Esme, My Love (2023)

How far would you go to prevent someone you love from suffering?  This is the question behind the intentions of Esme My Love, a powerfully moving story complete with a suspenseful meditation on love, loss, duality, family and magic.  With on point cinematography and a stellar soundscape, this thriller amps up the tension from the very beginning and never eases up.

Inspired by true events and rooted in a family's history and lore, Esme, My Love puts the relationship between a mother and her daughter up front and explores the deep gulf of pain which widens between them in the wake of a diagnosis no one wants to hear.  There’s more at play here, but that’s better left to the experience of watching this one unfold.

"a tone poem of human expression, where a raw nerve is exposed"


Esme My Love is all about the clingy thing which lies in the dark folds of a parent and offspring relationship.  It is intentional in its rollout and spot on when it comes to the emotions involved when one woman notices the symptoms of a terminal and painful illness in her own daughter.

This is not an ideal mother and daughter relationship.  Know that from the start, which is where this quiet thriller gets its mojo.  It’s not magic, but Esme My Love is pretty damn close to it as Hannah (Stacey Weckstein) drives her daughter, Esme (Audrey Grace Marshall), to the woods with one intention of bringing her back to her family’s roots. 

Hannah tells her she’s sick, but Esme isn’t sick - at least she doesn’t feel so - but she’s ready to get out of the car . . .

. . . but her mother keeps telling her that they don’t have a lot of time together anymore.  Whatever that means to Esme. 

But it means a lot to us, who are once held captive by the fusion of the cinematography, the characters on the screen, and the music.  Almost at once, Esme My Love comes across as something unusual; something to take notice of; something precious: a tone poem of human expression, where a raw nerve is exposed. Esme, My Love (2023)

Director Cory Choy and co-writer Laura Allen have developed something pure in its emotion as Hannah keeps talking about her dead sister, Emily, to Esme and, while taking Esme to her parent’s remote woods, finds herself becoming more erratic.  Esme doesn’t know how to react and neither do we. 

Imagine how you would behave in the same situation?

Death comes a-knocking, but all is not as it seems as this abandoned farm is full of many haunted memories.  Some you can, in fact, taste.  But there is tension forming between them; a tension which builds a growing distrust, separating the two females from sharing this woodland experience . . . and for good reason.

SAG Nominee Audrey Grace Marshall (The Flight Attendant) headlines Cory Choy’s supernatural thriller Esme, My Love which has been scheduled for a digital release worldwide June 2 via Terror Films.

4/5 stars

Film Details

Esme, My Love (2023)

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
105 mins
Director
: Cory Choy
Writer:
Laura Allen; Cory Choy
Cast:
Audrey Grace Marshall Stacey Weckstein
Genre
: Thriller
Tagline: S
ometimes There is No Turning Back.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor:
Terror Films
Official Site:
Release Date:
June 2, 2023 - Digital Platforms
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:

Synopsis: When Hannah notices the symptoms of a terminal and painful illness in her aloof daughter, Esme, she decides to take her on a trip to their abandoned family farm in a desperate attempt to connect before they have to say goodbye.

Art

Esme, My Love (2023)