105 min | PG-13 | August 26, 2022 | Screen Gems
Evie answers a DNA test and finds a family she never knew. The rich English relatives invite her to a wedding at a country estate. She should have read the guest list before saying yes.
Evie Alexander is a struggling artist and caterer who takes a DNA test and discovers a wealthy English branch of her family. An invitation arrives. A lavish wedding at a remote estate, hosted by relatives who treat her like the long-lost heir she is. The film dresses itself as a Cinderella fantasy about a working-class woman of color welcomed into old-money privilege. Underneath the gowns and the candlelight, it is a Dracula story, and it tips its hand early enough that the audience arrives at the secret long before Evie does.
Nathalie Emmanuel plays Evie with warmth and a grounded skepticism that the script never lets her fully use. She is charming in the early scenes and convincing as a woman flattered into ignoring the warning signs. Thomas Doherty plays the host Walter De Ville with practiced seduction and a smirk that announces the twist hours ahead of the reveal. Sean Pertwee plays the butler Mr. Fields with cold menace and gives the estate its only genuine sense of threat. Stephanie Corneliussen and Alana Boden circle Evie as Viktoria and Lucy with predatory politeness, but the screenplay treats them as set dressing rather than characters.
Director Jessica M. Thompson stages the estate with handsome production design and lets cinematographer Autumn Eakin drown the interiors in amber candlelight that flatters the gothic mood. Blair Butler’s script keeps the tone light when it needs to commit to dread. The editing rushes the back half, trading the slow-build tension of the dinner-party scenes for a rushed third act that abandons the romance entirely. The PG-13 restraint sands the horror down to jump scares and bloodless menace. The film looks expensive and moves like it is afraid of its own premise.
This is a gothic thriller that cannot decide whether it wants to court the viewer or scare them. It builds a seductive trap and then forgets to make either the seduction or the trap frightening. Emmanuel deserves the version of this movie that trusts its actress and its source material. Thompson delivers a polished package that mistakes atmosphere for tension and reveals its hand so early that the dread has nowhere left to go.