She Who Must Burn (2015) Review
She Who Must Burn opens with a nurse asking a gentleman waiting silently in reception, whether he has an appointment. He doesn’t answer. The nurse informs the doctor that there is a man waiting without an appointment. The doctor comes out to the reception area and is shot dead by the unknown man. The man, anti-abortion protester Abraham Baarker (James Wilson), is arrested and sent to prison.
Abraham is the patriarch to a family of a religious evangelists, the Baarkers, who believe themselves to be God’s chosen ones, put on this Earth to cleanse the land. The Baarkers have a lot of sway in their local town and are seen as having more influence and power than even the police. The Sheriff (Jim Francis) does whatever he can not to get involved with the family, preferring to turn a blind eye to their atrocities. However, Angela (Sarah Smyth), a former nurse at a Planned Parenthood clinic, will not stand for any nonsense from the Baarkers, or their followers. She continues to offer help to women following the forced closure of the clinic by the local government. The fanatics, now led by preacher Jeremiah (Shane Twerdun), believe that Angela is convincing women into having abortions and this has riled them. Matters escalate when Jeremiah threatens Angela into revealing where his spouse (Jewel Staite) is hiding, but Angela is having none of it. She tells him that she knows that he raped and beat his wife. Jeremiah sees that it was his right to do so to his wife, as The Lord told him it was the right time to have a baby, and he won’t have a woman, any woman standing up to him as he believes women have no say in the name of The Lord. In Jeremiah’s eyes Angela needs punishing thus setting up the rest of the film, seeing an already tense situation escalate even further out of control.
Canadian auteur director Larry Kent (The Bitter Ash, The Hamster Cage) sets the tone for She Who Must Burn right from the start. There’s going to be no moments of light relief here and no surprises either, however that is not to the film’s detriment, that’s the point, the horror in She Who Must Burn comes from knowing how it is all going to end.
Social media is awash with damning comments about fanatical Christians saying and doing whatever they like in the name of The Lord with little or no moral conscience. As a gay man I am appalled at the double standards such self-righteous folk exhibit so it didn’t take long for Kent’s film gets under right under my skin. Co-written with Kent by Shane Twerdun, who plays leader Jeremiah Baarker, She Who Must Burn is both relevant and frightening. However it’s not frightening in the sense of freaking you out with ‘boo’ moments, the horror here is in the mirroring the morals of religious fanatics in the press.
Religious fanatics have been commonplace in film, most recently in the equally excellent The Sacrament, but never as under-the-skin realistic as they are here. The occasional reference to there being a storm coming is overplayed just a smidgeon but does lead to a more satisfying and less downbeat ending than one would assume the film would play out to.
Kent’s film isn’t about being entertaining, it’s about provoking a strong reaction and is recommended for doing so. There’s no boogeyman, no dodgy horror franchise in the making here, She Who Must Burn is about unsettling you and making a point. I was riled up throughout, wanting to punch the screen. The film has violent moments however it’s the overall feel of the film that sticks with you long after viewing. Recommended.
Trailer
