New Life (2023) Review

New Life opens in a way which you may have seen before in several horror titles, focusing on a bloodstained young woman (played by Hayley Erin) in state of distress. However, this apparently familiar touchstone is nothing of the sort, used as a mere stepping off point into a tale which plays out as unpredictably as anything you’ll have seen in the genre for quite a while.

No sooner has the young woman cleaned herself up and planned to head for the hills, we’re introduced to expert fixer Elsa Gray (Sonya Walger) who is about to be handed the task of tracking down this fugitive before she reaches the border. Complicating Elsa’s assignment is her recent diagnosis of ALS, which is already affecting her movement and imposing a serious time limit of its own.

Writer/director John Rosman’s debut is an unhurried, assured and absorbing thriller in which each reveal increases the enormity of the cat and mouse game between Elsa and her target. It also cleverly plays with the viewer’s perception of these two protagonists, shifting sympathies as more information comes to light. Its sharp, small scale focus on specific events and rural settings are loaded with potentially vast, dreadful ramifications and both Elsa and Jessica – let’s call our mystery woman Jessica – will make distressing discoveries along the way.

Early on in the film, a Post-It Note on Elsa’s bathroom mirror bears the words “I am in the process of becoming the best version of myself” and this holds true for both of our main characters. Jessica’s plight has forced her to live on her wits and off the grid, meanwhile Elsa is grappling with a condition that will more than likely take everything from her, forcing her to face relinquishing her usual position of control more and more.

New Life rarely cleaves to genre conventions and even those moments which draw in the tropes of the genre to generate suspense are given an eerie, uncommon brutality in terms of both visual and emotional effect. Truly violent moments are few and far between and the fact that they also affect the unsuspecting, kind folks who are tragically sucked into the escalating situation makes them hit home that much harder.

The lines between good and bad are fascinatingly, not to mention realistically, blurry and the story neither praises nor condemns Jessica or Elsa for the decisions they make, leaving the audience to grapple with the weight of the ethical dilemmas on display. As awful as the actions of some are, they’re victims of terrible circumstance and it’s easy to feel a sense of sorrow for them as they helplessly revert to what their instincts drive them to do.

To give away too much about New Life would be to spoil the experience of becoming fully immersed in its tight 83 minutes of economical plotting, high stakes and an atmosphere of clammy tension even in the most outwardly warm and relaxed scenes. The characters are satisfyingly complex and well-drawn, given memorable life courtesy of superb performances from Erin and Walger. Their struggles are often heartbreaking but never overplayed and as the two move inexorably towards a confrontation, it becomes more difficult to take a side.

In terms of the ongoing investigation, the surveillance procedures are touched upon enough to give the tale a technological sheen without drowning the piece in jargon and security footage. This also cements the scope and stakes of Elsa’s mission and addresses the question of how a person may become invisible even though a feature of modern life most of us accept is that someone is watching you, everywhere.

Quietly devastating, written with a fierce intelligence and with two scintillating acting talents at its core, New Life is a subtly shattering addition to the genre, perfectly paced and forcing the viewer to constantly re-evaluate their view of this world with each new clue. It’s a masterclass of using limited resources to spin a wider narrative which is huge in its breadth and I was impressed over and over again at how skillfully every aspect of the production was brought to (new) life. One of my movies of 2023 and one I urge you to catch. I’m still thinking about it.

Movie Rating:

New Life Trailer

You can read our interview with John Rosman and Mark Evans on New Life here:
https://lovehorror.co.uk/horror-features/81895/five-frightfest-facts-from-mark-events-and-john-rosman-of-new-life/