Summary
The Binding fails to encourage the importance of family; its reliance on the grim and dull murks the relationships between all the characters.
This review of Netflix film The Binding contains no spoilers. The horror came out on the streaming service on October 2, 2020.
There’s not a lot of dialogue in The Binding. It relies on atmosphere and setting, resorting to Southern Italy, predictably in the middle of nowhere in a low-lit setting.
It follows a mother who goes to visit her fiancé’s family — the tone of the story already makes the mother anxious; an uncomfortable feeling that only a parent’s instinct can muster. The Netflix film champions a mother’s love and her I initiative to try and save her daughter’s life — a mysterious curse is trying to claim her.
The running theme in the first half of The Binding is cynicism. While doubts rise on the surface, it’s clear that the experiences the characters are feeling are not normal, but there’s a humanness to justify them.
From there The Binding becomes your routine horror story in a wealthy estate; the more the characters venture for the truth, the stronger the danger becomes.
Netflix’s The Binding fails to encourage the importance of family; its reliance on the grim and dull murks the relationships between all the characters. There’s never a conclusive answer to how the family all feel about each other before they are plunged into the unknown. It’s too tentative and clean, with the director opting for atmosphere and horror tropes rather than a meaningful tragedy between family members.
And so, it lacks substance — like all horrors, if you’ve seen it all before there must be something that sets it apart to add it to an extensive horror catalog. That’s not to say The Binding needs be written off completely — for a routine horror film this will sit cozily on an evening when there’s little to watch.
