''Amulet'' is a 2020 British
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
written and directed by
Romola Garai
Romola Sadie Garai (; born 6 August 1982) is a British actress and film director. She appeared in ''Amazing Grace'', ''Atonement'', and ''Glorious 39'', and in the BBC series '' Emma'', '' The Hour'' and ''The Crimson Petal and the White''. In ...
and starring
Carla Juri
Carla Juri (born 2 January 1985) is a Swiss actress. Her acting credits include ''180°'', '' Wetlands'', ''Finsterworld'' and '' Blade Runner 2049''.
Early life and education
Juri was raised in Ambrì, a village in the Italian-speaking Cant ...
,
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre produ ...
and
Alec Secareanu. It premiered at the 2020
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
, was released in the United States on 24 July 2020, in UK cinemas on 28 January 2022 and was
Mark Kermode
Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
's film of the week for the
Kermode and Mayo's Film Review
Kermode is a surname of Manx origin. It may refer to:
I Surname
* Robert Kermode (1812–1870), Tasmanian politician
* P. M. C. Kermode (Philip Moore Callow Kermode, 1855–1932), Manx antiquarian and historian
* Alexander Kermode (1876–1934) ...
programme on
BBC 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...
.
The film is about a homeless ex-soldier who is offered a place to stay at a decaying house in London, inhabited by a young woman and her dying mother, but begins to suspect something unnatural is living there, too.
Plot
Ex-soldier, Tomaz, unearths an amulet at an outpost in the woods. It becomes apparent that this is where he was stationed in his former country, which he eventually escaped to make it to London. Tomaz periodically has flashbacks to this time and Mirian, a woman who took shelter with him after he spared her life when he caught her trying to pass the border.
In
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
Tomaz works as a day laborer while sleeping in a derelict building with other refugees. When the building is set on fire, Tomaz is forced to flee suddenly in the night. Unable to breathe from the smoke, he collapses in an alley way and is discovered by Sister Claire, a nun. After visiting him in the hospital she suggests a better way of life for him and takes him to a house, explaining that a woman living there, Magda, needs help with the house upkeep as she cares for her dying mother. As she walks away, she is seen throwing Tomaz's money (which he thought lost) into the sewer.
Magda makes it clear she doesn't want Tomaz there and he too is reluctant to stay. However the two grow accustomed to one another and Tomaz tries to perform repairs. When trying to fix the water pipes Tomaz discovers a live albino bat clogging the toilet. He kills it, but not before it bites him.
Tomaz eventually sees Magda's mother, whom she keeps imprisoned in the attic. Though she is extremely ill she attacks Magda in front of Tomaz and he becomes protective of her. He takes her out on the town, fulfilling her wish to go out dancing all night if she was free.
Later on, returning home Magda and Tomaz see her mother giving birth to one of the bat like creatures he sees on the toilet. Tomaz goes to consult Sister Claire, and she tells him that the mother is a demon and that she and Magda have been charged with keeping it contained for years. Tomaz returns to the house, determined to kill the demon and save Magda. However after stabbing the demon in the throat it bites and attacks Tomaz only to be stopped by Magda.
Tomaz then flashes back to his time with Miriam. Developing a crush on her he urges her to stay with him until the end of the war and protects her from fellow soldiers. However after discovering her trying to leave in an attempt to reunite with her daughter, he chases her and rapes her.
Awakening in the house, Tomaz, determined to protect Magda, returns and attacks the demon. Once he beheads it he realizes that the host body was actually that of the previous occupant of the house, a man who murdered his wife with the intent to marry one of his own children. Sister Claire explains that he is now the new host and asks him who he wants to be his guardian. He demands that Magda watch over him. Later, Tomaz is sick. As his stomach begins to move, he too gives birth to one of the creatures.
Later, Magda drives up to a convenience store where Miriam is working the counter. After making sure that Miriam is all right she drives off and throws some food in the back where Tomaz is hiding under a blanket.
Cast
*
Carla Juri
Carla Juri (born 2 January 1985) is a Swiss actress. Her acting credits include ''180°'', '' Wetlands'', ''Finsterworld'' and '' Blade Runner 2049''.
Early life and education
Juri was raised in Ambrì, a village in the Italian-speaking Cant ...
as Magda
*
Alec Secareanu as Tomaz
*
Angeliki Papoulia
Angeliki Papoulia ( gr, Αγγελική Παπούλια; born 1975) is a Greek actress and theatre director. In film, she is most notable for her roles in ''Dogtooth'', ''Alps'' and '' The Lobster'' by Yorgos Lanthimos, and '' A Blast'' and ...
as Miriam
*
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre produ ...
as Sister Claire
* Anah Ruddin as Mother
Production
The film was announced in April 2018, along with the cast. Production began in Autumn 2018, with the original title of ''Outside''. Matthew James Wilkinson, the film's producer, called it "feminist horror" and that Garai "definitely wanted to take a look at what is happening in terms of recent gender politics and stand it on its head."
Release
''Amulet'' premiered in the Midnight section of the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
on 26 January 2020, and will be released in the United States on 24 July 2020 in limited theaters and on-demand by
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.
Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...
' horror department, Magnet Releasing.
[
]
Reception
On review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "If its chilly sense of dread never quite becomes spine-tingling terror, ''Amulet'' remains smart, solidly disquieting fun for genre fans seeking slow-building horror." On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
David Rooney of ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called the film "smart and stylish" and wrote: "Garai steadily builds suspense while keeping her intentions enigmatic until quite late in the action. She eventually folds together mysteries of the past with terrors of the present in an out-there final act that goes full-throttle Dario Argento, mixing digital and hand-made effects in a sea of garish reds and bizarre pagan visions." Justin Chang
Justin Choigee Chang (born January 3, 1983) is an American film critic and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He previously worked for ''Variety''.
Early life
Justin Chang graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004. Chan ...
of ''Fresh Air'' called the film an "intensely creepy supernatural freakout" and praised the "strikingly assured" writing and direction of Garai.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 8332802
2020 films
2020 independent films
2020 directorial debut films
2020 horror films
British horror films
2020s English-language films
2020s British films