Why should Robert Eggers have all the historical fun? Director Justin Denton has unearthed a pretty obscure historical practice that (apparently) was in use in England, Scotland and Wales through the 19th century: The estate of a wealthy decedent could pay someone of lower means to eat a meal off the body of the decedent, thereby transferring the sins of the dead person to the payee. The rub, of course, is that in a Christian society, the payee not only carried the burden of sin into the next world, but now was something of a social pariah in this world as well.
The moral economy of this practice would seem to be rather rich and interesting. And the fact that Denton chose to create a film around that practice deserves more than a little credit. "CSE" is not just another haunted house flick. The two primary actors in the film are Carter Shimp ("Rick Malone") and Antonette Morro ("Elizabeth Laidlaw"). Malone plays a young construction worker who just happens to land a temporary gig at the palatial Chicago-area estate of "George Drayton." Malone harms himself on the job site, and it is Morro who escorts Malone into the mansion to clean himself up. Malone proves himself to be something less than 100% honest; but this only serves to intrigue the dying Drayton. Drayton makes Malone the titular offer; and it is Morro who subsequently shepherds Malone through both the terms of the "deal" and the consequences of that deal.
So far, so good; and the first 1/3 of CSE is quite engaging. Where matters start to falter is in what follows. The "consequences" of the deal are often literal and religious: literal hauntings of sins past that, in turn, cause Malone to unravel in somewhat predictable ways (drinking, etc). However, with one exception, it is not clear what those sins are or why they would cause Malone to become increasingly unmoored psychologically. There are also several sub-plots that are given only cursory treatment: Malone's lapsed religious faith; his relationship to his (now deceased) mother; and his relationship to a former girlfriend "Tanya." The last of these would seem to be particularly important in view of what transpires in the last part of the film (though, again, it is difficult to piece together).
All of this is to say is that I was expecting a more metaphorical and "post-Christian" treatment of sin eating (if we may call it that). The Japanese kaidan and onryo films, for example, famously use ghosts and hauntings as only slightly veiled metaphors for exploring the dire moral consequences of fraud, revenge, infidelity and so forth. The central moral element in CSE - a devil's bargain of worldly power in return for one's sense of self - would seem to be similarly rich as a thematic matter. But the consequences of that bargain are too often engaged as the monster-of-the-week variety.
Bottom line is that this is a very well-made, well-acted movie. I just wish the writing and thematic focus had been a bit sharper.
