleague, Margaret (Rebecca Hall) seems to know more than most about it. She’s clearly successful, with a sleek apartment, wearing her dark work suit like a uniform and religiously running at the same time every day. A regimented life, all under control. Perhaps overly so. But there are cracks: her married boyfriend cares just a little too much, her teenage daughter has a mind of her own, there are references to things that happened 22 years ago – and images of a baby. When Margaret spots a familiar face at a conference, it all starts to unravel, memories come flooding back, panic and other long-forgotten behaviours start to set in.

Andrew Semans’ film starts out as an issue-driven psychological drama, one that paints an uncomfortable picture of controlling relationships. Margaret’s life-changing time with David (Tim Roth), that face in the crowd, is at the heart of the movie. In her late teens at the time, the same age as her daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman), she’s easy prey to a much older man who seeks to exercise extreme control over her. She thinks she’s buried it and built a whole new life, but the mere sight of him makes her re-live it all over again. Her distress and pain are brilliantly conveyed by the always reliable Hall, but she’s also at the centre of other controlling relationships – with her boyfriend, with her daughter – ones where she’s in the driving seat. These essentially play second fiddle to the main plot and do little else than provide an on-going echo.

Had Semans been content to make the film a psychological thriller, it would have stood a better chance of working, but as soon as a horror element is introduced, the narrative starts to go off the rails. It’s impossible to tell if what we’re seeing is for real or in Margaret’s head or a combination of both. Some of it is so far-fetched to the point of being downright weird so that any credibility it stored up in its portrait of coercive control is squandered, to be replaced with confusion and frustration. Horror has become a favourite and often effective genre for examining social issues, but not so here.

The one reason for watching Resurrection is Hall, who gives a driven, compelling and at times electric performance. Thin to the point of gaunt with huge, haunted eyes, she commands the screen and carries the film along single handedly. Even Tim Roth is in her shadow, given little more to do than be unpleasantly creepy. The messy script simply isn’t in her league and, while she’s giving her all, full of anger and fear, the film starts to dissolve around her in a combination of confusion and gore. She deserves so much better than this.

★★


Horror, Thriller | Cert: 18 | Universal Studios | Digital platforms from 5 December 2022 | Dir. Andrew Semans | Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman, Michael Esper and Angela Wong Carbone.