I believe it’s safe to add yet another film to the growing pantheon of horror titles that are actually family dramas in disguise. From writer/director Julia Max (helming her feature debut) comes The Surrender, the story of a family in turmoil as patriarch Robert (Vaughn Armstrong) is bedridden, on the verge of dying. His grown daughter, Megan (Colby Minifie), returns home to find her distraught mother Barbara (Kate Burton) at her wit’s end as she prepares for Robert’s inevitable demise, or at least that what Megan thinks her mother is doing. As she begins re-familiarizing herself with their home, Megan finds strange trinkets and other objects around her father’s bed. Confronting her mother with her finds, Barbara flips out and puts everything back in place as if something important depends on it.
The root of this mother-daughter relationship is what The Surrender is truly built upon, and it becomes clear that Megan didn’t leave home when she was old enough; she fled a controlling father (who we see in flashbacks, played by Pete Ploszek) and a doormat of a mother (played young by Chelsea Alden; preteen Megan is played by Alaina Pollack), who took out her frustrations about her own sidelined dreams on her daughter.
But it’s only after Robert’s death that Barbara’s real intention is revealed, when she brings in a mysterious stranger (Neil Sandilands) to perform an extensive ritual that will result in her husband being brought back to life through a series of “surrenders” on the part of the women. The process will drain Barbara of every dollar she possesses and will require a few additional sacrifices along the way, but more importantly, Megan must be part of the ritual and Barbara will do anything and tell any lie to get her daughter to agree to it.
Naturally, her mother’s selfishness and Megan’s confusion about why she would ever want to bring back Robert in the first place stirs up every family issue these women possess. And the ritual itself is no picnic either; if even one tiny part of it goes wrong, the two might be trapped in a sort of spirit world forever. Director Max does solid work making the film atmospheric and creepy with what I’m guessing was a micro-budget, but Minifie and Burton are so good here and convincing in portraying their strained familiar bond that they do a great deal of the movie’s heavy lifting in terms of its dramatic arc.
The Surrender isn’t afraid to get icky, although it rarely crosses into the realm of terrifying, despite a few jump scares scattered throughout. In the end, it’s the way these two women get under each others’ skin as only blood relatives can that propels and often props up this impressive first effort. I’m eager to see what Max brings us next in the horror realm.
The film is now streaming on Shudder.
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