- Directed by Lorcan Finnegan
- Written by Garret Shanley
- Stars Eva Green, Mark Strong, Chai Fonacier
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZEjKwz7cH8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Some excellent acting takes us through this tale of witchery and creepy insects. Overall it’s well done and entertaining.
Synopsis
Christine and Felix argue about who has to pick up their child at school. She takes their daughter, Bobs, but he cannot pick her up later. They’re having a children’s fashion show. She gets a call in the middle of the show— something about bodies. She sees a large, blind, disease-ridden dog walking toward her in the dressing room. It shakes dirt and ticks all over her. She stands up, and we see that she does indeed have a tick on her neck. Credits roll.
Eight months later, we see Christine is on a CPAP machine. She looks sick, and there’s a wound on the back of her neck. She visits a client who asks how she’s been “after everything.” “I’m fine now, just eager to get back in the saddle.” Christine’s hands start shaking uncontrollably, so she calls Felix to pick up Bobs. The client likes her designs but needs some modifications in a hurry.
The doorbell rings, and it’s Diana. “I’m here to help you,” she says. Christine doesn’t remember but lets her in. She’ll be living there, but Christine doesn’t remember any of that. Diana catches a tick in a match box.
Felix and Bobs arrive, and they didn’t know about Diana either. Felix asks where in the Philippines she came from, but he doesn’t know the place very well. Felix and Christine argue about the arrangement, but since Christine is busy with work, they decide to let things go for a week.
Christine falls over and has a seizure, and Diana makes it go away– by ticking her.
Diana leaves ashes from the fireplace in a pile outside her bedroom door before going to bed. We flash back to her in the Philippines dancing and having a good time. In the morning, there are child-sized footprints in the ashes.
That morning, Christine doesn’t remember the way to Bobs’s school, so later, Diana uses some Filipino folk medicine on her. She tells the story about how an old witch-woman’s soul flew into her when the old woman died. After that, she knew medicine and the power of nature. She had the power to heal or destroy. Once again, it works, and Christine feels better.
Christine tells Diana about the dog and the ticks. A tick bit her, and she got sick after that. We see Diana burn some of Christine’s hair and toenails in a ritual.
We get another flashback to Diana and her family evacuating after the military takes over and burns their house down. In the morning, all of Christine’s medicines are gone; Diana says Christine threw them all out yesterday, but Felix is skeptical.
Felix confronts Diana that night. He explains that Christine is punishing herself over guilt. He calls her a “backward snake oil merchant,” but she doesn’t accept his threats. Diana and Bobs finally become friends the next morning after Felix kills Bobs’s bird.
Diana and Christine do more rituals, and it’s arguable whether it’s helping or making her worse. Felix goes through all Diana’s stuff and finds a little altar with a picture of Diana and her own daughter, as well as a vial of blood. He also finds all of Christine’s medicine stashed under Diana’s bed.
Diana teaches Bobs how to call Crows. Felix and Christine confront Diana about the meds when she gets home. Christine calls her a “pitiful wretch,” and fires her. Before she goes, Diana releases the tick into the air vent. Diana also tells Bobs to do one last thing for her…
That night, Christine sees a foot-long tick crawling up her legs in bed– Nope, just a nightmare. The next morning, Bobs says Felix was the one who took Christine’s medicines. Christine believes every word of the story and throws Felix out. He falls down the stairs, something Diana had warned him about.
There’s another children’s fashion shoot, and Christine takes Bobs to watch. Elsewhere, Diana starts another ritual. Christine starts seeing ticks covering all the children and adults at the show. Christine screams and has a seizure right in the middle of the show.
Christine goes home to bed, sick, and Diana returns. Diana feeds Christine some of the fireplace ashes and tells her it’s time to confront what ails her.
We get another flashback of Diana and her own daughter going to work in a sweatshop making children’s clothes. Christine tours the sweatshop and demands that workers go faster. She suggests the managers lock the doors so nothing can go missing. Christine takes a selfie with Diana’s daughter. The manager unlocks the door to let Diana go out and get a drink for her daughter, and a fire starts. Since the doors are locked, everyone burns to death, including Diana’s daughter.
This whole thing has been a way for Diana to get revenge on Christine. She sent the tick-infested dog to bite Christine. Diana says she will take Christine’s daughter from her as well. Diana tells Christine to face her own judgment for what she’s done. She tells Bobs to go to the garden and look up.
Bobs goes outside and watches Diana jump off the roof to her death. The little witch-soul flies out of her mouth and into Bobs’s mouth. Felix finally comes home and finds Christine burned to ash– just like Diana’s daughter was.
Commentary
Kevin and I had a theory about why this was happening about a half-hour into the movie when we saw the photo of Christine and a little girl in the Philippines. We guessed it– revenge!
The acting is excellent all around, Eva Green never looked so sickly. The little girl Bobs was particularly good. The plot– well, we guessed the “twist” far too early, but it was still well executed. The sets were good, the characters all acted more or less reasonably, and the Filipino “magic” was interesting and unique.