Amulet                 4 stars

Besides giving us a deadly pandemic 2020 has also brought us a new wave of horror movies made by women. This year we had Relic, Shirley and She Dies Tomorrow, all made by women directors showing us they can be as creepy as men. Now we have Amulet, by actor Romola Garai in her first effort as writer/director. In this slow moving horror movie, we follow, Tomaz, a homeless ex-soldier who finds himself in a hospital in London. A Catholic nun (Imelda Staunton) takes pity on him and arranges for him to live in a house where a young woman, Magda, is caring for her aged mother. We see Tomaz doing small home repair jobs in the very rundown house and being fed great meals by Magda. It’s hard to place the period of the setting. It could be anytime in the eighties or nineties. Periodically, there are flashbacks to his time serving in a foreign army where he sees himself as a protector of a woman in the woods. Things take a long time to develop, but eventually he makes his way up to the attic with Magda to see the mother that requires so much care. She turns out to be a wretched horribly disfigured being in great pain who turns on Magda when given a chance. Suffice it to say this mother is not human at all, but something supernatural. Naturally, there are other secrets that Magda and the house hold that are gradually revealed, just as we expect to see in a well written horror movie! Tomaz then sees himself as a sort of savior who must free Magda of this prison, but he will find out that evil can be found in unexpected places and what happens when it is not properly dealt with! This being a horror movie written by a woman we get an interesting take on things to be most afraid of including a view on what childbirth is like! (Hint: It’s bloody and painful.) If you can make it through the first half of the movie you will appreciate the eventual payoff.