THE RECKONING (2020)

| Horror |

Director: Neil Marshall

Writers: Neil Marshall, Charlotte Kirk, Edward Evers-Swindell

Cast: Charlotte Kirk, Joe Anderson, Steven Waddington, Sean Pertwee

Release Date (Theaters): Feb 5, 2021  Limited

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 5, 2021

Runtime: 1h 51m

PLOT:

Grace Haverstock’s husband has committed suicide, himself afflicted with the plague, and has left Grace and their newborn daughter to care for their small farm. When she falls behind on rent, her landlord attacks her and suggests she make payment with sexual favors. Grace spurns his advances. With his fragile male ego damaged, he accuses her of witchcraft, and Grace is put into bondage and undergoes a series of physical and psychological torture tactics in an attempt to have her admit her allegiance to the dark arts.

REVIEW:

The Reckoning starts out strong. It paints a brutally bleak picture of England in 1665, covered in death and pestilence. Grace Haverstock (Charlotte Kirk) is struggling to sort her life out after her husband, Joseph (Joe Anderson) killed himself due to an infection caused by the plague. It is this section of the film that works, depicting the struggle and grief Grace faces as she not only buries her husband after cutting him down from the suicide but just the raw emotion she is going through as she faces an unfathomable sense of pain and loss.