PLOT: Recuperating from a double mastectomy, an actress goes to a secluded retreat in Scotland… and soon seems to develop a connection with the witches that were burned at the stake in this location centuries ago.
REVIEW: Legendary genre filmmaker Dario Argento was not involved with Charlotte Colbert’s feature directorial debut She Will from the beginning. He didn’t agree to put his name on the film as an executive producer until it was finished and showing at festivals. Now “Dario Argento Presents” is the first thing you see on She Will, following the distributor logos, which is sure to be a major drawing point for the film. And you can see why Argento himself was drawn to the material, as he has dealt with subject matter like this himself. It was just usually a lot bloodier and more interesting when he did it.
Colbert and co-writer Kitty Percy came up with a solid core idea for She Will and Colbert brought it to the screen with a nice visual style. But the movie also happens to be one of those achingly slow paced “art horror” movies that are all the rage these days. The sort of movie that some would refer to as “elevated horror”. The movie has a running time of 95 minutes, but viewers who want to see something interesting happening will find many of those minutes to be a struggle to sit through.
Stars Alice Krige and Kota Eberhardt do their best to keep the viewer engaged when nothing much seems to be going on in the movie. Both of them turn in great performances – and given that Eberhardt’s biggest projects previously were the poorly received X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the poorly reviewed Netflix show The I-Land, She Will might turn out to be a major breakthrough for her. Krige plays Veronica Ghent, a veteran actress who has just undergone a double mastectomy and chooses to recuperate in private at a retreat deep in the Scottish countryside. Eberhardt is Desi, the personal nurse who accompanies Veronica on this trip. Colbert and Percy gave Krige terrific dramatic material to work with, as Veronica is suffering not only because of her health issues and the fact that she’s aging, but also because a former associate, director Eric Hathbourne (Malcolm McDowell), has announced that he’ll be directing a remake of a movie he and Ghent made together in 1969, when she was just thirteen years old. As auditions are held to fill the role Ghent played more than fifty years ago, she sees herself literally being replaced. And worse, Hathbourne molested Veronica while she was starring in the original movie, so she’s disgusted to see him still around, successful, making movies, and even receiving knighthood.
Veronica is depressed and traumatized when we meet her, wanting to hide away from the world, mixing alcohol and painkillers. But this is a story of empowerment. As it turns out, witches were tried and burned at the stake in the same spot where her Scottish retreat is located. When a storm hits, groundskeeper Lois (Amy Manson) warns guests that they can expect to see peat in their water. Peat isn’t the only thing in the soil around here; it’s also infused and enriched with the ashes of the many witches that were burned there in the past. And when Veronica comes in contact with those ashes in the water and mud, she starts to gain some new abilities and insight. Like I said, it’s a solid core idea, but I found the slow pace and trippy vision sequences a chore to endure.
Rob Zombie fans may have flashbacks to Halloween II when they see a scene where McDowell sits in a room, watching footage from an embarrassing televised interview. Other notable cast members who show up at the retreat include Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Olwen Fouéré as Jean, who is always riding around on an ATV, and Cemetery Man himself Rupert Everett, in a comedic role as the head of a group who has come to the retreat to draw energy from a crystal pyramid and create art.
She Will has a fan in Dario Argento and is sure to gather more fans in the horror community. It is a very well-made film for what it is, but “what it is” happens to be a horror movie that will resonate with some while others find it to be quite dull. I liked the concept and the performances, I was impressed by Colbert’s style and by the score from Clint Mansell, but I wouldn’t want to sit through the movie’s 95 minutes again.
She Will is set to receive a theatrical and VOD release on July 15th, courtesy of IFC Midnight. The film will then be reaching the Shudder streaming service on October 14th.