Ruptured Review: She Who Must Burn

Country of origin- Canada 
Year of release- 2016

Director- Larry Kent

Stars- Jewel Staite, Sarah Smyth, Missy Cross, Shane Twerdun

 

The film follows Angela, a former nurse at a Planned Parenthood clinic and a councillor, who now offers help to women from her home after the local government forced the clinic to shut down. Believing that Angela is coercing women to get abortions, the Baarker family—a small group of dangerous and fanatical right-wing Christians - lead by the menacing figure of preacher Jeremiah, seek vengeance. They claim that God has ordered them to cleanse the land, and the sin that Angela represents is first upon their list.

Angela decides to stand her ground against the church along with her police officer boyfriend. When Jeremiah receives supposed word that a young girl has had an abortion after consulting with Angela, the Baarkers start to hunt the child down. Angela takes her in and vows to protect her. But as the tension between the two sides mounts, the Baakers' zeal and crazed fanaticism turns murderous and the rule of law decays into a brutish mob mentality, leading to a horrifying and utterly brutal series of events.

This film despite having a moderate budget, manages to create a bleak, hopeless and downright terrifying atmosphere right from the opening scene which hits the viewer like a brick to the teeth. She Who Must Burn excels at utilising a good script with surprisingly good acting to make the scenes of tension (of which there are many) all the more nerve racking by making us actually care about the characters on screen, something most low budget films simply fail to do.

The film also has great success in its visual aesthetics and practical visual effects. The whole film has a washed out look that adds a great deal of grim atmosphere to the entire film. The film is wonderfully shot, and its style of cinematography in many parts reminded me of something we might see in Red Hill, Dead Mans Shoes or possibly a Field In England mainly bleak, drab and utterly miserable. This brings me on to the violence in the film, and the presentation of that violence. This film does not flinch away from some truly harsh and brutal scenes. Including the murder of a child, rape, domestic abuse and a very graphic scene of a stillbirth. The film presents these without showmanship and without sensationalising them. There are numerus scenes of brutal, extreme human behaviour in this film that are presented to the audience with such force and artistic vigour that they cannot help but shock or disturb at times.

My only complaint about She Who Must Burn is its ending. I found the way the film concluded to be perhaps a little ham fisted, a little rushed and even possibly the only lazy element of the film. Other than this however, this really is a superb film. It is stripped down, harsh, brutal and unflinching in its presentation of hatful ignorance and madness. I would highly recommend She Who Must Burn and I am going to happily give it a 7.5/10.