“Went Up the Hill” - TIFF24 Film Review
This review was originally posted on Film Obsessive.
There’s no one right way to process grief, but returning from the dead to possess your wife and estranged son is certainly a new way to try. In Went Up the Hill, playing as part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, that’s exactly what happens. The film is a reflection on grief and the impact of suicide on those who are still living. Went Up the Hill is able to take these jarring life events and turn them into something intimate, but the ending is more of a whimper than a bang.
courtesy of TIFF
Jill (Corsage‘s Vicky Krieps) is mourning the death of her wife, Elizabeth, who was a well-known artist. The circumstances of her death are not known to the wider public. At the viewing, a young man (Dacre Montgomery of Elvis) arrives, but no one recognizes him. He insists that he was personally invited by Jill a few days ago, but Jill has no memory of doing so. Other attendees say he should leave since no one knows him, but he reveals that his name is Jack and he is Elizabeth’s son. Jill allows him to stay, and the two realize that when they fall asleep, the spirit of Elizabeth takes turns possessing each of them.
Vicky Krieps and Dacre Montgomery are an odd pair on paper. The former is known for her work with Paul Thomas Anderson, the latter almost exclusively known for his stint on Stranger Things. And yet, Went Up the Hill banks (almost) entirely on these two actors and their ability to relate to one another. There is one other character who has a small amount of screen time and Jack’s partner from back home is heard on the phone a few times. Everything else is Krieps and Montgomery, and even though they’re on the screen so often, you just want more of them. They’re an interesting duo, willing to go above and beyond.
Courtesy of TIFF
Went Up the Hill’s “rules,” for lack of a better word, about Elizabeth’s ghostly abilities prove to be a tad limiting. She can only possess Jill and Jack when they’re sleeping, so the days can feel a little unnecessary, as though they’re biding time until the characters can sleep again. It’s a fascinating decision not to have a separate actor portray Elizabeth, but to have Vicky Krieps and Dacre Montgomery do so. That transformation is what makes the film interesting, because there’s nothing done to either actor physically in order to transform them. Went Up the Hill relies on the physicality of Krieps and Montgomery to really sell the fact that they are Elizabeth. Krieps’ Elizabeth is cold, rigid, and awkward, while Montgomery’s version is often softer, more gentle. It speaks to how Elizabeth would mold herself into whatever she needed to be to maintain a sense of power in her relationships.
As already seen with the Letterboxd reviews of the film, much of the attention has been focused on what Jack and Jill do when Elizabeth possesses them in their sleep. Particularly, that Elizabeth, in the body of her son, has sex with Jill. Without (and with) context, it’s a disturbing act, but one that serves as the audience’s first indicator that Elizabeth may not be the incredible person she’s been made out to be. It’s uncomfortable, there’s no denying it, but it’s the film’s means of showing how Elizabeth sees her own son to be disposable; as though he exists as a vessel for her to use as she pleases and not as a human being of his own. The entire film hinges on its desire to show the way abusive people work and how they manage to hurt those around them.
At times, Went Up the Hill is a pure horror movie, and it should be. The violence that Elizabeth inflicts upon Jill is seen through bruises, and her ghostly presence is felt throughout the brutal, modernist home she created. Went Up the Hill feels like a modern gothic story with the castles of old England replaced by stark angles and modern concrete walls. Hanan Townshend’s score certainly helps cultivate the atmosphere. The heavy, rhythmic breathing and ethereal sounds that make up the backbone of Townshend’s score are unnerving in their own right, even without the on-screen visuals.
It’s the ending of Went Up the Hill that doesn’t feel as potent as it could be. There are a few instances where the film felt it was naturally wrapping up, but then continued on. The longer it went on, the more time the audience had to release the tension on their own. The naming of the main duo also takes some of the anxiety out of the film. When hearing Jack and Jill in close proximity, it’s impossible not to think of the nursery rhyme, especially given the film’s title. Even after looking into the history and possible interpretations of the rhyme, it’s hard to understand why this connection was made. Perhaps the only thought-provoking link to the nursery rhyme is in a statement that comes after the poem in the 1791 publication of Mother Goose’s Melody: “The more you think of dying, the better you will live.” However, this is too obscure and doesn’t do enough to erase the storied nursery rhyme connection.
There will always be something compelling about films that showcase tenderness in harsh, unforgiving places, and Went Up the Hill is one of them. Getting to see Vicky Krieps on the big screen is also a gift. Even if the film’s ending leaves something to be desired, Went Up the Hill provides a look at abuse in a manner that is rarely seen.
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