The Surrender

Finally, something good on Shudder - and it's very good. The Surrender is a visceral slow-burn that you feel more than you see. It's a grief-soaked character study with horror woven in so subtly, it creeps up on you. Colby Minifie is magnetic - raw, restrained, and utterly believable - carrying much of the emotional weight with devastating ease. The supernatural elements take a backseat to something more intimate and human, which makes the unsettling moments land even harder.

What's most impressive is how much this film achieves on a modest budget. Even better, it's directed by Julia Max, bringing a fresh and powerful female perspective to the horror genre. Max leans into shadow, silence, and sound design to create something quietly haunting. It's not flashy, and that's its strength. This is horror that listens instead of screams - a proper gem in Shudder's line-up.

"The Surrender" is a supernatural folklore-horror that centres on a mother-daughter conflict.

Despite its promising premise-a meditation on death, grief, and the unbearable pain of loss-the story never quite fulfils its potential.

The writer-director Julia Max's feature debut reveals a striking eye for visuals and atmosphere. Her aesthetic choices are superb, especially in the film's last moments, where grief tension simmer beneath the surface.

However, when the narrative shifts from family drama to occult ritual, coherence begins to falter. The film descends into a kind of beautiful nonsense, evoking echoes of Hereditary, Talk to Me, A Dark Song, The Babadook, and, more recently, The Shrouds.

Max draws layered performances from her leads. Megan (Colby Minifie) and Barbara (Kate Burton) are emotionally distinct and compelling.

Barbara is cold and resolute in her quest to resurrect her husband Robert (Vaughn Armstrong) after a tormented illness, while Megan wrestles with doubt, torn between empathy and skepticism, burdened by the ongoing pain of watching her father suffer.

The core idea is clear, and there's real potential for emotional impact in its exploration of the truths we're most reluctant to face.

The narrative gaps and tonal inconsistencies are too evident to ignore. The film digs into deep themes but struggles to land with clarity and keep viewers engaged.

There are moments worth honoring, such as how the film plays intriguingly with trauma, hope, and monstrosity-blending psychological horror with gore and body horror elements.

It stirs something compelling, even if the final result feels more like an atmospheric sketch than a fully realised vision.

"The Surrender" doesn't over-explain itself-a refreshing choice in a genre often burdened by exposition. Yet at times, it veers too far into the cryptic, resembling a literal descent into a hellish purgatory, leaving the audience more adrift than intrigued.

Is it a bad film? Absolutely not. It's flawed, but not without merit. Flawed but worthwhile, especially for fans of visually rich, boundary-pushing indie horror.

While "The Surrender" doesn't quite stick the landing, Max's bold vision and confident aesthetic suggest she's a filmmaker to watch.

Horror needs voices like hers-unsettling, ambitious, and willing to take risks.

I strongly believe this movie deserves at least 6/10. Reminds me a lot of 'A Dark Song', which I think is also hugely underrated.

Here's why I liked this movie: 1) Perfect cast and acting. I notice these things. This movie is mostly played by just 2 actresses - and they do a brilliant job. That mom character got me angry like 3 seconds into the movie - too realistic!

2) Great canonical setup. The atmoshere, the ritual, the 'other place' - nicely done!

3) No unreasonable dialogue, no dumb actions (unexplained that is), no childish behavior, story is not driven by some unreasonable or unbelievable desires.

4) Its not drawn-out. Pace is good.

5) Execution, operator work, little CGI, costumes, decorations - production quality is high. I say that considering that Shudder usually produces low budget movies, yet this visually looks on par with any other movies out there. Dare I say it, nowadays many even 50million+ movies tend to look awful, unprofessional. This one on the contrary - delivers quality where it matters. Picture is simply pleasant to watch.

6) Drama is real, life-like, a tragedy, definetely comes from someone who experienced it, otherwise I don't know how they got it to be so precise.

Obviously there are also weak parts: 1) Story. The end is too abrupt. While it leaves room for speculation, it lacks build up, it lacks proper culmination, it lacks revelation. All these things could've been there with just a little push.

2) Horror. I get the grief, I get the manifestation, I know, this story is probably less about plain horror and more about one person's tragedy, and the drama surrounding it, but I'm just such a fan of a horror, I really want some detail to that part too, I want the theme to be explored and/or at least some clues to what exactly is happening. Yeah...

Overall, I was REALLY pleasently surprised.

This movie resonated with me.

But then a bit dissappointed too, I guess.

I understand the pain, all the pain in this one - I can understand all of it to it's depth - and its brilliantly portrayed.

But yet you've also made an attempt to involve more than that into this movie - a horror, a devil, an another world - and I was hoping for more of that. And I was also hoping for a resolution that wouldn't be so silent. The clearly was some room for that, why didn't it happen?!

Sometimes a movie night throws you a curveball, and this was one of those times. The crew-Willow, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow-went in completely blind for The Surrender, thinking we were just in for another spooky horror ride. The only thing we knew? It had something to do with a ritual. Sounded promising, right? Well, it was... sort of.

The idea behind the film is honestly pretty captivating: a family ritual where you're asked to "surrender" to something beyond life-spiritual, emotional, and frighteningly real. That was enough to get all of us hooked early on. But when the movie dives deeper into this ritual, especially surrounding the death of the father, it starts raising the question: why not just let the man rest in peace? Still, we knew if that happened, there'd be no movie.

Things escalate fast when the supernatural elements kick in. It is a scary movie-no doubt about it. Tails literally tapped out mid-way through when the intensity cranked up (no spoilers, but it got wild). Willow, Knuckles, and Shadow were vibing with the thrills, but both Knuckles and Shadow called out the main character for being kind of weak in those monster scenes. They joked she could've taken them down with half the effort if she actually tried. Classic.

Amy, on the other hand, got pulled in deep once the ritual scenes started going dark. Like, real dark. She was tense throughout-especially when the blood came into play-and said the ritual arc was easily her favorite part, even if it creeped her out. Honestly, same.

But here's where the movie kind of lost all of us: the pacing and the emotional drama. There's a lot of back-and-forth between the two main characters, and while we get it's meant to show grief and trauma, it felt repetitive and dragged out. The emotional weight just didn't land like it should have. The story kind of stumbled in building the supernatural world, too-like, the ritual was cool, but why it happened and what it really meant? That part was foggy and undercooked.

By the time it wrapped up, we all agreed it was fun to experience together, especially in the dark with the volume up. It had moments-definitely creepy, visually strong at times-but as a full package, it didn't live up to what the concept deserved.

Final score from the crew: 4/10. Cool idea, scary at parts, but not quite the horror gem we hoped for.

I went into this flick with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised, even though it doesn't quite stick the landing in the end. We follow Colby Minifie, who is visiting her parents' house after her father becomes ill and eventually dies. With a rather difficult relationship with her mother, she now tries to reconnect with her. However, her mother is planning to perform a resurrection ritual, and things obviously don't go as planned.

Let me start off by saying that I would love to see Colby Minifie in more projects. I already really liked her in The Boys, and here she does a commendable job as well. She is able to convey the emotional weight packed into this film but also has great comedic timing and an overall unique screen presence. Her mother, played by Kate Burton, was also convincing and portrayed the role of a grieving woman desperate to bring her husband back very well.

The movie starts off rather slow, exploring the family dynamics by combining emotional depth with small comedic moments. The mixture overall works well and pulls the audience into the narrative. Once the ritual begins, the first harrowing moments occur, and the movie picks up the pace slightly. Despite the slow pacing and dialogue-driven opening, it never gets boring.

When they finish the ritual, I was hoping for the grand finale that had been teased in the film's earlier moments. The tone completely shifts, and the setting becomes almost otherworldly, with the characters trapped inside a protective circle surrounded by nothing but black. It creates a tense and eerie atmosphere.

Without spoiling the ending, I have to say I wasn't fully satisfied with the film's conclusion. Sadly, the ending is often the most memorable part of a movie, and with this one showing such potential, it's disappointing that it didn't quite stick the landing. Still, it's a decent horror film that explores familiar themes in a unique and interesting way, even if it doesn't deliver anything particularly memorable in the end. I enjoyed the final product, but I couldn't help but leave feeling a little unsatisfied. [5.8/10]