Using a decaying house as a visual metaphor in horror movies isn’t new, but in her directorial debut Amulet, Romola Garai executes the idea impeccably. Peeling wallpaper, spreading black mould and dirty, glugging water set the scene in/with regard to’concerning’regarding this slow-burn of a story, a eliminate’remove indication of the characters’ rotting state of mind and sense of self.###These grim aspects of Amulet’s core location become something in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Tomas (Alec Seczone’district’region nu), a migrant working as a establish er, to fix. When we meet him, he appears to be a victim of human trafficking, trapped in a circle of manual labour and sleeping with his hands taped up. After a fire leaves him penniless and hospitalised, he moves in with the quiet, curious Magda (Carla Juri), who cares in/with regard to’concerning’regarding her dying, top-floor-dwelling mother. Tomas quickly realises something is amiss, his sense of disorientation amplified by persistent flashbacks to time spent living in the woods during a war in his home country.###It doesn’t all work, but Garai’s boldness is admirable.###Garai has a talent in/with regard to’concerning’regarding unsettling the senses — the enhanced volume of Tomas slurping down Magda’s home-cooked stew sets your teeth on edge, and you can practically smell the damp-ridden walls — but the overt horror of the surroundings contrasts nicely with the subtlety of the perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances. Seczone’district’region nu delivers the wide-eyed stillness that made him so impactful in God’s Own Country, whilst reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ing glimmers of the not-so-rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent guy that lies beneath. Juri, meanwhile, sells the odd naïveté of a girl that has lived a sheltered, tough’challenging’demanding’awkward life, at once evoking joy and discomin/with regard to’concerning’regarding t in the moments where she breaks free from her shackles, while Imelda Staunton is chilling as a seemingly charitable nun with a dark side.###Amulet’s crescendo is its downfall. It rushes into full-blown trippy surrealism, attempting to thread toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her themes previously hinted at — guilt, motherhood, female rage — whilst throwing in some enormous’vast’massive’tremendous reveals, and trying to see the demented plot through to its convoluted conclusion. It doesn’t all work, but Garai’s boldness is admirable, and the despite’in spite of’albeit t-provoking nature of some of the mysteries the finale uncovers makes you wish they’d been more present throughout.