She Will (2022)

Alice Krige and the beautiful Speyside scenery of Scotland do stand out, but otherwise this is a rather unremarkable mystery. She is an ageing actress who sets off to this remote part of the kingdom with her nurse "Desi" (Kota Eberhardt) in tow, too. Once there though, she finds that she is not as alone as she had anticipated. The house is populated by others seeking a bit of rest and recuperation - led by an all but unrecognisable "Tirador" (Rupert Everett). Fortunately she has her cabin to decamp to - to be alone. There is a great deal of charcoal around - and it turns out that some of that may date back to the time when witches were burned at the stake here; indeed soon she is having dreams that depict these unfortunate victims and worse still, a primordial gloop seems to follow her around as she begins to levitate from her bed. As the film now rather glacially progresses, we discover that she was initially discovered by the soon to be knighted director "Eric Hathbourne" (Malcolm McDowell), and we learn that he was maybe a bit less than scrupulous with her as a young woman. Her new location seems to be able to empower her to get into his mind, his thoughts - and she might just, finally, be able to wreak her revenge. Krige is good. She offers us a slightly Norma Desmond-style presentation, but McDowell and Everett feature all to sparingly. Eberhardt has a little more by way of a sub-plot, but that peters out before an ending that was rushed and really quite underwhelming. It's a well stitched together feature, the production standards are high and the drones are used to beautiful effect in the Cairngorms - but the film itself is neither here nor there. Glad I watched it on a big screen, but it can easily wait til it gets a television outing, in my view.