Resurrection - Film Review

by Jennifer Muirhead (subscribe)

Margaret is a successful businesswoman and single mother to a teenage daughter, Abbie, who is about to go off to university. Then Margaret's life is turned upside down when her abusive ex-boyfriend, David turns up, bringing with him the horrors of her past.

Content warning: Domestic violence, abusive relationships, death of a child.

Resurrection (2022) is a psychological horror film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2022. It stars Rebecca Hall (from The Prestige and The Gift) as Margaret and Tim Roth as David.

When this film had its Australian premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival, they put it in the "WTF" category. Having finally been able to watch it - I now understand why. It's an extremely disturbing film, which had me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Tim Roth's character doesn't even appear until 30 minutes in but is already frightening by the time he does, just because of Margaret's reaction to him. Rebecca Hall gives off a palpable, contagious sense of dread from her first glimpse of David.

Tim Roth is eerie as the deranged David and if you happen to have seen the TV series Lie To Me, there is another layer of creepiness added. The protagonist of that series, Dr. Cal Lightman, also played by Tim Roth, has a sweet teenage daughter named Emily, and Abbie (Grace Kaufman) reminded me of her.

Gore and violence are used sparingly, with the majority of the horror coming from things that are only described and happened off-screen. Everything really hinges on Rebecca Hall's performance, as she is in every scene, and she absolutely nails it.

Resurrection is an intense, disturbing psychological horror film that is strictly for horror fans.

Resurrection will release digitally in Australia from 30 November

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