Estranged (2015)

There's no place like home. Apparently.

Estranged

From director Adam Levins (Population Zero) comes 2015 Brit horror, Estranged. When January has an accident while travelling in Europe - where she has been for six years - she is returned home, memory-less to her family to recuperate. Travelling with new boyfriend Callum, her family takes the two in, but with some apprehension. Something is afoot.

From the very moment January (Amy Manson - Once Upon a Time) pulls up outside the family estate there is clearly something wrong. But we, the viewer, are not let in on the secret. The family, led by patriarch Albert (James Cosmo - Game of Thrones) don't seem happy to see her. They're cold. Something is odd. And January believes that may have been why she left all those years ago. Perhaps the family are not loving, after all.

Happy families.

It's very clever in its story telling. This is slow burn horror at its best. There are no jump scares here. No cats leaping from cupboards. Just a sense of terror rising. And towards the end of the movie it goes dark.

Pitch. Black.

By far the standout performances come from Cosmo and Manson. The direction is solid. And after the movie breaks into the second half, the tension breaks, and the movie is terrifying.

It's new, and different to see a horror like this. And it's well worth seeing.