Sally Hawkins plays a foster mother, Laura. She's scary and weird in the role - a horribly manipulative woman becoming a mentally unwell one as the film goes on because of the grief she is suffering. She claims that an 'angel' visited her, promising the return of her drowned daughter, Cathy, who had a visually impairment. In reality, she has invited a nasty supernatural 'demon' into her house - so none of that is hallucinatory, the story tells us that it's actually a thing!
Piper and Andy come to stay on placement for 3 months as their dad/step-dad had recently died, collapsing in the shower and they're not old enough to go it alone. They don't want to be there, but have no choice. Sora Wong is fabulous as Piper, also visually impaired, and pretty much steals the show from the equally convincing Hawkins. But it's close! Piper is young and easily navigates life despite her impairment, throwing off the need for, for example, using a white stick.
Andy is her step-brother and played beautifully by Billy Barratt. His dad, who just died, it comes out, used to beat him. But he never talked to Piper about it, rather presenting the world to her as rosily as he could. It is clear from (especially) the early scenes that the caring/loving bond between them is incredibly strong. When they get there and meet Laura, there's also another little boy there, a self-destructive one who doesn't speak, in her care, called Ollie. Jonah Wren Phillips plays this part and does so amazingly well too. In fact, all the players are top-notch.
We become aware that there is a white line around the house, which is tied up with some footage which Laura often watches on old VHS tapes depicting some kind or 'rituals' looking like there are 'rules' for stuff that happens inside the lines which are different to outside. Some sort of voodoo-type 'spiritual' barrier, it would seem. On the tapes we also see acts of violence between people, blood, guts and gore as people are ritualistically abused by others. Turns out that Laura is trying to find some way of bringing back her much-loved Cathy through supernatural means.
We get stuck into some gruesome scenes of body-horror violence, particularly relating to young Ollie. There's no jump-scare horror here but certainly one scene which involved the young boy had me taking a sharp intake of breath and turning my head from the screen! Brilliantly filmed and horrifically, shockingly presented. Watch out!
All this leads to a breathtaking finale where the threads of the story and characters are drawn together, making for a somewhat shocking conclusion in and around the swimming pool where Cathy had drowned. This really is good stuff! The photography has real impact as we spend a lot of time in the dour, grey house and when outside, usually in the rain. The sounds are recorded so very well too, accompanying the terror step-in-step. As you can tell by now, I was bowled over by this film - not a thing I often say - so very highly recommended.
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