The Nest (2020) is not a horror movie but it feels like one. It’s like The Shining but if The Overlook Hotel was haunted by the spirit of Reaganomics. Set during the 1980s, the film charts an American family placed under pressure by the father’s plan for a new wealthy life in his homeland, the UK. Moving into a countryside mansion, the darkened rooms and creaking doors feel like a gothic set ready to envelop them all. Carrie Coon is the wife and mother, a horse trainer, who goes along with her husband Jude Law’s plan to get back into stocks and trading. Then as the cracks start to show, the movie allows them to dial into their strengths as performers – Law’s oily charm underwritten by a gnawing hunger for status, Coon’s intelligence and resolve growing into defiant frustration. The children are believable and well drawn, and their own character arcs show the ways they act out or short circuit under this gnawing mood. Eventually, there’s a long night of catharsis, which also put me in the mind of classic European New Wave dramas, just with a few more chilly tunes by The Cure played in the distance. Directed by Sean Durkin (previous film, Martha Marcy May Marlene), I was into the movie by the first ten minutes with regards to his placement of the camera, the way it would slowly zoom into Coon as she trained horses; I just felt I was in good hands. Matyas Erdely was the cinematographer; there is a clear style and visual palette that helps contribute to the overall tone. The score by Richard Reed Perry (of The Arcade Fire) also helps with the unsettling mood of the drama. So far, one of my strong favourites of the year (even though it came out last year with the British Film Festival; it received a release earlier this year in Perth cinemas). Available to rent/purchase on iTunes. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 