It’s hard to put your finger exactly on what went wrong with THE RECKONING. It’s director Neil Marshall firmly back in his comfort zone, hybridising horror with another well-trod genre (in this case a historical witchfinder film) and he still makes the most of practical effects and prosthetic creature design (here with the realisation of Lucifer). But whatever the original intention, this ends up a woodenly performed and clumsily executed exploitation film that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Marshall perhaps imagined this was feminist, but seeing Grace (Charlotte Kirk) go through this much punishment just so she can get her own back in the end has been done with more impact elsewhere. The film’s inconsistency is its most annoying aspect: sometimes characters talk in archaic dialect, sometimes they don’t; sometimes people look dirty and uncomfortable in authentic smocks and tunics, sometimes they look like they’ve just got back from LARPing. Cool final shot, though. SSP