Film Review: BESETMENT (2017)

BESETMENT ** U.S.A. 2017 Dir: Brad Douglas 76 mins

When Amanda Millard took on a new job at a hotel in a backward country town called Mitchell, 80 miles from her home town, she envisaged it as a get away from life back home. To start with she settled in really well and got on great with owner Mildred and her quiet middle aged son Billy but she soon realises that no one ever visits Mitchell let alone stays in the hotel, so what the hell do they need her for?!
Casting actress Marlyn Mason (of various musicals and dramas in the 70’s and 80’s) as Mildred, the incredibly deranged overbearing mother come concerned hotel owner and upstanding member of the community, who manages an acceptable performance for the most part but is a tad questionable in places. The rest of the cast were unfortunately pretty bad and instantly forgettable with the exception of Abby Wathen as Amanda. She tried her best but I think the way it was written let her down a bit. There were several scenes that had potential to be quite creepy and disturbing attempting to hit on the topics of sexual abuse as well as mental and physical torture. Alas again though because of the way it is written and portrayed it doesn’t seem to hit home with any of these attempts. It lacks what is needed to make you care about any of it. The cover artwork to the movie gives away a major part of the torture inflicted but when it gets to that part its over quite quick and you don’t see a lot of the process. The effects are not that great hence the reluctance to show too much which is probably a good thing. Not an awful lot going for this movie as it lacks creativity and originality in pretty much every aspect. Its not that I hated it but it’s one that is instantly forgotten straight after watching, the one saving grace being that it’s quite short at just over an hour long.

Review by Sarah Budd