The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

****

There are some horror films (many my favorites) that are built around a location. A house. You have read people use the description of "this or that is a character in itself." Well, let me tell you that this is most certainly the case for The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh. A young man's mother dies and as the film starts, a woman narrates about his leaving after his father (her husband) had "done something wrong." When he returns to her house (after a considerable absence) he realizes that she has purchased almost all the antiques and artifacts from his personal collection. These are most significantly of the occult, gothic, tribal, religious, and macabre. Incredible angelic and Christian iconography pepper the location, but so do tribal worship objects, skulls, stuffed fierce creatures, decadently designed furniture, windows, stairs, and walls, as well as, photos containing odd sayings that describe a quirky sense of humor or personality. I was just in awe of these lengthy tracking shots of the house as the director makes sure we get a full trip all the way through it. "Believe" is something that is constant.

The young man, and current occupant (he received all his mother owned), remains somewhat jaded and rather inert. He seems distant from all that his mother was and that she kept him successful through her purchases of items from his collection seems to anger and bewilder him instead of bring a sense of love for her. The score for the film has this level of fairy-tale and darkness, and sound effects encourage the idea that something is alive in the house...a presence. I flat loved the slow burn approach this film employs and the design of the house...wow! The garden in the back of the house is also a thing of otherworldly beauty. This camera is methodical and patient, so the director of this film wants us to see everything which is refreshing to me considering I have seen so many films here lately that can't keep the damn thing still so we can soak in the surroundings. The house and its furnishings are the absolute stars here. The actor is just a prop within it. Vanessa Redgrave's voice adds this level of elegance and disappointment. That she wouldn't leave after death just to see her son again makes sense.

I love films that have these characters that are so present yet never really appear "alive". You know Katie Elder in the Sons of Katie Elder, or Mother in Psycho. These characters are every bit as important as live ones. They're mentioned in one way or another, and their memory is brought out too, significantly. In this film, Rosalind is that person. Her voice is heard, there's a picture of her in a "secret room", her image is seen on a recording in a hidden worship shrine among devout members of a religious order soluting along with a preacher to these larger-than-life statue cherubs, and the house itself is a sort of testament to her devotion to her son. The movie is named after her.

There's an aspect in the film I especially liked, also. The use of rich voices of never seen characters. A doctor (ex)girlfriend he talks to on occasion for advice, a service for security cameras of homes/estates, a neighbor who knocks after Leon drops his fork on the floor (there's a joke about that in the film), an eerie voice on a tape located within a book called "Communicating with the Dead" who guides Leon within a dream to talk with his mother, and the aforementioned Rosalind herself. There's such longing in the mother's voice for a son that left her.

Interesting enough, this film's music score looks at the religion, its art pieces, and members as creepy and malevolent, and Leon seems haunted by his mother's use of her belief system which led to his abandonment of her. Such as the use of candles and this small angelic statue that mother wanted to reinforce the belief in God and heaven in her son. His unbelief did strain the mother-son relationship. In one particular scene, the statue was in the basement, and Leon finds it not long after sitting on a television set. He is so dismissive of the statue and what it has done to him in the past, Leon puts out a cigarette in her eye.

His defiance in what she believes, refusing to accept that there is a God, even after her death and possible examples of his existence truly define Leon's character. In the end, we understand "in Rosalind's own words" that she truly would have given up everything for him, and yet he showed his true colors all the way to the conclusion. I found this film truly sad and tragic in that she just wanted a relationship with him, even as she was devout, Rosalind still loved him wholly. At the very end, it wasn't enough. He spent one last time in the house his mother lived, and ultimately Leon says goodbye once again selling off everything she had spent on retrieving that he had owned. Leon would truly disown her. He didn't show up at her funeral even. He had left her mind, body, and soul. I think this film is not only rich in detail and decor, but in substance. This has a lot to say, as it speaks on religious fanaticism (or extreme belief in a God), the deterioration of the mother-son relationship, inherent loneliness ("Loneliness can be a monster" might just explain the growling beast that remains in the area and around the house), and the last visit to a home which reawakens the past that had been relinquished.

There's no possible way I could include images of all the gothic delights this house provides, and the camera captures so much in its scanning of the rooms and roving eye, screencaps don't quite compare to seeing it all happen stylistically in constant motion. For me, this was a wealth of art design, but the content suffers from a less-than-likable lead. Leon seems totally self-involved and cold. His ice cold departure at the end (I don't ask that accepts her faith as much as show that he loved her at all), and selling of the house (, the for-sale sign, growing weeds and grass, letting it rot), disregarding her memory entirely, sure left me quite despondent. And this film follows him throughout this amazing location so we have no choice but to tolerate him if we want to enjoy the house and what it entails. Minor griping aside, the film was still a pleasure.

Undoubtedly, this will be looked at and felt by some as dull and plodding. It will be a matter of taste; what you like in your horror. For me, this is it.