The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) [REVIEW]

Well that’s a fucking mouthful! THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID. WOLFMAN, YOU’RE KILLING IT IN THE JOKES DEPARTMENT. Who’s the head of that department? Oh, I don’t know, MAYBE THE POLICE. Whoa. What the fuck am I talking about. I guess The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh has been playing the festival circuit for the last six months and now it’s finally getting the release it deserves: Netflix! Poor little Rosalind Leigh, you almost didn’t get a chance. Although, to be honest, with the amount of people who now prefer to watch Netflix Instant over the actual disks, the odds of more people seeing it are actually higher. Hey, remember when Netflix changed its name and everyone freaked out? That was awesome. Because then Netflix let everyone they were morons and changed it back. What was I talking about? Oh, I didn’t know anything about this movie other than I was told it was good and then there was that stupid description on Netflix. I weave quite the intricate yarn, don’t I?

I don’t care how much you love Dr. Who, it doesn’t mean that everyone can go around wearing bow-ties.

After the death of his mother, Leon (Aaron Poole) heads to her house to peruse through all of her personal items. He’s some sort of guy who has different types of artifacts or something, and he is surprised to find out that a lot of the things he has sold over the years have actually been purchased by his mom, Rosalind Leigh. Rosalind was involved in some sort of cult, which seems to be one of the reasons why Leon has kept his distance from her for so long. She’s dead though, so it’s not like anything spooky could happen now, could it?! OH BUT IT COULD! Leon starts thinking he’s seeing objects move around the house, so he calls someone close to him to help calm him down. Any efforts to settle him down are thwarted when he begins exploring some mysterious videotapes at his mother’s, which only serve to raise more questions about the things Rosalind was involved in and make Leon apprehensive about spending any more time there. Sadly for Leon, the strange occurrences only seem to escalate the more time he spends in the house and learns more about the things his mother was into. Will Leon be able to stop himself from unraveling his mother’s past before it’s too late? I don’t know, maybe. Well, I know, because I watched the movie, but I don’t want to give it away.

Was there a point where we weren’t supposed to know that this statue was just a lady painted grey?

GUYS…I LOVE CULT SHIT. ESPECIALLY SLOW-PACED CULT SHIT. Keeping in mind my affinity for slow-paced cult shit, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh was right up my alley. Poole’s performance might not be the most memorable part of the film, but it’s really a credit to him and the filmmakers that he’s the only person you’re seeing on-screen for 99% of the film and you hardly even notice. We do hear a voiceover from time to time of Rosalind, “played” by Vanessa Redgrave, so the fact that a movie with one character could keep your attention for 80 minutes, and successfully build tension, is an accomplishment in and of itself. Coming up with new ideas of cults and mythology is also pretty difficult to do these days, so credit is due to writer/director Rodrigo Gudiño for giving us enough information about this creepy cult without giving so many details that we feel like we’ve read the entire goddamned cult handbook. This might be a really specific comparison that, but Rosalind Leigh felt like it gave just the right balance of mystery and justification as Lovely Molly. The two movies don’t really have anything else in common, but since I really enjoyed the vagueness and amount of unanswered questions in that film, I figured I’d throw it out there as a comparison as I know a good amount of people had wished for more explanations. I had to watch the ending of the movie twice as there’s a lot of information given in a three minute sequence that helps make sense of what you had just seen, so the ending did feel a little rushed and could have just been a little more clear. Then again, making things more clear would have also meant running the risk of giving away too much, just make sure you pay attention to those last few minutes. I definitely recommend the film if you like cults and mysterious shit where you don’t really need everything laid out for you, but if you can’t pay attention for 80 minutes because there isn’t enough blood and gore, then skip over and so you don’t have to give it a bad rating on Netflix.

Wolfman Moon Scale