After a few years of genre hopping, Neil Marshall is making a return to his horror roots, reuniting with his debut feature film (Dog Soldiers) star Sean Pertwee, for the harrowing period piece, The Reckoning.
Penned by Marshall, Charlotte Kirk (Ocean’s Eight, Vice, How To Be Single), and Edward Evers-Swindell (Dark Signal) and brimming with thrilling action set-piece, lashings of blood and thunder – and even a skin-crawling appearance from the devil – the film tells the tale of Grace Haverstock (Kirk in a star-making turn) who is forced to grapple with the tragic untimely death of her husband Joseph (Joe Anderson) in a society completely consumed by fear and death. On rejecting the advances of her landlord (Steven Waddington), she is unjustly accused of being a witch and placed in the custody of England’s most ruthless witch-hunter, Judge Moorcroft (Pertwee). Forced to endure physical and emotional torture while steadfastly maintaining her innocence, Grace must face her own inner demons as the Devil himself starts to work his way into her mind.
With the film now streaming on Shudder and releasing in cinemas and on digital platforms from this Friday, 16th April, SCREAM sat down with Marshall and Kirk to discuss their “Witchfinder General for the Covid era” tale that shines a light on how 16th and 17th century superstitions and systems built on misogyny are sadly still very present in today’s world.
Words: Howard Gorman
