Neil Marshall is a British filmmaker that has gained such credibility and prestige that every new project he is involved in turns automatically into a must-see. From his debut feature film, the exciting war-werewolves horror Dog Soldiers (2002), continuing with that pure horror-adventure masterpiece The Descent (2005), until the present days with his Primetime Emmy Awards nomination directing the episode The Watchers on the Wall for the season 4 of popular TV series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). Okay, his recent remake of Hellboy (2019) is more disappointing than exciting, that’s true, but it compensates with minor enjoyable titles like Doomsday (2008), Centurion (2010), and his participation in horror anthology Tales of Halloween (2015), right?
In The Reckoning (2020), Marshall, who is also executive producer, digs into another period of history, this time the Dark Ages, in this horror period drama set against the backdrop of the Great Plague and subsequent Witch Hunts in England. The movie centers on Evelyn, a young widow haunted by the recent suicide of her husband Joseph, who is falsely accused of being a witch by her Landlord after she rejects his advances.
The movie is starred by Charlotte Kirk, known for her participation in Ocean’s Eight (2018) and several other minor action thriller titles like Vice (2015), No Panic, With a Hint of Hysteria (2016), The Depths (2017), First Kill (2017), or Ulysses: A Dark Odyssey (2018). She has also the co-writer of the story together with Neil Marshall and his frequent collaborator Edward Evers-Swindell. The main cast is completed with Joe Anderson, Sean Pertwee, Steven Waddington, Rick Warden, Emma Holzer, Cal MacAninch, Mark Ryan, Emma Campbell-Jones, Bill Fellows, Indianna Ryan, and former basketball player Ian Whyte (Scar in Alien vs. Predator (2004), The Last Engineer in Prometheus (2012)) in the role of The Devil.
The Reckoning (2020) has had a wide festival running since its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 20 August 2020. It has been part of the London FrightFest Film Festival, Global Independent Film Awards, Beyond Fest, Fantasy Filmfest, or Isla Calavera Film Festival where it has achieved a big handful of nominations and awards. Now, the movie is set for an internet release on February 5, 2021. Here you can watch its trailer.
