The Banishing

The Banishing is a 2020 British gothic horror film directed by Christopher Smith, starring Jessica Brown Findlay, John Heffernan, John Lynch and Sean Harris. It premiered at the Sitges Film Festival and London FrightFest Film Festival in October 2020, before being released digitally in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2021. The movie revolves around a haunted-house horror set in the lead up to World War II. Plot In 1935 England, a vicar living in Morley Hall murders his wife in a fit of jealousy and then takes his own life. Bishop Malachi asks the town physician to cover up the crime. Three years later, the new vicar, Linus Forster, moves into Morley Hall with his new wife Marianne and her young daughter Adelaide, who was born out of wedlock and masquerades as her niece. The couple's relationship becomes strained due Linus's struggle with intimacy, which he perceives as a sin. Meanwhile, Adelaide starts experiencing supernatural occurrences in the house. She's seen playing with strange dolls in the shape of monks and talking to invisible people. The mirrors in the house give delayed reflections, and soon Marianne starts to have unsettling hallucinations of shadowy figures, as well as premonitions, including the violent death of their deaf housekeeper Betsy. Marianne also relives traumatic memories of a time when she was institutionalized in a mental asylum during her pregnancy. Occultist Harry Reed, who has extensively investigated the house's sinister history, warns Linus about it. The site originally hosted a monastery of the Minassian Order, which performed dark rituals and used torture to punish those who were deemed sinners. Bishop Malachi strongly objects to Harry's interference and openly threatens him. Harry answers denouncing Malachi's Nazi sympathies in public. Malachi arranges for Harry to be assaulted by two thugs under his service. Marianne is encouraged by Betsy to meet with Harry, who's wounded but still refuses to leave. Harry warns Marianne that the house will turn its residents against one another, so the family should leave for their own safety. Back at the house, Linus is investigating his predecessor's death and discovers Malachi had lied to him, claiming the previous vicar and his family had moved to Australia. He also experiences a supernatural vision of Marianne committing adultery. This prompts a jealous argument between him and Marianne, particularly after he discovers that she has met with Harry.