When teenager, Betsey (Jessica Alexandra), experiences strange phenomena at a party on the night of a blood moon, her widowed mother (played by Sienna Guillroy), must come to terms with her own history of trauma and decide where her boundaries of beliefs lie in order to help her daughter.
It is through the use of everyday things such as scraping plates, blenders and close up of mouths and eyes, that Paxton is able to expertly create an uncomfortable and tense watch, lending moments of body horror to an otherwise sterile environment.
Ruth Paxton’s directorial debut introduces a matriarchal household consisting of mother Holly and her two teenage daughters Betsey and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes). The stark grey and cold minimalism that permeates the dwelling and its inhabitants is apparent from the get go, the atmosphere is clinical and is representative of the mother and child relationships that exist. As Betsey’s possession causes her to stop eating and present itself as a sudden onset of an eating disorder, Holly’s neurosis and past traumatic experiences come to the foreground as she attempts to control her daughter’s behaviour, as only a narcissistic mother knows how. It is these moments that are particularly difficult to watch, as the sound design and disturbing cinematography are amped up. It is through the use of everyday things such as scraping plates, blenders and close up of mouths and eyes, that Paxton is able to expertly create an uncomfortable and tense watch, lending moments of body horror to an otherwise sterile environment.
The performances of the mostly female cast are the strong point of the film, with an outstanding play by Lindsay Duncan as the grandmother matriarch who lacks all of the warmth and empathy one would expect from a grandmother. Despite approaching the possession genre from a unique angle, this is where ultimately the downfall lies in A Banquet. If there was even just a little bit more possession horror utilised, it would have tipped the film from being a dark and gothic family drama into a terrifying examination of the wounds inflicted from intergenerational trauma.
A BANQUET IS PLAYING IN SELECT CINEMAS NATIONWIDE AND ON VOD.
THEATRICAL 11TH MARCH / DIGITAL 21ST MARCH.
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A BANQUET – YGRAINE’S ARCHIVE
