THE POWER (REVIEW)

Dir. Corinna Faith

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

THE POWER is a 70s set period piece that really knuckles down to an era where subtlty was key. Each moment driven by its lead characters whose carried burdens transcended screen and were felt on the audience. THE OMEN, THE EXORCIST and many an episode of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR all had their fears felt well before the evil was screened and THE POWER really echoes that sense of dread.

Led by a charismatic if also mysterious character of Val (Rose Williams) a young nurse forced to work the night shift in a crumbling hospital as striking miners switch off the power across Britain. But inside the walls lurks a terrifying presence that threatens to consume her and everyone around her.

Williams performance brilliantly weaves between naïve and fearsome as the newest of the hospital staff on shift. As the nights events grow, so too does her character and every beat of her character is felt through the lens. Behind Holly Smart's costume design, Laura Bellingham's cinematography and Elizabeth Bernholz' score, this is a femme fatale of a film and one that proves that women ae the leading sex in horror. There's so much crammed into a short run time that the film, while it works well as a standalone film, would be a shame to leave this cast and crew behind. We certainly hope to see more.

Capturing perfectly the 70s nostalgia, it never feels forced and as such contains a lot of the eras great elements of subtle horror and great story telling that lead to a truly terrifying and heart felt conclusion. Despite the strikes threatening the cast in 1974, THE POWER is not one to watch with the lights out.