"The Banishing" loses its nerve and succumbs to commonplace plot devices rather than going for the jugular. Still, Smith and Findlay make it watchable.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 22, 2021

Can a 30-second scene right at the tail-end of a motion picture derail what had been up to that point 90 minutes of solidly creepy, emotionally authentic old-school haunted house fun?

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 21, 2021

All of which sure sounds like a great time, and in many ways, it can be. But the incoherence grows more grating as the movie shuffles along...

| Original Score: C | Apr 17, 2021

The Banishing is eerie and unnerving and looks absolutely terrific.

| Apr 16, 2021

"The Banishing" ends with such a walloping undertow of "wait, that's it?" that it earns little more than the backhanded compliment of realizing you expected a lot more from it.

| Original Score: C | Apr 16, 2021

The Banishing is eerie and entertaining, walking in the steps of films like The Queen of Black Magic or The Ring, but with its own patient gait.

| Apr 16, 2021

"The Banishing" never finds its groove.

| Apr 15, 2021

There are too many times when it feels like The Banishing needed to go Full Argento and Smith is too cautious a filmmaker to do so. It's dull when it needed to be terrifyingly confrontational.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 15, 2021

Psychological time loops, an eerie mirror, and nightmarish hallucinations are all bolstered by stunning cinematography and off-kilter camerawork to bring genuine scares, even in an overly crowded story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2021

Christopher Smith's film applies the haunted house trope in unfamiliar ways.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 10, 2021

Brown Findlay anchors the film with enough measured nous to stop it disappearing up Satan's backside.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2021

It's not perfect, and certain things don't quite work...but I did like it.

| Mar 30, 2021

It's especially disappointing to watch Christopher Smith struggle to pull it off.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 26, 2021

It all gets very silly, and there's a naff go-nowhere storyline involving Nazis. But Brown Findlay holds it together with her performance...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 24, 2021

The vicious revenants within this house mirror the spectre of fascism rising beyond its walls

| Oct 20, 2020