Fresh
The Living and the Dead is not an easy movie to sit through, and its darkness may be a little mannered, but it's an elegant construction with real emotions buried deep inside.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
The Living and the Dead
2006 · 1h 23m · Not Rated
Drama, Horror
Directed by
Simon Rumley
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The Living and the Dead
Overview
Lord Donald and Lady Nancy reside in the magnificent but run-down Longleigh House with James, their mentally disabled adult son. Nancy has fallen seriously ill and Donald is preparing to sell the house to raise enough money to pay for an operation. He arranges for the family nurse, Mary, to take care of Nancy while he leaves to tend to the sale. However, James wants to prove to his father that he can look after his mother on his own and decides to lock Mary out of the house. It isn't long before James starts mixing his mother's pills and forgetting to take his own medication, and as the stress of looking after his mother increases, so too does the severity of his own condition.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
91%
Tomatometer
Fresh
This is a truly haunted movie.
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Fresh
A bizarre psychological study of degeneration and dependency, The Living and the Dead is a horror movie only in the most literal sense.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Rotten
This is great filmmaking in the sense that overplayed virtuoso guitar shredding is great music -- which is to say, not at all.
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
Fresh
A striking study of madness that skirts horror territory.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
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