Ellen then realises why Liz looks so familiar: she once taught her potential daughter-in-law in college, recalling how she was ‘radical in her ideology’. As a chilling rendition of ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ kicks in, Liz’s bizarre influence over the family grows tighter. ‘I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s attached herself to Josh,’ the matriarch tells her husband, neatly juxtaposed with Birdie bonding with Liz over the cheerful lifecycle of mould: ‘It’s growing a new host to attach itself to, that’s how it blossoms and infects the entire ecosystem,’ she says. Liz is intrigued.
Capote Vs The Swans star Diane Lane plays a mother whose family is infiltrated by a former college pupil in Anniversary
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
But it seems that the rot infecting the country is far more systemic than mother-in-law issues. The official synopsis for the film, directed by Jan Komasa, describes Anniversary as ‘a provocative thriller about a very close-knit family that is torn apart as a new movement, “The Change”, envelops the country.’ A brief glimpse of Liz’s college thesis shows that her own ‘radical ideology’ might have something to do with this Change, while scenes of police cars driving down suburban streets lined with stars and stripes, clips of brawls at Ted Talk-esque conventions, and Josh’s assertion at family dinner that the world is ‘dangerous’ all suggest that something very sinister might be brewing. ‘You have obliterated us,’ Ellen tells Liz towards the end of the trailer, ‘What more do you want?’ No wonder one commenter called Anniversary ‘Saltburn with a girl’.