While Jeffrey Scott Collins’s film The Caged is a horror film, it also explores female rage. Set against an 80s backdrop with the hair and style, and taking place in an isolated English village, the movie has all the trappings of a classic paranormal thriller. It’s also a story about a marriage unraveling. Though the protagonist is male, personally I felt that it was more about the wife. So that’s who my focus was on for most of the film.
The movie follows Emily (Tamzin Merchant), a mother and former psych professor who uproots her entire life, including her daughter Bella’s (Raffiella Champan). She moves to Essex with her new husband, Robert (Edmund Kingsley), and his son Liam (Callen Carter). Robert is an author with an unstable income. He moves the family into what he believes is the best house, only to learn it was once a prison for witches known as The Cage.
This may sound like your average horror movie because of the synopsis, but it’s not. The Cage feels like a representation of Emily and the feelings she keeps locked up. It’s no surprise she is ultimately the one who uncovers the hidden cellar door behind the wall. After all, it is where the witches were locked away. Emily wants to be free. She doesn’t just want to be a stay-at-home housewife.
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Emily wants to return to teaching because it’s where she felt most like herself. Robert sees it as a threat to his manhood. If she returns to teaching, she becomes the breadwinner. He saw this as her way of sabotaging him. This created the perfect storm in their marriage. I believe this is how one of the witches got inside her. Because her defenses were down and she was vulnerable it made her the perfect vessel to inhabit.
Films about witches are usually stories in which a woman’s circumstances lead them to a state of rage. This movie is no different. I must give Tamzin her flowers because her performance was outstanding. Watching her go from a calm, loving mother and wife to a woman filled with so much anger and hate was captivating. Emily had a lot of patience with Robert. I didn’t feel he always deserved it.
He’s not the most honest person. She’s wanted honesty since her first marriage ended. That Robert couldn’t give her the one thing she asked for said a lot about him. By the end of the film, you can sense the shift in their marriage. And not for the better. Emily is forever changed by everything she suffered at the hands of the witch who inhabited her. But she also seems to understand her, which frightens Robert. This was where I was left with more questions than answers.
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I felt like more could have been done with Robert’s hidden drinking. It played a big part in adding to Emily’s anger. I understood Emily being upset, but I don’t think the director spent enough time showing us why it was so upsetting. Why was she so angry about the drinking? Did it affect his career? Did they almost break up before because of it? It came off more like a plot device than an explanation.
More of Emily’s point of view would have been good. The film spends more time on Robert. It’s a lot of scenes with him sitting at the typewriter. But it felt more like Emily’s story to me. The film rushed at the end, then lagged during the conclusion. It didn’t fully tie everything together. The backstories were interesting, but I needed to know more about the witches and their ties to Audrey and her family. We’re told she has a long history with them. I wish they had shown it.
The Caged provided all the jump scares in a classic horror film. Collins shot the film in a way that makes you feel uneasy. The house is a character. I loved that because it made me feel as if every part of living there was a bad idea. The special effects, except for a laughable moment with a spinning baby, were done well. The biggest takeaway is that Collins knows how to deliver an 80s-level horror film.
The Caged screened at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival.
