Reviewed by Justin Bateman
Stars Rebecca Pitkin, Pietro Herrera, Amber Hodgkiss, Julia Curle, Laura O’Donoughue, Steve Murphy, Steve Smith, Luke Dickson, Kirsty Bruce, Thomas Frere, Deborah Brian
Written by Owen Carey Jones
Certification UK 15
Runtime 88 minutes
Directed by Owen Carey Jones
The phrase "based on a true story" is usually an indicator that the film you are about to watch will test the limits of plausibility and therefore be all the more amazing for it. The Spell, a low-budget British film, does the first part but sadly for none of the reasons it would like to, and fails on the second part. Opening with a candlelit ceremony in the woods attended by cloaked figures and a curvaceous naked young woman calling on the spirits to do evil to persons unknown, this promised to be a supernatural tale filled with witchcraft and intrigue. In fact, the next time so much as a candle appears it’s in the protagonist Jenny’s new boyfriend’s house. “Wow, this is amazing!” coos Jenny, who has obviously never seen a converted loft with a few scatter cushions before.
The story is as follows: unwanted by either of her separated parents, 16-year-old Jenny (Pitkin) moves into a flat with her boyfriend Rick (Herrera). It’s not long before she’s bored of him, forcing him into the arms of Kate (O’Donoughue) who is in love with him. With Kate’s help, Rick casts a spell to win Jenny back. That night, Jenny is visited by a spirit and wakes up the next morning possessed by a demon. Or so she thinks. Her friends are unconvinced so Jenny must seek alternative solutions.
As hokey as it might seem, a bit more witchcraft would probably have done The Spell a massive favour because unforgivably for a story of demonic possession, this is painfully dull stuff. Aside from blurry visions of some shadowy cloaked figures, an occasional incomprehensible bark from Jenny and the odd floating health and beauty product, there is nothing remotely supernatural going on here. Instead, director Owen Carey Jones goes for the social realism angle, showing Leeds in all its grim, council flat glory but this simply means having Jenny sit down and talking about her “problem” with a succession of po-faced friends, colleagues and members of the community.
If her problem is possession (and it’s a big if, although if it’s not there’s no real explanation for that either - it was the spell? Huh?), one of the biggest problems with the film is the spectacularly banal and unintentionally hilarious dialogue. On telling her boss what’s happened, he says to Jenny, “I don’t really know much about this sort of thing”, while the local priest blandly informs her that “demonic possession is very rare these days”.
What ought to be a scary or at least engaging film is neither and manages to be entirely devoid of tension or even narrative momentum. The whole thing is so unlikely that it’s not even possible to feel any sympathy for the beleaguered Jenny. Independent British films ought to be given every chance but unfortunately The Spell simply isn’t good enough to warrant anything other than a swift exorcism.