User reviews

Enjoyable movie but no idea what it was about. The acting was very good but storyline was all over the place. No real start middle or end just a lot of good scenes stuck together then it ends. Worth a watch but expect to come out of it confused.

First let me say that the actors in this film are superb and do a wonderful job with the material at hand. The problem is the material. The plot is muddled, obscure and makes no sense at times. The atmospherics and setting are straight out of The Witch but only serve to remind you how tightly plotted that movie was and how loosely plotted this one is. I give the film 5 points for the acting, worth seeing for that alone.

Horror tales set in those dark times of the past - away from today's cellular communication and wiki-page info that is more mundane than arcane - have a special cast of magic to them. The pall of the unknown all the more heightened as science surrenders to folklore. Where witches have more answers than priests. The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw initially presents such a time. When superstition was fearful and deadly. Yet the cauldron of this movie never fully brews the right spell.

A religious sect, separated from the Church of Ireland, establishes a settlement in North America. The community has survived until a recent famine has struck the land save for the bountiful farm of Agatha Earnshaw. As such, she is dubbed a witch by the suspicious townspeople. The kicker being, of course, that she is. Along with her coven, Agatha's daughter Audrey is raised in secret in order to fulfill... something. A curse? A prophecy? An end to the community's sheltered existence? This point is never realized. Nor are her exact origins - or Agatha's, or this coven's - revealed.

Audrey, full of teen spirit, witnesses a verbal attack against her mother and decides to take vengeance. She targets her dark arts at the Dwyers, who are mourning the loss of their child. Other than amplifying the Dwyer family's misery, the culmination of her curse is wholly unrealized and unnecessarily open-ended. Audrey is all unwarranted anger and unfilled destiny, but she pouts beautifully.

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw looks good. Actually, better than it should. Director Thomas Robert Lee builds an interesting world; one that is familiar, but also two steps over into the gray mist. Life is skewed and complicated here; this is not a simpler time as expected. Lee cleverly draws in on the mystery of young Audrey Earnshaw and her mother Agatha, yet he also ignores the logical lives of the other townspeople. When it comes time for their role in the play, Lee, who also writes the movie, is so deep in the lore that the cohesiveness of the plot is swept away like straw from the barn.

The Curse... might look sharp but any occult bite is sorely dulled.

Audrey is the key focus of the movie, and actress Jessica Reynolds shines. Her contrasting dark hair and alabaster skin is akin to Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth and plays in a role full of potential. Likewise, Catherine Walker as Agatha, dutifully portrays the opposite: a life unrealized and the weight of her burden. The rest of the townspeople are a mess of Irish brogues and cliche ignorance.

Again, The Curse... looks sharp and new; a contrast perhaps to what Lee might have wanted. The sepia desaturation is a nice touch, but full-on black-and-white would have been menacingly clever.

Pioneer attire aside, The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw is set in 1973. This movie might be more reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village than Robert Egger's The Witch, yet never hits the mystery or mystique of either movie. Instead, The Curse... is a creepy concept full of haunting potential.

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw had the potential to register an indie voice to a specific sub-genre. Walker and Reynolds not only make a fantastically rich mother-daughter duo, but shine as characters who deserve more. The plot is a humiliating burning stake of its own with unnecessarily open questions. Audrey's origin story aside, setting the movie in 1973 is both baffling and purposeless. Lee seemingly wants to make his own personal Hereditary yet is shackled to mediocrity. For a 93-minute movie, The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw suffers from its own want with long, dry spells that are anything but bewitching.

This movie had the vibe of the movie the Witch. It was not that at all. What a terrible waste of time. This movie gives you nothing. You wait and wait and it disappoints horribly. Would not recommend.

...Fire burn and caldron bubble. If you enjoy this your mind must be rubble. Your walls of reality starting to tumble. Make haste at once, get away from this stumble. Before you're turned into an irritating nubble.

Yet another entry to the 'make it up as you go along' genre. The only curse is the one that stole 90 minutes of your lifeforce. No room on this broom, or cats or bats or hats - call yourself a witch indeed.

The actors are good but the script is poor and boring. it is a waste of time

The atmospherics and setting are straight out of "The Witch" for me. The film strikes an excellent balance between slow-burning dread and gore, but the background story needs more exploration. In the end this film leaves a lot of questions.

It's downbeat and slow-paced but very strong in the cinematography and acting departments. The story is not the most coherent but it's sometimes refreshing to not have everything explained in detail.

If you liked The Witch, this could well appeal as it has some similarities but personally, I feel this movie is a lot better.

The only thing i liked about this movie is it made me sit full time and watch it even though i dont understand what the curse is or for what reason it's inflicted on storyline is like a nice hot potato but totally mashed at the end for nothing.

Saw this at FrightFest 2020 (online festival) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The performances are captivating, the cinematography is beautiful and the gore & violence really pack a punch. It draws comparisons to The Witch and The Nightingale bit is a very strong entry in to the genre. It could have maybe gone a little further in places but overall this is a brilliant piece of haunting storytelling.

Storyline was fine but there was no explanation on why this even happened. And how, and then you leave the movie confused. Acting was good.

I do not recommend unless you have nothin else to watch

The film had good cinematography and wardrobes. The filming sets were really good. From a distance, It felt like a sequel to A24 Studio's Witch. It even has a relatively new actress called Jessica Reynolds that has the same eyes wide-apart je ne sais quoi like Anya Taylor-Joy. They even threw in some naked cult people in the periphery like Ari Aster's Hereditary and Midsommar. Both Hannah Emily Anderson and Catherine Walker are in it, both great actresses. It seriously had everything needed to make it a very good film.

But what happened? Why isn't this a good film? Unfortunately, the script and dialog were dog s__t. The acting and stage direction is terrible. The sound track is terrible - doesn't help build suspense or tension. In a cast with good Irish actors, Jared Abrahamson accent sticks out like a sore thumb. His acting is even worse. The film can't seem to muster tension, suspense or scares which is kinda essential for a horror film . When the "shocking" scenes appear, it feels like, meh. Jessica Reynolds acting seems more like that of a rebellious 12-year-old boy.

Man, what a disappointment this film has been. They had most of what was needed to make a really great slow burn horror, instead it turns out into a poor WOKE revenge film.

In a sect-like cristian-religiouse community somewhere they speak english, with a funny accent, unlike the typical american sound.its fundamentalist-cristianity and a witch hunt from start to end, and a lot of death in its path, and you can feel a pinch of devilism in the wake of every shift of location.

its a strange film, made on pure strength and no budget at all, and as long as the piece is written and directed by the same name it has some personal mark to it.

but the production aint bad, its just that we could have been given some clues to what why when and howcome witchcraft came to this community, and howcome everybody became so extremely fragile.

so its more drama than horror and more mystery than crime, and its completely empty on comedy and real love. but blood and murder there is, so i guess ,even though im a grumpy old man, that i can give a small recommend.

Beautifully photographed, well acted and atmospheric. BUT A slow start for which I fast forwarded: i think the editor was a bit too enamoured of the cinematography. As the story developed, i began to watch without fast forwarding. Most of the time I spent wondering which of the women was which; the rest of the time was spent wondering why is that happening and what does it have to do with the daughter. Ultimately, it was unsatisfying as there appeared to be no sense to it, just a series of events that were unexplained - unless it was just senseless sadism and unrelated deformations. At the start i thought it might be events caused by chemical pollution, then it became clear something supernatural was going on - but why never became clear to me. As far as i am concerned, the story was a waste of good talent and time.

Just watched it with 3 other people at fantasia film festival. Everyone had differing opinions. I personally think it was good, though some of the segments were a bit confusing.

My girlfriend loved it. Her parents hated it.

But the cinematography is beautiful, the story engaging and acting good.

This film intrigued me as I thoroughly enjoyed "The Witch" and "The Village" -- both of which (no pun intended) this film tries to borrow from ... it's a typical film where the same person writes, directs, and produces their own movie (which *sounds* good in their head as "that's a movie I'd watch").

The film states that it's (supposedly) set in 1973, but the setting seems 100 years -- though vaguely 17th to 18th centuries, in that they wear outdated clothes, houses hand-built, they use horses with carts (or at least the mum does: presumably everyone else just walks, as we see no other horses.

Sure, there are some "intriguing" aspects of the film, but 99% of it doesn't gel, the plot is overly convoluted, and with both the genuine and "Americanized" Irish accents (there isn't a "subtitles" option) drowned out by overbearing music, you don't have the chance to either follow or understand what's going on with this film.And the 2 elements at the end only add to the "what the?" ideas presented: Audrey gets into a pick-up truck (looking so much too modern for 1973, more 2020), and the pregnant woman gives birth to "something" ... but you don't even get a glance / hint.

Trying tobe but failing considerably -- all with 0% resemblance: The Witch / The Village / Rosemary's Baby

Living alone with her mother, a woman living in secret from their devout neighbors finally grows tired of their sheltered lifestyle and takes it upon herself to right the wrongful treatment of the villagers towards them, setting off a chain-reaction of torment and sorrow against everyone else.

There was quite a lot to enjoy with this one. Among it's brightest aspects is the wholly engaging and chilling setup here that provides plenty of fun background. The setup involving the settlers coming and starting up their community only to face severe hardships despite her success creates a great starting point here, focusing on the villagers' paranoia and isolation about the disparity between their outcomes. Once we know the reason for the different nature between them, this growing realization provides plenty to like here. As well, there's a lot to enjoy once it plays the measured antics involving the series of witchcraft accusations. Starting with the plan to infiltrate the house against her mother's knowledge and setting into motion the first stage of the plan by the corruption of the wife before leaving unnoticed, this is a fine way to start this one as it's seemingly innocuous to the unaware yet still quite chilling in concept. Done with the slowly-growing curses affecting the rest of the villagers from the spoiled food and unnatural physical changes, this part of the film manages to get a highly enjoyable atmosphere of dread building up throughout. When it comes to the final pay-off of this early build-up, there's quite a bit to like here. As the tragedies grow more intense, this one goes into quite a dark territory involving the daughters' growing ire and independence which causes more tragedy and despair around the villagers. When it all explodes in the finale with a fun and enjoyable series of scenes showing how their curse begins overtaking and corrupting everyone until the big confrontation with not just her but the rest of the coven, this one scores incredibly well as the chilling and brutal scenes end this on a high note. It could've generated more explanations for everything but that's the only true flaw.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and Full Nudity.

Such promise and then confusion and lack of clarity. Ok, I see that the eclipse is important, but why? The beginning shows the food situation, but why? We jump into the twentieth century, but why? Why ask why? Just watch the movie and enjoy the good acting, but the story line needs either a series or a longer movie imho! Don't you? Maybe I'm a Dullard and maybe I'm a simpleton, but horror and supernatural plots certainly need explaining, don't you agree? Thoughts? Pax and amore, Murf