Director Joseph Mbah gives his wife, Amber, center stage in his religious horror drama, Whispers Bind. After her grandmother, Sophie (Elizabeth Higbe Crouch), dies Jenny (Amber Mbah) retreats to process her grief alone. Her friends show their concern by pushing her to engage with life again, and in particular to date a man named Tony (Joseph Mbah) that her grandmother had introduced her to.
At a friend’s baby shower, she’s encouraged to talk to Tony, then he tells her they are divinely fated to be a couple. That’s a pickup line I’d not heard before, but it carries weight with Jenny. She goes on a date with him, and they discover chemistry between them. Tony professes his love for Jenny on that first date. When Jenny finds out she’s pregnant after having sex with Tony once, her anxiety redlines, but her friend Nina (Michele Justin) talks her down. At their dinner that evening, she tells Tony about the baby, and he proposes to her.
At this point in her troubled life, Jenny is tormented by a demon named Tamar (Alaina Laethem), who appears to whisper in her ear about all the risks of relationships and how she will bring bad luck to those she loves. Jenny reaches out to Pastor Jeremiah (Greg Lutz) about this manifestation. She describes the encounters, and he advises her to have faith that she can overcome the darkness.
There are strong Christian themes in the film, which will not be of interest to everyone. The clergymen Jenny consults are full of scripture and platitudes breathlessly intoned, but offer little in terms of practical advice. They essentially tell her “buck up, little camper, you’ve got this.”
“… Jenny is tormented by a demon named Tamar …”
Oddly, Tony is not particularly freaked out to discover his fiancée is demon possessed. People around her act like she’s suffering from a nasty flu, instead of being overtaken by an evil spirit. There’s also a definite paternal bent to the way they address her. She has little agency of her own, with the males and older women in her circle pushing her to embrace their ethos about marriage, parenthood, and religion.
Tamar’s makes surprise appearances to deliver threats and physical attacks. This is making life miserable for Jenny, so the righteous folk form up and make a plan to cast the evil spirit out with an exorcism. Jenny will need to call on all her physical and spiritual strength to safeguard her unborn child and keep her life intact. Tamar can be seen as a manifestation of Jenny’s fears about taking risks in life and opening herself up to hurting and being hurt by those close to her.
Whispers Bind is a morality play about not giving in to fears, obtrusive thoughts, and darker impulses. The husband and wife Mbah team delivers adequate, if low-energy, renditions of their characters, but make no mistake: cinematic excellence is not the aim of this film. It is a mini-budget Christian sermon about holding fast to belief, presented in the form of a parable. The cinematography, soundtrack, and editing are commensurate with the modest spend. Alaina Laethem makes the most attractive, ordinary looking fallen angel one would ever encounter.
How this film hits will be split between believers in demonic influences and everyone else. Those in the former group will find the spiritual narrative inspiring and affirming. For other viewers, it may seem like irrelevant, hokey, religious myth-making.
"…better than cats"
