My quick rating – 3.9/10. The Banished opens with a promising dose of mystery — a panicked woman named Grace (Meg Eloise-Clarke) bolts upright in her tent, screaming for a missing man named Mr. Green (Leighton Cardno). The forest around her looks lush, peaceful even, but the unease creeps in fast. It’s a strong start, one that hints at folk horror tension and psychological dread. Unfortunately, the film never quite lives up to that opening.
What follows is a slow and often confusing trek through the wilderness — both literal and emotional — as Grace searches for her brother David (Gautier de Fontaine). The story leans on flashbacks to explain how she ended up there, but instead of adding depth, they end up bogging the movie down. Nearly 50 minutes crawl by before we even catch up to that opening scene again, and by then, much of the tension has leaked out. The constant back-and-forth timeline feels less like clever storytelling and more like filler for a narrative that doesn’t have enough forward momentum.
Visually, the film has its moments. The forest setting is atmospheric, and there’s an eerie stillness that occasionally works in its favor. The cinematography captures the isolation well — lots of static shots, lingering on trees, shadows, and Grace’s anxious breathing. There’s some unsettling imagery scattered throughout, the kind that almost jolts the movie awake, but not quite. By the end, we’re given a quick montage of the film’s most striking moments, which unintentionally highlights how few memorable visuals there actually were.
Hints of deeper themes float to the surface, like a vague reference to an abusive father during Grace and David’s reunion, but it’s so underdeveloped that it barely registers. If the film was trying to say something about trauma, family, or the darkness that binds people together, it gets lost in the murk of slow pacing and restrained storytelling.
By the finale, The Banished seems to circle around an idea that “everything is for family,” but without a coherent emotional core or real plot to support it, that message feels hollow. Instead, we’re left with an atmospheric film of mood and suggestion — long on tone, short on substance. It’s a movie that wants to haunt, but mostly just lingers.
In the end, The Banished is the kind of folk horror that mistakes quiet for profound. While it looks decent and has flashes of something eerie beneath the surface, it’s too meandering, too static, and too unsure of its own purpose to really stick the landing.
Great review! Since I love folk horror, I’ll definitely check it out.