There is seldom a pain that’s harder in the world than losing a parent. When coupled with a strained relationship with the remaining one, everything feels worse. Horror has remixed the themes of grief and loss in every way possible. But there’s something about Julie Max’s “The Surrender” that delves deeper into the darker sides of the human psyche, exploring the different impacts of what it’s like for two people to experience a void from the same common denominator. In reality, you could look at this film is contained for its benefit. It’s confined to a couple of indoor spaces with four characters. At the center is a mother/daughter relationship that is frayed with guilt and resentment. However, the overarching theme is to what lengths one would go to say the one they love. Or a better question: is it merely out of devotion or co-dependency?
Megan (Colby Minifie) has come back home to help her mother, Barbara (Kate Burton), help her ailing father Robert (Vaughn Armstrong), who is knocking on death’s door. As he cries out in pain for morphine, they argue about the dosage. Megan wants to stick to the recommended amount, but Barbara doesn’t. It’s only a smart part of their rift that sometimes goes full knives out. To that effect, Max introduces slight flashbacks to when this family was younger throughout “The Surrender.” A realization unfolds by the end depending on whose peripheral you see things through. But things around the house are strange. When Robert is of somewhat sound mind, he complains about a scratching noise. When he unexpectedly passes away the following day, Barbara is shaken, but locked into preparation mode. Megan finds out from her mother that she has given every available penny (401K and all) to a non-descript man (played by a silent and ominous Neil Sandilands) who claims he can bring Ronald back from the dead.
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What? The signs of something nefarious happening in the house were there from the start. Weird crystals are placed in the rooms. Barbara makes something from the locket of her hair. She’s even way too eager to give up all of their worldly possessions for this one chance that her late husband can be Lazarus. ‘The Surrender” undergoes three thematic turns.. At first, the film is more of a tense family drama. The second act becomes a macabre, folk thriller. The film shifts gears by the end until it becomes a full-on occult horror film. The ritual itself starts innocently, only calling out for possessions. (Abeilt, for one characters, there are emotional attachments to what is given up).
As “The Surrender” goes on, it asks for more – where the more slightly gory scenes originate from. Call it a metaphor; it’s not really that hard to decipher. The film is entertaining at what it’s doing on the storytelling level because of the pairing of Minifie and Burton together. Megan is caught between how she looks at her father and the mixed feelings about her mother. Barbara is holding on to the impossible to obtain some semblance of normalcy. However, the inner conflict in how she feels about that is why “The Surrender” is a cut above films that scratch the surface. Where the film falters is once it indulges its cravings for standard horror setups. It’s more so in that the journey to getting to what the surrender ultimately becomes is more enthralling than most of the steps themselves. With that being said, the stylistic choices in creating what would be the embodiment of the dark realm pair nicely with the despair of not knowing what’s ahead.
Who are children without their parents, and what is life after the loss of a long-term spouse? The answers to those questions are scary within themselves. It might just lead you down the path of doing the unthinkable.
The Surrender premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It will be released on Shudder on May 23rd, 2025.
