Fanny Lye Deliver’d never offers easy or comforting answers; like Witchfinder General, its horror lingers long after the credits roll.
Thomas Clay’s fourth film, Fanny Lye Deliver’d, took a long, challenging journey to the screen, languishing in post-production hell for almost three years because of funding pressures. However, after copious delays, Fanny Lye finally premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2019, with Vertigo picking up the distribution rights. Despite the post-production chaos, Thomas Clay’s complex homage to 1970s folk horror is a visual treat, layering discussions of Puritanism, control and freedom with exquisite folk-horror.
It’s 1657, and Charles I had lost his head years before, following the English Civil War. The country is now in the hands of Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector). However, Cromwell’s actions are divisive: he gives people a voice while promoting Puritan beliefs and religious control. As Cromwell’s reign nears its final chapter, brave new voices speak out against his Puritanism.
The Lye family, Fanny (Maxime Peake), her husband, John (Charles Dance), and their son, Arthur, maintain a small farm in the rolling Shropshire hills. John, the patriarchal head of the family, dictates the rhythm and pace of daily life through religious teachings, control, and power. John proudly wears his faith on his sleeve in a community where men lead, and women follow. However, one Sunday morning after their trip to Church, the family finds two strangers in their barn: Thomas (Freddie Fox) and Rebecca (Tanya Reynolds). The strangers are wearing clothes stolen from the Lye family trunk as they desperately plead for help following a woodland robbery.
Believing their story, John takes them into his home, intending to escort them safely to the village constable for further assistance. But delays mean Thomas and Rebecca slowly settle into life with the family, offering a glimmer of excitement to Fanny and young Arthur, whose values and opinions clash with John’s Puritanism. But family life is about to spiral out of control as secrets are revealed, beliefs are challenged, and safety is undermined.
Fanny Lye will likely draw comparisons to Michael Reeves’ 1968 classic Witchfinder General, as Clay creates an atmosphere of impending doom, heightened by his use of Old English. Maxime Peake’s Fanny is ferocious and vulnerable in the presence of newfound knowledge. At the same time, Freddie Fox reflects the arrogance and energy of youth with devilish charm as his true intentions bubble to the surface. But this is a true ensemble piece, where every performance is exquisitely crafted as the horror unfolds under the shroud of early-morning and late-evening mist, captured beautifully by Giorgos Arvanitis’ sublime cinematography.
Fanny Lye Deliver’d never offers easy or comforting answers; like Witchfinder General, its horror lingers long after the credits roll. The result is a haunting journey in which the shackles of religion and control are shattered, only to be forged anew.
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