Psychotically-induced seizures brought on by repressed sexual desires that include manifestations of poltergeist activity has been a staple of many horror movies. Carrie being an obvious well-known example.
That's what I thought I was seeing for almost two-thirds of this movie.
But kudos to the writer who leads us up this garden path, then throws everyone off balance, beginning with Thelma's institutionalised grandmother.
Yes, she displayed similar symptoms but Thelma's GP father had had her sectioned. The subtle reference from the nurse that the father was over-medicating her.
The film has already portrayed the father as a religious zealot who controls and dominates both his wife and Thelma through suggestion. He peddles religious purity through repetitious prayers and hellfire dogma and hints at demonic influence at work in his own mother and now his daughter.
The subtlety that other reviewers appear to have missed was that the father was responsible for the death of his baby son, for his wife's disability and the disappearance of Thelma's lover.
Once Thelma realises this, she rejects her submission to her father for his constant approval and focuses her "gift" to remove this evil from their lives. The manner of her father's death reflects his own hellfire beliefs.
At that moment of release from his all-pervasive influence, Thelma heals her wheelchair-bound mother and her lover is restored to her.
Her "gift" remains, but has now become a force for good.
A very clever, beautifully-made movie. But you may need to watch it more than once to catch the nuances you might have missed in the first viewing.
Review of Thelma
