Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, The (2012)

Author: Brett Gallman
Submitted by: Brett Gallman   Date : 2013-07-25 20:52
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Written and Directed by: Rodrigo Gudiño

Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, and Julian Richings


Reviewed by: Brett Gallman






She will not rest in peace.


When describing a film, of the more convenient critical short-hands at our disposal is comparing them to other films to give some an impression of what we’re dealing with. That’s a tough thing to do with The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, a film that largely resists easy comparisons to anything that’s come before it. While it carries some familiar thematic baggage, it feels like something rare: a unique horror experience that ruminates on death and regret in a brooding manner—there’s a menace to it that’s palpable and skin-crawling. Forgive the cliché, but it’s like a half-remembered nightmare that burrows into your subconscious in favor of assaulting it with constant shocks and jolts.

As you might imagine, it approaches with a slow burn, minimalist approach: Leon (Aaron Poole) has inherited a house from his recently deceased mother (Vanessa Redgrave). The two shared an estranged relationship that’s illuminated in impressionist style as the film unfolds. Phone conversations between Leon and a friend reveal that Rosalind Leigh was a religious zealot who often subjected her son to strange rituals involving an angel statue. As Leon rummages through the house, he encounters the very same statue lying among heaps of other stuff, such as a weird videotape that captured another mysterious cult ritual.

The film mostly proceeds in this fashion, with Leon poking around the house. I suppose you’d consider it a haunted one, albeit not in traditional fashion; instead, the halls of this house are lined with regret and despair. Rosalind Leigh’s spirit lingers throughout, even though Redgrave is mostly confined to pictures and a persistent voice-over. The latter is a tricky technique that often comes off as lazy hack-work, and some of Redgrave’s dialogue is a little on-the-nose here; however, it’s mostly effective in contributing to the film’s oppressive mood. Through her voice, Redgrave creates a contradictory presence—Rosalind seems to be menacing and pitiful all at once. Her son might be the star of what is essentially a one-man play (a terse interaction with a spooky neighbor is the only other person who physically shows up), but this is most definitely her story from beyond the grave.

The Last Will and Testament does a fine job of placing us in Leon’s shoes, too. Just as he never really knew his mother, she remains an enigma to audiences as well, so her story is rightfully obtuse and ambiguous. It’s a film about confronting both angels and demons, only it’s difficult to separate the two. Initially, Rosalind herself seems quite sinister, though she becomes more complex as Leon begins to understand just how and why she died. Essentially, he’s been sent on the guilt trip from hell, and the film interestingly morphs the audience’s perception of both characters to eventually reveal that neither is exactly a saint. If you strip the film down to its bare essentials, it sounds like it’d make for some syrupy, corny shit since it revolves around a mother attempting to bring closure to her complicated relationship with her son, but it’s actually quite disturbing and sad here.

When reconfigured as a haunted house film, that familiar theme becomes downright spooky. Poole might carry the film, but the true stars are director Rodrigo Gudino, cinematographer Samy Inayeh, and the incredible house that they rove about for about 80 minutes. The camera ominously crawls and creeps around to give the impression that it’s being watched over by the eyes of god—or maybe something more malevolent. Oppressiveness is a key element for any haunted house movie, and The Last Will and Testament is downright suffocating at times. That’s quite an impressive feat for a film that otherwise meanders and diverts quite often; it relies on atmosphere and mood to create impressions rather than a traditional plot. The formlessness is a bit frustrating at times, particularly when the demons literally manifest; it’s a film that lends itself to varying interpretations of its actual events, but it succeeds in relaying the utter pain and regret that’s operating at its core.

Rosalind’s house is cluttered with stuff, but one item in particular stands out in particular: Waterhouse’s “The Lady of Shalott,”a painting inspired by Tennyson’s poem that famously relays the story of a woman forced to remain in a tower and weave shades of reality. Leaving the tower invokes a curse that kills her and preserves her as a misunderstood work of art, and the title character here also represents entrapment and obfuscation. Or maybe Rosalind Leigh was just really into Pre-Raphaelite art. It’d actually be one of the more conventional things among her interests considering she apparently belonged to a cult that worshiped angels, a bizarre obsession that actually seemed to yield demons instead, an appropriate mangling since the film is preoccupied with twisting and contorting good intentions into something heinous.

The same can’t be said about the film itself; sometimes, these types of films only make for an interesting experiment, but Gudino’s debut effort successfully captures intense feelings of regret and despair. It’s a haunted house movie where its spirit truly doesn’t feel at rest, even though it never re-appears as a ghost. After making its rounds on the festival circuit, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh has come to DVD thanks to Image Entertainment, who has put together a well-rounded disc that features a making-of featurette, a poster s and photo galleries, an interview with composer Mercan Dede, an audio commentary featuring Gudino, and one of the director’s short films, “The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow.” Gudino is best known as the publisher of Rue Morgue, but, if this is any indication, he’ll soon be making a name for himself as a filmmaker. With The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, he’s crafted an intriguing, chilling little puzzle box. Buy it!



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