RESURRECTION: Out of the Past

The sophomore feature from writer-director Andrew Semans, Resurrection stars Rebecca Hall as a woman fighting back against her past abuser when he re-enters her life, keen to pick up where he left off. Deeply disturbing in an understated way, Resurrection is a psychological horror film that truly gets instead your head and, like the worst memories its protagonist cannot forget, refuses to leave.

The Limits of Control

Margaret (Hall) is a single mother and accomplished biologist who thrives on being in control. Everything about her day-to-day life is perfectly calibrated to make her feel safe and secure, right down to the fitness routine that ensures her body is in peak physical condition. Her (married) boyfriend can only get as close as she will allow him, while her daughter, Abbie (Grace Kaufman)—on the verge of striking out on her own and going to college—constantly fights back against her mother’s intense overprotectiveness, often to no avail.

There’s a good reason for the almost obsessive form of discipline that Margaret brings to her life. When she was young, barely even eighteen, she was groomed and abused by a sadistic older man who forced her to prove she was worthy of his love by performing what he called “kindnesses,” such as holding physically demanding poses for hours at a time. When Margaret succeeded, he would shower her with praise for her strength. But when she became pregnant with his child, his behavior became more and more nightmarish, until Margaret finally managed to flee. To have escaped his clutches and taken control of her own life gives Margaret a sense of pride that others cannot understand, as she has never told anyone what she went through.

For more than two decades, Margaret has pushed these dark memories to the rear of her mind. But when that man, David (Tim Roth), abruptly re-appears in her life, the horrors of her past are once again front and center. David claims to be able to reunite Margaret with the lost son she gave birth to so many years ago; all she has to do are some kindnesses, such as walk to work barefoot or hold a pose in the park for hours in the middle of the night. Blaming herself for David’s return and willing to do whatever it takes to shield Abbie from him—not to mention potentially see her lost son again—Margaret must struggle between the temptation to succumb to David’s manipulations and the desire to exorcize him from her life once and for all.

Drag Me to Hell

David’s attempts to reignite his toxic relationship with Margaret are all the more horrifying because of how subtle and seemingly harmless they are to others. He meets her in public places and, for the most part, sounds calm and rational when he speaks, making her vehement reactions appear over-the-top to those who don’t know any better. When Margaret attempts to report David to the police, they tell her there’s nothing they can do because he hasn’t broken any laws; the ways in which he menaces her have been specifically calculated to ensure that the only way she can fight back is to take matters into her own hands.

Margaret’s attempts at vigilante justice have mixed results, mostly because deep down inside there is part of her that wants to believe David, that wants to be reunited with the son that was taken from her, that is willing to do what he says if he can make that happen. Yet above all, it is her protective instinct as a mother that drives her, even as her seemingly unhinged behavior ends up alienating the one person who matters the most to her: Abbie, who sees her mother’s behavior (and her unwillingness to seek help) as increasingly dangerous to them both.

Fully embracing the emotional and physical demands of the role, Rebecca Hall gives what may be her most powerful performance yet in Resurrection—no small feat in a career that includes standout roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, and Professor Marston & the Wonder Women. Fierce and fantastic, she brings an innate strength to the character of Margaret, ensuring that she never loses our empathy even as she engages in repeated acts of self-sabotage for the purported sake of saving her children from David’s clutches.

In one particularly brilliant scene, Hall delivers an uninterrupted seven-minute monologue detailing the brutality she suffered at David’s hands to an intern who she has been advising. She conveys such horrors without any histrionics; rather, her blunt delivery carries with it a sense of relief as she divulges this information to another for the first time in her life. (That the intern is so shocked that she thinks Margaret is making it up tells you everything you need to know about how disturbing this monologue is, especially the way Hall delivers it.) Hearing Hall describe the violence—both physical and emotional—of her relationship with David is far more impactful than if Semans had subjected the audience to actually watching it; instead, we’re able to see the residual pain that she carries with her, and the lasting effects of the trauma.

While Hall is raw and ravaged in her performance, Roth is magnificently restrained, which makes his portrayal of David all the more horrifying. When he grips his stomach and tells Margaret that he is carrying their child within him, he says it so matter-of-factly—as if to believe otherwise would be a sign of true insanity—that you can instantly understand how he was able to maintain such a level of control over Margaret for so long. Even in the film’s more surreal moments, David feels all too real. He’s a monster that lurks in broad daylight and kills with compliments and coercion; he’s a monster you know, and may have even encountered yourself.

Resurrection doesn’t have a lot of visual flair, but it doesn’t need to when it has Hall and Roth sparring in scene after scene. And Kaufman holds her own alongside them, allowing Abbie’s grief over her helplessness to stop her mother to be front and center in everything she does. The film’s conclusion is delightfully ambiguous, a fitting ending to a story that reminds us how messy and complicated the struggle to overcome past trauma truly is.

Conclusion:

A performance-driven movie packed with quietly devastating moments, Resurrection should not be overlooked among the great horror films of this year—nor should Hall’s performance be overlooked when the Oscars roll around.

What do you think? What are some of your favorite Rebecca Hall performances? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Resurrection opened in theaters in the U.S. on July 29, 2022 and will be released on-demand on August 5, 2022. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home in November 2022.

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