Crucible of the Vampire (2019)
Director: Iain Ross-McNamee
Writers: Darren Lake, Iain Ross-McNamee
Stars: Katie Goldfinch, Larry Rew, Babette Barat, Florence Cady, Angela Carter
Starts in England in 1649. Ezekiel Fletcher is accused of sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy. His dead daughter has been seen wandering the woods. The captain and his man hang him after cutting his cauldron in half.
Jump to England, 2017.
Isabelle identifies a stone cauldron that was owned by the Witchfinder General. It’s pre-Roman period. They may have found the missing half of the cauldron, and she needs to determine if that is the case or not. She takes a train to this remote place in the English countryside, and of course, there’s no cell phone signal. It’s a big old creepy house. The caretaker and his wife greet her, but their daughter, Scarlet, is nowhere to be found. She does, however, show up that evening after dark for dinner.
She sees someone creeping around the dark hallways that night. Scarlet denies that it was her. While Isabelle is digging, Scarlet goes through all her stuff, stealing her panties and phone.
The gardener tells her a story about the old gardener bleeding to death from falling into some barbed wire. After much drama and dreaming, the two halves of the crucible are joined, and the inscription says “unholy necromancer.”
Commentary:
It’s very moody and scenic. It’s clearly low-budget, but the location makes up for it. It’s all creepy and claustrophobic, but also feels like a real place.
Still digging up a single metal pot shouldn’t take four or five days, even with an archaeologist’s caution.
Overall, I liked it. It didn’t exactly go where I expected, and even though we’re told what’s going on, you still wonder what’s really happening right up to the end.