Amulet is a 2020 horror film and the directorial debut of actress Romola Garai. It stars Alec Secareanu,Imelda Staunton and Carla Juri.
Tomaz (Secareanu), a surviving soldier of a war, lives in London, with traumatic memories of the war. Living homeless and working as a construction worker, Tomaz manages to escape a fire in his shelter and meets the kind nun Clare (Steulton).
Clare invites him to work at the home of a woman named Magda (Juri), who lives with her invalid and mentally ill mother.
While living in the house, Tomaz remembers his wartime, where he protected a survivor named Miriam, where he begins to have feelings for her.
Tomaz begins to unravel the mysteries of the house and discovers that Magda and her mother are not what they seem and that the bad things he has done in the past return to take a toll on him, involving a mysterious figure he encountered in the woods.
Tropes associated with this work:
- Animalistic Abomination: The "bats", little animalistic creatures that burrow holes in walls and leave a dark substance behind. They are aggressive and bite anyone who approaches. Tomaz says they are nothing like the bats he found in the forest where he worked. It is later revealed that they are spawned from the bowels of Christopher General and are evil personified, which Magda must kill lest they break free into the world.
- The Atoner: Subverted. Tomaz shows remorse and shame for what Miriam did, but as the story goes on, he develops a new obsession with Magda, becoming aggressive with her and deciding to have her as his guardian by becoming the new demon, as if he had forgotten that he wanted to free her from the previous demon.
- Mister Seahorse: Men punished by Magda are forced to meet this fate, in a painful and bizarre way. The film ends with Tomaz giving birth to an Eldritch Abomination.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Christopher is an incestuous, murderous father and Tomaz is a war rapist. The goddess punishes them painfully.
- Villain Protagonist: Revealed with Tomaz in the final stretch of the film. He raped Miriam when she decided to leave to find her daughter. As the film progresses, he becomes more violent and obsessive about Magda.
