Families can be such awkward beasts. Situations can arise where the reason they do so is due only to a bloodline. For example, a sibling getting into constant trouble at school, and you being given the task of keeping an eye on them, or perhaps an elderly parent, whose future of having to move into a home or not is your decision.

And it’s that very topic at the centre of this curious, so-called horror from the house of A24, delivered by another family connection all of its own.

It should be the happiest time of their lives for Belinda (Brandy Norwood) and Norman (Andrew Burnap), having a child together and moving into a new home, but with things not great on the job front for both, money is a real issue.

Then Norman gets a call one day, his father is dead. This means he has to attend the funeral, which he’s not looking forward to, as his step-mother Solange (Kathryn Hunter) will be there, and she made his childhood hell.

Things look up for the couple when they learn that the family fortune could all be theirs, but there’s one caveat: they have to allow Solange to move in with them and take care of her in ailing health.

Norman is far from keen for the deal, but Belinda presses home the point that they have little in the way of cash, moving into a new home with a new baby on the way.

But as the couple soon discover, bringing Solange into their home makes for a difficult family dynamic.

If you’ve seen films The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman, then you’ll probably be familiar with the name of their director, Robert Eggers. And this film keeps it in the Eggers family, due to the fact that his step-brothers Max and Sam make their directorial debuts here.

But, if you’re expecting the same kind of visual flair and creativity, much like this film, the fact that they aren’t connected by blood seems to make a difference.

Based on a short story by Susan Hill, this film of family conflict between the generations is described as a psychological horror. And never has a statement been more false.

There must be some kind of A24 manual that they have referred to, as it certainly has a look of an A24 film; the house is creepy, with unpleasant wallpaper, giving off a sense of unease. But the bros must have just flipped through the director’s manual because their approach to the subject matter is borderline farcical, and not in a good way.

Although we don’t know the character Solanage’s age, we know from her appearance, and the fact that she struggles to walk with two sticks, that she is both old and unwell. So to get across the fact that she’s unusual, they have her behaving like a troublesome elf, being mischievous around the home. And by being mischievous we do mean of course suffering from incontinence. So in a sense, the directors are making fun of her poor health conditions. So instead of diving into the psychology of it all, they have her crawling around like a pissing elderly gremlin.

It’s a shame because Hunter does her best to deliver an interesting character to the screen, who is apparently religious and racist, but everything the Eggers’ brothers have her do, comes across as a poor attempt at humour, rather than anything remotely registering on the horror scale.

You can kind of see what they were going for, the reverse of a Damien like child brought into the family fold, causing untold evil havoc, but with so many pissing and farting gags, it makes a mockery of any attempt to shock.

The result is akin to your Nan embarrassing herself and other family members with her behaviour at a gathering, which most will just brush off due to her age. The only thing you’re likely to be is scarred from embarrassment, much like watching this mess of a film.

The only thing horrifying about it is how they managed to get it made. If the answer was anything other than nepotism, we’d be shocked.

It’s no surprise that the film’s tagline isn’t “Horror has a new name – incontinence”, but then we wouldn’t be shocked to learn if it had been considered, what with those ‘edgy’ A24 guys.

A dreadful debut for the Eggers bros then, that they probably wished they could have kept in the family.