Film Review – The Reckoning

It’s surprising to see director Neil Marshall back behind a camera so soon after tanking his shot to revive the world of “Hellboy” for the big screen. The 2019 release was mostly terrible, highlighting Marshall’s shortcomings as a helmer who’s spent his career chasing violent, bloody stories of monstrous conflict and war. He’s a genre guy, and now he’s trying to make do with a limited budget for “The Reckoning,” which is something of a vanity project for Marshall, collaborating with actress Charlotte Kirk, aiming to turn his girlfriend into a major action star. It’s a strange project all-around, trying to conjure a period world of plague horrors and “witch finder” monologuing, also delivering sexuality and scenes of torture. Marshall attempts to bring bigness to Kirk’s presence, but the feature is woefully small and silly, offering a community theater vibe for material that’s looking to be merciless and dramatically thunderous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com