phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2025

The Surrender



IMDb Info

Release Year: 2025
Runtime: 1h 36m
Country: Canada, USA
Language: English
Genre Tags: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Plot Summary: When the family patriarch dies, a grieving mother and daughter risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual and bring him back from the dead.

Poster - Title Card


phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes: Ostensibly the story of a ritual to bring back a dead loved one, but really a tense drama about the broken relationship between a mother and daughter. Does a lot with essentially one location and two characters. The scariest parts of the ritual pale in comparison to the realization that toxic family dynamics are very difficult to break away from. Features an excellent ambiguous ending that will have you thinking about it the next day, if it doesn't destroy you first.


Outside Reviews:

Simon Abrams
3 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

Max skillfully brushes off formulaic expectations and delivers exactly the kind of ambiguous bummer of an ending that this kind of trauma drama deserves. This isn't just a fun indoor roller coaster—set almost entirely within Robert and Barbara's home!—but a decent two-hander about reconciling the various competing half-thoughts that squirm to your mind's surface as you process the sudden death of a long-suffering family member. "The Surrender" accomplishes a lot with a sketch-sized story and matching compositional agility and precision. It's short (less than 90 minutes!) and sweet and the best kind of upsetting.