Rebecca Hall might be the next great horror heroine. After last year’s incredible performance in The Night House (which was woefully overlooked during awards season), she’s back with another Sundance Midnight darling: Resurrection, a disturbing psychological horror film dripping in dread. Andrew Semans’ dark and twisted indie flick is a Cronenbergian, grotesque fever dream centering around Hall’s character, Margaret, and her penetrating fear of her ex, David (Roth), and his insistence that the child they created years ago still lives inside him, crying for his mother.
Resurrection examines how hard it is to break the cycles of abuse. Semans excels at directing from the perspective of Margaret, manifesting the uncertainty and second-guessing she feels when David’s around. Close-ups on the tightening of her body, sweat trickling down her neck, her past trauma floods scene after scene, escalating to a breaking point. Margaret’s first speaking encounter with David is unsettling, and Ron Dulin’s editing creates a mist of unreliability with her headspace so that the audience questions if she’s really interacting with her abusive ex or if she’s slowly losing her mind.
Hall’s progressive insanity unfolds effortlessly, reminiscent of Isabelle Adjani in Possession and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby. The gripping terror Margaret feels every time she sees or interacts with David swirls with a dizzying tension that’s enigmatic. The more Margaret falls into David’s trap, the harder it is to watch. David uses the lure of their long-lost child to get her to perform little “kindnesses,” acts of devotion and servitude that prove to David that Margaret is fiercely loyal to him, all with the promise of seeing her firstborn, the child that cries in the depths of David’s belly.
David’s mental games become Margaret’s prison, isolating her from those who care for her. She screams for her daughter (Kaufman) to never leave the house and growls at her lover (Esper) for trying to get her help. Abusers know how to alienate their prey from seeking aid, and as Margaret spirals into madness, it appears no one will be able to rescue her from her monster. Resurrection eventually escalates into a bloody battle, ripped intestines and gutted organs, blood spewing all over the walls of an unassuming beige hotel room, but the question always lingers: Is David who Margaret thinks he is, and does their child really lie nestled in the bowels of his body?
Resurrection nearly nails it – it’s masterful in its body horror elements and its creeping anxiety is crafted effortlessly – but the film’s final moments pull the rug, failing to twist the knife in the gut, sticking the kill. The dreamy, abstract ending is an enormous disappointment, frustrating because it halts the momentum of what might have been one of the greatest horror films in years. Resurrection is still worth the descent, but one can’t help but feel slightly deflated as the credits start to roll in a finale that feels like a non-ending.
This article appears in July 29 • 2022.