With a title like The Reckoning, no one should expect a light comedy from the 2020 film. As anticipated, we find a dark drama.

Set in England during the Great Plague of the 17th century, Grace Haverstock (Charlotte Kirk) loses her husband Joseph (Joe Anderson) to suicide after he gets this disease. Wracked by grief, Grace encounters another problem when she becomes accused of witchcraft.

This leads Grace to torture under the hands of “witch hunter” Judge John Moorcroft (Sean Pertwee). As she endures this torment, Grace struggles to retain her sanity.

At the start, we find ourselves told that Reckoning comes “inspired by actual events”, a notification that sets the lowest of bars. Movies “based on actual events” take plenty of liberties, and “inspired by” flicks sport even less connection to facts.

As such, it seems best to ignore the idea that Reckoning bears much basis in history. Of course, a plague did afflict England in the 17th century, and people did get accused of witchcraft, but otherwise, one assumes we find a fictional tale.

And a silly fictional tale, too, as Reckoning fails on almost all possible accounts. Whatever potential this story boasts gets wasted.

As badly as Reckoning wants to provide a terrifying psychological drama, it comes across much more like parody. From start to finish, this melodramatic, overwrought effort seems ridiculous.

This starts from the movie’s opening and never stops. Every second of the flick becomes treated as Major Drama, with a relentless score and overdone visuals.

And jump scares – lots and lots of jump scares.

Not only does Reckoning utterly fail to find the human drama inherent in the tale, but also it simply seems silly. For someone in the midst of a plague, Grace sure looks great – who sculpts her eyebrows and does her hair? No matter how downtrodden and grimy she becomes, Grace still looks like she stepped from the cover of a romance novel.

Kirk brings a painfully overacted performance, though she doesn’t stand alone in that regard. Everyone emotes up the wazoo in this absurdly operatic effort.

All of this simply feels desperate, as though the filmmakers believe that if they ratchet everything to 11, we’ll take away emotional impact. Unfortunately, the opposite proves true, as this becomes a ludicrous, amateurish project with virtually no redeeming elements.

The Reckoning appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I thought the Blu-ray provided consistently satisfying visuals.

Sharpness was generally positive. A smidgen of softness appeared in some interiors, but those instances were minor. Instead, the program demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy the vast majority of the time.

I witnessed no instances of jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes appeared absent. Source flaws also failed to interfere.

Colors stayed with a mix of amber/orange and teal. These choices felt predictable but the image replicated them as needed.

Blacks were acceptably dark and deep, while shadows showed positive delineation. Overall, I found this to be a strong presentation.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Reckoning, it worked pretty well. While the soundfield didn’t go nuts throughout the whole movie, it kicked into action well when it mattered.

During quieter scenes, the mix boasted good environmental material, and more active sequences delivered fine immersion and punch. The latter provided the muscle that we expected and used the five speakers in an involving manner.

Overall, audio quality appeared good. Speech came across as distinct and well represented. Music presented good dynamics via the score; the music was tight and full.

Effects came across as accurate and firm, with clean highs and deep bass. The soundtrack fell short of greatness, but it mostly served the film well.

Seven Deleted Scenes span a total of 10 minutes, 25 seconds. We find a longer flashback to the death of Grace’s mother as well as more related to Grace and her husband and extra footage of Grace imprisoned. None of these add anything of substance.

The disc opens with ads for Gwen, The Pale Door and Mary. No trailer for Reckoning appears.

If you hope to find drama or terror from The Reckoning, you seem ore likely to encounter bitter disappointment. Silly and campy, the movie becomes a goofy chore to watch. The Blu-ray brings pretty good picture and audio along with minor bonus materials. More self-parody than horror, this winds up as a thoroughly awful film.