The Heiress

Superficial it may be but the title sequence for The Heiress is one of the most impressive, I have seen for a while. It is just wonderful with the haunting images setting up the film nicely.

Sisters Anna (Jayne Wisener) and Claire (Candis Neergard) along with the rest of the family have just buried their grandmother their and are now in the sad process of sorting through her items. The death has particularly hit Claire who is struggling with her grief and is troubled by bad dreams which then become visions. She is also epileptic, a condition that has resulted in her having to take time off work and they in turn reluctant to have her back.

It is in fact Anna who has Claire’s back being her carer ensuring she functions as best she can, takes her medication, though she has little time for Claire’s visions. This becomes an issue creating tensions between them; the pressures becoming palpable as
nefarious forces come into play within the house. And then there is Anna’s boyfriend Dan (David Wayman) starts to stick his oar in.

This is a low budget production and it has some technical issues such as muddy sound at times. That being said director and writer Chris Bell (along with Danny Prescott, Kelly Prescott and Jezz Vernon credited as writers too) does produce some beautiful images, and the story is well paced as it develops.

The central characters are the sisters with Wisener and Neergard excellent; establishing an emotional rapport from the start that based is their differences as they are very different people.

These are tricky characters and these are well-judged performances with Wisener deftly handling the difficulties of looking after her sister with compassion with a degree of frustration and assertiveness. Equally Neergard doesn’t fall into overplaying her role with her frustrations coming to the fore with her condition and battling with her visions as people refuse to believe her.

Whether it’s by design or not, the men don’t come out very well with Anna’s beau Dan coming over as an unsympathetic idiot. His lack of judgement compounded by his inept attempt to pair Claire with one of his colleagues Brad (Chris Bell) during a horrible pub meal. That said Brad is slightly redeemed later on offering a little more insight into Claire’s problems having experienced something spooky back at the house.

The writers successfully set up a haunted house and spook story while looking into the live issues of mental illness and depression, with difficult family relations. They don’t quite hit the mark as well when they set up a clash between the church and the supernatural in a hospital which just looks a bit silly.

Overall it’s a satisfyingly unsettling film with its weight towards dialogue and character, and though it doesn’t shirk on the ghostly apparitions and jumps, its emphasis is on lingering evil and dread.

The Heiress will be available to download and rent in the UK from Monday 15 March 2021 on all major digital platforms.