The Guardian – DVD Review

Exorcist director branches out

Release Date: 17 October 2011
1990 | 18 | 89 minutes | £15.99
Distributor: Second Sight Films
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Jenny Seagrove, Carey Lowell, Dwier Brown

It may be directed by William “The Exorcist” Friedkin, but you won’t hear Mark Kermode banging on about this evil-nanny horror – with good reason.

It’s based on a script by British horror writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch), which Friedkin substantially reworked. The anti-Poppins of the piece, Camilla (a clothes-shy Jenny Seagrove) is a baby-stealing manifestation of an evil tree entity.

It has its moments, principally a bonkers final show-down in which the baby’s father takes on the tree – which bleeds when cut – armed with a chainsaw. Unfortunately, it’s hard to take a movie about an evil tree seriously, and a spoilerific prologue which shows exactly what happened to Camilla’s last young charge saps it of any mystery. Plenty of bark, then, but not much bite.

Extras:

New interviews with Friedkin, Volk and Seagrove.

Calvin Baxter