Writer-director Thomas Robert Lee takes viewers on a dark journey filled with religious paranoia, horror, and revenge set against the autumnal palette of the harvest season in 1973 in The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw.
The film explores the disturbing bond between Audrey, an enigmatic young woman, and Agatha, her domineering ‘mother’, who live secretly as occultists on the outskirts of a remote Protestant village. As the community is besieged by a pestilence of unknown origin: children, fields, and livestock begin to die — yet the Earnshaw farm remains strangely unaffected. As mass hysteria sets in the village, the townsfolk commence accusations against Audrey and Agatha of witchcraft.
Catherine Walker, Jared Abrahamson, Hannah Emily Anderson, Geraldine O’Rawe, Don McKellar, and Sean McGinley star in The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw, featuring Jessica Reynolds in the titular role of Audrey Earnshaw.
I wanted to tell a story about legacy, and to specifically explore it within the context of a folk horror narrative,”says writer-director Thomas Robert Lee.“The community grows increasingly desperate as their given circumstances grow dire. In reality, the pandemic appears to have amplified hatred and xenophobia, or at least the voices of those spewing hate speech. Obviously there is a world of difference between my screenplay and the very real ramifications of the pandemic, but the similarities, however surface-level they may be, have certainly been on my mind these past months.”
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw, which celebrated its world premiere at Fantasia Fest 2020, coming out with raving reviews, will be releasing in limited theaters on Friday, October 2, 2020, followed by its release on major VOD and Digital platforms beginning Tuesday, October 6, 2020, from Epic Pictures.
