The Power Review (Film, 2021)
content warning: medical footage, sexual harassment, sexual assault (discussed), nudity, blood, violence against women, child endangerment, drug abuse
Val is a new nurse hired to work at a hospital on its last legs. Her first day is particularly challenging, as the hospital will be transporting most of its patients to other facilities that night. Rolling blackouts are making the neighborhood unsafe so anyone who can leave, does. The building is organized as well as it can be, but the state of the building and what hides in the dark creates challenges.
Writer/director Corinna Faith swings big with her haunted hospital/revenge horror The Power. It’s an ambitious film with a large ensemble cast and symbolism hidden everywhere. From the color coding of the floors to the saturation and shade of the nursing uniforms, no detail is too small to have a distinct purpose in this story.
Without going into spoilers, there are some revenge elements in this film. It’s hinted at early on with some overlaid reflections in the children’s ward. Then, those hints are acknowledged directly when Val is forced to work with a childhood bully on the overnight shift.
Reflections, frames, and doorways play a huge role in the storytelling. They offer a rare glimpse into the hierarchy of the hospital. Val has to engage with things she’s not ready to because she sees too much at the intersections of the power structures in her new job.
What is engaged with directly is sexual harassment. Faith leans heavily into Val’s fear of failure if she says no or acts the wrong way in her new job. She’s worked hard to build a life for herself after what happened in her childhood, but what happened in her childhood defines so much of how she lives her life as an adult. People know who she is because of that attack, but it’s hard to find anyone who believes her version of the story. Val becomes an unreliable narrator in her own story even as we witness what the hospital and its staff do to her.
The head nurse has very strict rules about engaging with the medical staff at the hospital. Women are the nurses, men are the doctors, and it’s better for everyone if she is the one to deal with them directly. Val’s long night in the dark reveals some uncomfortable truths about her new boss’ true intentions.
The Power is a suggestive horror film, not a graphic one. The scares are layered in a way to create unpredictability in which specter of the past attacks when. Will the darkened hospital make its presence known? Val’s own past? Or the staff that never really trusted the poor girl from the orphanage with a reputation?
Corinna Faith crafts a powerful horror film about abuse, trauma, and identity. It is a great, modern haunted house film. Please just make sure you are in a safe place to engage with those themes. They are the substance of the film, part of the welcome trend of using the revenge form to actually tell stories where the person who is wronged gets their own revenge, reclaiming their own life and story on their own terms.
The Power is streaming on Shudder.