By Keri O’Shea
You’d think God and Satan wouldn’t have a great deal in common, what with being timeless adversaries and all, but they do: they each seem to have an unreasonable obsession with human fertility. One side thinks Onanism is a sin because it wants arses on pews and the other, well – most of Old Scratch’s plans for taking over the earth seem to involve getting women pregnant. It’s now something of an assumption, in horror cinema, that if you see a coven, there’ll be some edict about a ‘special child’ on its way soon after.
When you read the back story to Cherry Tree (2015), you won’t see much deviation from this. We’re told that, back in the day, the town of Orchard had a coven which believed that if a woman could bear a child to Satan, then they could use this to become all powerful. One witch tried to best Beelzebub at this time and the coven was destroyed – hence, a legend was born, a legend of the Orchard Coven and its association with a mysterious cherry tree…
After telling us this on-screen, kudos to the film for then getting a lesbian kiss into proceedings before much more than ten seconds of modern-day footage pass by. After snogging Sissy (Anna Walton), an old pal gets all embarrassed and beats a hasty retreat from the bar where they’d met – running smack bang into a horde of hood-wearing occultists, who spirit her away for some ritualistic goings-on near what we can assume is the self-same tree mentioned earlier. Unless there’s an orchard in Orchard, but that would probably be silly. Actually, we then segue to a classroom presentation about the legend of the tree, allowing us to combine these two different worlds in one fell swoop. Sissy has just become the hockey coach at this school; one member of the school hockey team is a troubled teen called Faith (Naomi Battrick – who in true cinematic tradition is more like twenty-five) and it soon becomes clear that this is our key character. Faith’s father is very ill, and when his prognosis worsens, she finds it very difficult to bear. Luckily, the soporific hockey mistress is there to be a shoulder to cry on, after a fashion at least. Faith is offered a deal, one which draws her in to a world of malign magic and – bingo! – pregnancy. Why aren’t women ever given anything else to do in demonology than have babies or trick other women into having them? #EverydaySexism
I am, after having watched (and slyly enjoyed) Cherry Tree, still not quite sure just how much we are supposed to take the film seriously; I’m not even really sure how seriously the writer and director are taking this: certainly, director David Keating also brought us Wake Wood, and certain similarities between the plots of both films can be gleaned, but it’s fair to say that the tone is rather different here, and it’s not a good idea to come to a viewing of the newer film expecting the atmospheres to be comparable. This is where I think the blurb will work against the film, as throwing around well-beloved titles like ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ as comparisons will, in my opinion, lead to disappointment. But, look, if you go in for lowest common denominator character and place names, then people will chuckle, rather than get a sense of dark forces at work, bringing all people and things together (‘Faith’? The ‘evil tree’ town called Orchard? And don’t get me started on that literal cherry-taking during the sex scene.) Cherry Tree also seems to be channeling Lord of Salem in some places, meaning that the film can sway from realistically-lit urban scenes to flashing unnatural lights during its occult shenanigans – again, whilst this can feel tonally odd, it perhaps underlines in my mind that this is an occult-lite take on the subject matter and that we’re meant to be diverted, but not necessarily ever scared. Of course, I could be way out on all of this, in which case I’ve seen humour where there isn’t any. That’s all rather worse as an outcome for the filmmakers, I guess…
And then, the film seems to court controversy in some areas, whilst covering its own back in others. Firstly, although the girls at the school are probably all well over the age of consent, they’re represented to us as fifteen year olds, so throwing the shower scene in there might raise an eyebrow – this sort of thing is a red rag to the BBFC bull, and speaking of them, what’s all this with having Anna Walton slitting her wrist on screen again, after all that furore about her doing the same thing in Soulmate? Perhaps it’s okay when it’s to do with raising Satan because this is less likely to be emulated by us weaker vessels, but the fact that they’ve used this very image in the press release, again, seems designed to cause a stir. But, after doing this, it then makes damn sure to declare that Faith is (just) over sixteen before anything sexual is permitted; it also excuses the old ‘pregnancy test which works the day after sex’ because occult. It’s pushing the envelope on one hand, and well aware of the limits on the other.
Ultimately, whatever the thinking behind what’s going on here, what you’ll get out of this film is entirely dependent on what you expect. If you’re hoping for a subtle, brooding folk horror then forget it, folks, you won’t be best pleased. However, if you accept this as pacy, piecemeal but entertaining occult schlock, then it’ll all wash over you nicely. Ultimately, Cherry Tree is far more comic book than grimoire.
Cherry Tree is available from Studiocanal now.