Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
It’s a palpably ambitious piece, with a visual acuity which punches well above its weight and a fascinating central performance from Rose Williams (Sendition).
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 2021
1h 32m
Director Corinna Faith
Starring Rose Williams, Emma Rigby, Charlie Carrick, Gbemisola Ikumelo
Genre Horror
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As striking miners switch off the power across Britain, electrical blackouts plunge the country into darkness. Val, a young nurse, is forced to work the night shift in a crumbling hospital. She finds herself in a near-empty building, enveloped by darkness. Now she must face her own traumatic past and deepest fears to confront the malevolent force intent on destroying them all.
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
It’s a palpably ambitious piece, with a visual acuity which punches well above its weight and a fascinating central performance from Rose Williams (Sendition).
Smart special effects, atmospheric visuals and an impressive physical performance from Williams enhance this timely ghost story but the horror doesn’t hit as hard as the rages against misogyny.
When The Power is on, it’ll have you white-knuckling a flashlight all night. When it starts flickering, well, even its least nuanced moments or most telegraphed turns still have a level of craft that make certain Faith will be able to keep the lights on as a filmmaker for a long time to come.
The Power is built on subtle elements, but the director’s more ambitious jumps are just as electrifying.
The New York Times by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
The film stumbles in delivering a cohesive vision.
The Film Stage by Michael Snydel
It eventually resorts to well-intentioned but inelegant info dumps to reach its climax, but the tactile environments and direct filmmaking separates it from most films of its ilk.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
The movie’s period spookiness and its #MeToo outrage have virtually nothing to do with each other, diminishing the efficacy of both and making it feel like a tract.
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
While Williams and Faith do a fine job of capturing the frustrating powerlessness of a low-wage-earning woman in a sexist and classist society, The Power never generates much in the way of shocks or excitement.
Williams, playing a young woman fighting her fears even as the hint of recognition of what she’s dealing with keeps her from flipping out entirely, makes us believe Val’s peril and believe in her ability to fight it.
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
A light touch doesn’t suit the heavy themes in The Power, a horror psychodrama that’s specifically concerned with sexual misconduct and then more generally about the abuse of (you guessed it) power at a London hospital.
A futuristic comic feast.
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