GENRE | Rebecca Hall Spirals – 'Resurrection' x Fantasia 2022

"I'm the only one who can see you."

Fantasia International Film Festival

Rebecca Hall is so striking as an otherwise confident businesswoman spiralling into a total and complete emotional breakdown when a controlling and abusive ex-boyfriend, played by a deceptively calm Tim Roth, unexpectedly reappears in her life. Resurrection is a terrifying and deeply unsettling psychological thriller told carefully by writer/director Andrew Semans through character development.

Hall's tour de force performance as a disturbed single mother anchors an increasingly strange film where the full scope of her character Margaret’s past relationship trauma is deliberately revealed in a lengthy monologue that leads to a truly surreal climax. It’s a powerful yet disorientating journey only made possible by such a committed dramatic turn. Unfortunately, Margaret's behaviour seems much crazier than any perceived threat by Roth's manipulative cad after his sudden reappearance.

Much of Resurrection feels like a strange experience despite its familiar setting and universal story about a woman fighting back against a gaslighting aggressor in a former partner. Hall's ability to tap into an emotionally troubling well of fear and desperation makes you fully buy into Margaret's jarring motivations despite never actually seeing the true terror she recounts so vividly. We believe her fear is real purely through the power of the performance.

Resurrection screened at both the 2022 Rupture film festival at the VIFF Centre and the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. It's also available through digital and video on demand.


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