You're not to worry too much about period detail and accuracy in this ridiculous but entertainingly grim film.
Visually, this is superb. There's a Dario Argento flavour to the rich colour canvas used by director Neil Marshall (who co-wrote this with leading actress Charlotte Kirk). Things are briskly paced too, sometimes too much during important scenes (the Squire's lacing of one character's drink in a fairly crucial bar scene, for one; blink and you'll miss it). The 106 minute running time never stands still for long.
Despite this, some explanations might have helped my appreciation. Does heroine Grace hallucinate that she sees, and gets intimate with, the devil, or is he real? There's a scene that indicates that his night-time visits might be real, but as Grace is closely guarded at all times and no-one notices anything out of the ordinary, this is far from clear.
If this is about female empowerment, it doesn't convince because Grace's Herculean recovery from the relentless and staggered punishments she receives are preposterous. She suffers nothing more than a slight limp which doesn't impede her overpowering various powerful people and freeing prisoners. At the end, I wondered - jokingly - if she was going to swim across the lengthy moat as well. Blow me, she did! An alternative view is that she was indeed willed to survive by the demon, which would make sense, but doesn't do a lot to underline her own strength.
The torture she endures never quite makes the us hide behind our hands because we're spared truly graphic scenes - but we're left in doubt exactly what will happen to her, as it is often described in loving detail by terrific villains Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee) and The Squire (Stephen Waddington).
This is a 'Witchfinder General'-type film given the 2021 'final girl' treatment. Whilst Grace looks every inch a modern day lass and her physical prowess under the circumstances is ludicrous, I had a good time with this. It's colourful, has some terrific imagery and displays some committed acting. My score is 7 out of 10.
Visually, this is superb. There's a Dario Argento flavour to the rich colour canvas used by director Neil Marshall (who co-wrote this with leading actress Charlotte Kirk). Things are briskly paced too, sometimes too much during important scenes (the Squire's lacing of one character's drink in a fairly crucial bar scene, for one; blink and you'll miss it). The 106 minute running time never stands still for long.
Despite this, some explanations might have helped my appreciation. Does heroine Grace hallucinate that she sees, and gets intimate with, the devil, or is he real? There's a scene that indicates that his night-time visits might be real, but as Grace is closely guarded at all times and no-one notices anything out of the ordinary, this is far from clear.
If this is about female empowerment, it doesn't convince because Grace's Herculean recovery from the relentless and staggered punishments she receives are preposterous. She suffers nothing more than a slight limp which doesn't impede her overpowering various powerful people and freeing prisoners. At the end, I wondered - jokingly - if she was going to swim across the lengthy moat as well. Blow me, she did! An alternative view is that she was indeed willed to survive by the demon, which would make sense, but doesn't do a lot to underline her own strength.
The torture she endures never quite makes the us hide behind our hands because we're spared truly graphic scenes - but we're left in doubt exactly what will happen to her, as it is often described in loving detail by terrific villains Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee) and The Squire (Stephen Waddington).
This is a 'Witchfinder General'-type film given the 2021 'final girl' treatment. Whilst Grace looks every inch a modern day lass and her physical prowess under the circumstances is ludicrous, I had a good time with this. It's colourful, has some terrific imagery and displays some committed acting. My score is 7 out of 10.