The Surrender is a story about grief first and body horror second. So if you love horror that immediately dives into the twisted and the brutal, this movie might not be for you. But if you’re here for an exploration of grief and the lengths that we are willing to go in the name of that grief, The Surrender is for you.
At the center of this grief are Megan (Colby Minifie) and Barbara (Kate Burton). Megan has spent years away from home, trying to carve out a life for herself away from her controlling mother and father. And Barbara, she is trying to keep it together because her husband Robert (Vaughn Armstrong) is knocking on death’s door and she doesn’t know who she will be without the husband she’s loved for 40 years.
MORE: Looking for more Shudder films? Check out our review for The Ugly Stepsister.
Megan and Barbara’s shared grief ties them together as they argue about everything and anything, from how much morphine to administer to Robert or what Megan has done in her life. And it reads like a family drama, more than a horror, because it is a family drama. It’s about blame, old wounds, and getting angry with those closest to you because Death isn’t as easily accessible to yell at. But just because it’s a family drama doesn’t mean that you don’t feel something terrifying looming right behind you.
Personally, I think it’s a brilliant move from The Surrender to not let you in on whether resurrecting Robert will work. Grief is a complex thing and Megan is going along with what her mother says out of respect for her mother’s grief. If it doesn’t work, Barbara has exhausted all means to bring Robert back, and she’ll move on and stop looking death in the face and saying, “No, you’re not taking my husband.”
The preparation for the resurrection is unique in design as well from what we’re used to seeing in Hollywood. I’ve never seen a ritual where the house must be cleansed completely of the person who died. And it’s a visceral drama to watch both the mother and daughter struggle with letting go, neither knowing if this is going to work but needing to do something in the midst of their grief. So they prepare, they cleanse, and they grieve; one thinking this is kind of crazy and the other one believing it will work.
Like I mentioned earlier on in my review for The Surrender, if you’re not willing to be patient, this movie might not be for you. But if you’re willing to invest and discover what that undeniable creeping sense of dread is as they prepare for this ritual… this is a movie for you. Because there is a point in this movie where you go from, “Oh, Megan is just going along with it to keep her mom calm and deal with her grief,” to “OMFG THIS IS ACTUALLY REAL AND I DON’T HAVE A FINGER!” And that creative choice, where you realize it’s real, is shocking to the viewer and makes all of the build-up worth it.
MORE: Want more horror featuring kids and their parents? Look no further than The Parenting.
By far, my favorite part of The Surrender is Megan’s willingness to help her mother. She’s not happy, she’s made that quite clear after seeing that big bag of money that speaks of the cost of this resurrection. But she’s not shutting her mom down like I expected. Instead it feels more grounded in our reality that grief manifests in unexpected ways and we could either help our loved ones or let them drown. Megan chose to help her mother. And sure it cost her a couple fingers, but she made her choices and surrendered to the grief of it when she lost both her father and her mother.
Stylistically, The Surrender clearly had a vision from the jump. I’m convinced that the director and writer Julia Max has a whole movie Bible about the creatures that Megan saw in the mirror, the wandering loss souls in the afterlife, that big looming demon that looked like it was stories tall, and the creature that had burrowed its way into her father and then her mother. There is intentionality and rules in the lore that we are seeing here and I wouldn’t be surprised if Max decides to build on The Surrender and the world that she’s clearly created here.
If you’re still reading this and you’re not totally convinced to watch, I’m going to take it a step further and say that this movie is in the same vein as the 2018 film by Ari Aster aka Hereditary. That supernatural drama had a slow burn that left you feeling disturbed before the horror hits you in the face. That’s what The Surrender is doing. It’s telling a raw story about grief and wrapping it in the brutal underbelly of what we’re willing to do in the name of said grief and the monsters that are waiting to take advantage of our pain.
The Surrender is available to stream on Shudder.
