The Banishing

In 1930s England, a young reverend named Linus moves with his wife, Marianne, and their daughter into a grand house provided by the church for his new parish. The previous occupant is said to have gone mad, killed his wife and then himself, though the family is kept in the dark about this history. Strange events follow, and the clergyman at first dismisses the warnings of a local occult investigator named Harry Price. Marianne's grip on her sanity begins to slip, and it becomes clear that a malevolent presence has set its sights on the family. Christopher Smith directs from a screenplay by Ray Bogdanovich, Dean Lines and David Beton, with Jessica Brown Findlay, John Heffernan, John Lynch and Sean Harris in the lead roles.

The film is a British horror production, the seventh feature in Smith's directing career, arriving between Detour and Consecration. Its critical reception, at 5.9 out of 10 across 60 reviews, was more favourable than its audience scores: on IMDb it holds 4.5 out of 10 from around 3,100 votes, and on TMDB 5.1 out of 10 from 167 votes. Those figures point to a film that drew modest viewer interest and mixed responses.