Horror  •  2025  •  97 min

The Banished (2025)

The Banished poster

The Banished (2025)


Rating & Dimensions

Bias Rating
Analyzing...
Leans Progressive
Political: Leans Left
Diversity: Moderate
Family Values: Leans Progressive
Christianity: Negative

Viewer Rating
3.9

Overview

Australian folk horror directed and written by Joseph Sims-Dennett. After her brother mysteriously disappears, Grace (Meg Clarke) ventures into the rural wilderness to find him, confronting hidden dangers and local enigmas. Co-starring David Beelen as a backpacker and Leighton Cardno as Mr. Green.


Starring Cast

Meg Clarke  •   David Beelen  •   Steve Brekalow


Where to watch

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Apple TV logoApple TV
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Detailed Bias Analysis

Analyzing...
Leans Progressive

Primary

Political: Leans Left
Confidence: High

The film's central conflict revolves around religious trauma and abusive family dynamics within a cult-influenced community, offering a subtle critique of institutional harm that aligns with progressive values.

Diversity: Moderate
Confidence: Low

Visible diversity appears in the cast through an actor of Portuguese-Angolan descent in a supporting role. Subtle critique emerges in the portrayal of an abusive father figure, highlighting personal trauma without centering broader identity politics.

Secondary

Family Values: Leans Progressive
Confidence: High

In this folk-horror descent into familial rot, the narrative dismantles the traditional family edifice by exposing paternal religious authority as a mechanism of abuse and exile, with sibling bonds strained by inherited trauma rather than nurtured by communal support. The decisive factor is the film's unsparing critique of rigid hierarchies within the home, favoring psychological rupture over reconciliation.

Christianity: Negative
Confidence: High

The film presents Christianity via a fundamentalist community led by an abusive patriarch whose control fosters trauma and secrecy, with the narrative emphasizing the faith's role in enabling disappearances and family destruction without redeeming elements.

LGBTQ: N/A
Confidence: High

The film features no identifiable LGBTQ+ characters or themes.

Trans: N/A
Confidence: High

The film contains no transgender characters or themes. The narrative centers on a woman's quest to find her missing brother amid folk-horror elements in the Australian outback, without any exploration of transsexual identity.

Female Combat: N/R

The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.

Gender Swap: No
Confidence: High

The Banished presents an original story featuring newly created characters, with no adaptations or recasts from prior source material that would involve gender swaps.

Race Swap: No
Confidence: High

The Banished is an original Australian folk horror film featuring newly created characters without established racial baselines from prior source material, adaptations, or historical figures, so no race swaps occur.


Viewer Rating Breakdown

3.9

Viewer Rating

Combines user and critic ratings from four sources

User Ratings

IMDB logo
3.7
The Movie Database logo
4.1

Critic Ratings

Rotten Tomatoes logo
N/A
Metacritic logo
N/A

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