Director Christopher Smith On The Banishing

By Russ Burlingame

Christopher Smith isn't just the real name of John Cena's character from The Suicide Squad; it's also the name of the filmmaker behind the recent horror film The Banishing, starring Jessica Brown Findlay, John Heffernan, John Lynch, and Sean Harris. The movie centers on Marianne (Findlay), who is living in a loveless marriage with her minister husband Linus (Heffernan) when they move into what turns out to be a haunted manor. When a smooth-talking supposed psychic investigator named Harry Reed (Harris) enters their life, Marianne finds herself instantly drawn to him, while Linus dislikes him not only because his wife seems infatuated, but because the self-styled paranormal investigator represents a kind of occultism that traditional Christianity frowns upon.

Reed himself was a real person, known for exposing fraudulent mediums, and the story of The Banishing is loosely based on events that really happened in his life, although a lot of the necromancy involved (and also some Nazi connections) are added to make it more of a conventional horror movie. Smith told us during a recent interview that one of the big things that attracted him to the story was the idea of someone like Reed investigating a rectory and inevitably butting heads with traditional religious figures.

"There's the three of them in the relationship," Smith told ComicBook. "It's about Marianne and her relationships these characters, John Heffernan's character and Sean's character. Between the three of them you actually realize that Marianne, played by Jess, has more in common with the crazy Harry Reed, played by Sean, because he's more free and open to speak about his failings as a person, whereas everything with her husband is buried away beneath the surface. That's why we like the character of Harry Reed, is that him coming into situation...if you look at films like The Conjuring, the couple come in, and they get rid of the monster from the house, whereas this guy can come in and his personality, regardless of the circumstances, kind of lifts something out of her. She judges him when she sees him and goes back down the stairs. She has her own values."

There's actually a lot more about the couple behind The Conjuring than has ever made its way into the films, and those two have faced years of allegations from people like Reed that they were frauds and con artists. But taking the moral high road in situations like that doesn't make Reed a straightforward hero in The Banishing.

"None of them are perfect, is what I wanted to try and put into it," Smith explained. "They've all got failings and flaws as people. She dresses well. She gets by on her good looks. She has that as well, as she judges him for being drunk. She's not an angel, but she deserves much better than she's got. She's done nothing wrong, but she's married out of convenience because, again, that's the tragedy of that period, that you would have to. If you haven't got a husband, if you've had sex out of marriage, that's it. There's so many tragic stories of children being given away at that time."

The Banishing tells the story of the most haunted house in England. In the 1930s, a young reverend, his wife and daughter move into a manor with a horrifying secret.  

The Banishing is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital now. You can also stream it on Shudder.

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