David Keating’s ‘Wake Wood’ bought the familiarities of Hammer Horror into the 21st century and now returns to do the same for witchcraft in ‘Cherry Tree’. When schoolgirl Faye (Naomi Battrick) learns that her father (Sam Hazeldine) is dying of leukemia, her desperation to keep her family together sees her bewitched by a coven of witches that have more to offer than a helping hand.

 

Taking the classic witch tale into modern times somehow loses the sentimentality within the film. The melodrama of school life While the film’s closing scenes make up for the slow build up of the film, the direction of which is never quite clear until the point of sacrifice. Being the good natured witches, its safe to say they don’t keep to their word and Fay’s fight to survive pits the teenager against the full wrath of the coven.

 

Luckily for the film, it takes a turn for the better once the real drama takes off as Fay’s world and connections unravel to show that the coven has more control in the village than may first appear. The slow build to this point suddenly becomes an explosion of superb special effects and monster making that put Fillmore on the map with the works of Clive Barker, it’s not difficult to find comparisons with Barker’s own work with ‘Nightbreed’ and ‘Lords of Illusion’.

 

A film’s success is the measure of the whole package but here lies an example of two worlds that don’t quite marry up but still make the journey worthwhile. There’s a level of satisfaction at the film’s later developments that can forgive it’s earlier misjudging. This is not to say that the film’s stars play their roles badly, in fact quite contrary, it is the motion of two worlds colliding that feel miles apart. Anna Walton’s Victoria Beckham-esque witch delivers on the mysterious and Battrick has launched herself on the platform for a great future in the genre.

 

If Clive Barker made Rosemary’s Baby for a 21st century audience it would look like this and despite a false start from the firing pistol, the final sprint makes the whole experience worthwhile.