There has been an increased interest in Shudder original movies over the last few years that has earned it the reputation of “Netflix for horror”. Its biggest successes – the timely and terrifying Zoom horror Host, the Peabody Award-winning La Llorona, and the popular television adaptation of Creepshow – put it at the forefront of the genre with inventive stories from previously unexplored perspectives. But that doesn’t stop them falling into the Netflix model of mixing ingenuity with familiarity, as Son demonstrates.
It opens with Laura (Andi Matichak, best known as Allyson in the new Halloween trilogy), pregnant and on the run from something, or someone. One jump in time later, she is living happily with her son David when he suddenly starts suffering a mysterious illness and those that she ran from start to re-enter her life. As writer and director, Ivan Kavanagh shows great control of the story he wants to tell and how to do it effectively. It is a fairly predictable tale but it has a stripped-down, bare-bones quality that makes for an entertaining watch.
It helps that the drama is rooted in two rock-solid performances. Matichak and Luke Blumm make a convincing mother and son whether in scenes of comforting jokiness or intense distress. It helps that both are familiar with the genre and know exactly what sort of movie they are in. Blumm has surprisingly good credentials for an eleven-year-old having been in an episode of The Walking Dead and being a self-professed horror fan in the behind the scenes feature. This fandom bleeds into his character with him playing scary zombie games before going to sleep under a poster of Plan 9 From Outer Space.
While the use of newspaper clippings and flashbacks for clunky exposition is prevalent, it’s interesting to see the deleted scenes that are even less subtle, so credit to the film for being as lean as it is.
Ultimately though, Laura is the centre of the story with more focus on how she responds to David’s illness than on his suffering. She’s really put through the wringer as she struggles to come to terms with losing her son to a mysterious illness, a particularly resonant situation for the current moment. Matichak really holds the film together as she adjusts to each new dread-inducing horror as well as creating believable chemistry between her and charming detective Paul (Emile Hirsch shining in his underused role, though he does grow more prominent as the film unfolds).
As for the film around her, it is stronger on atmosphere than plot, though it is still serviceable. It’s a classic cult story that feels especially familiar to me having reviewed Dementer here recently. It’s ambiguity over whether the cult is real or just a manifestation of Laura’s overprotective paranoia is a tried and tested formula that nonetheless always hooks me in. It helps that Kavanagh knows how to create tension though he isn’t afraid of using the overdone tactic of having quiet dialogue scenes lead into sudden loud horror scares. While the use of newspaper clippings and flashbacks for clunky exposition is prevalent, it’s interesting to see the deleted scenes that are even less subtle, so credit to the film for being as lean as it is.
Before I finish, a quick peek behind the curtain, I am writing this review over three weeks after the Blu-Ray has come out. Life stuff gets in the way as it always does, but it is also true that I struggled to find a lot to say about Son. This is a solid thriller that is perfectly suited to be stumbled onto scrolling through a streaming service rather than going out of your way to buy it on disc. I don’t mean that pejoratively though, it’s a solid film that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but has plenty of creeping unease and a believable mother-son relationship that is sincerely moving. As filler horror movies go, this one is certainly more memorable than most.
SON (2021) IS OUT NOW ON ACORN MEDIA BLU-RAY
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THANKS FOR READING MIKE’S REVIEW OF SON
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