Shudder just shared the official trailer for upcoming horror movie The Surrender and it looks like it could become one of the most twisted new releases of the year and it's coming to the streaming service this May.
The Surrender follows a mother and daughter overcome with grief after their family patriarch dies. Desperate to bring him back to life by any means, the mother hires a mysterious stranger to conduct a brutal resurrection. But when things spiral out of control, the ritual leaves everyone fighting for their lives.
Watch the harrowing trailer below.
Watching the trailer reminds me of another recently released trailer, that of Bring Her Back from Talk to Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou. I bet watching those two films back-to-back would make one hell of a double feature. It also has shades of the underrated 2020 film Relic.
There's several striking moments in the trailer that speak to the underlying conflict between the movie's central characters. One of the first clips in the trailer shows mother and daughter facing off in the kitchen, "Have you been smoking?" vs. "Have you been drinking?" That kind of rich personal drama will only serve to heighten the stakes.
Not long after we see Burton's character rip out some of her hair, so clearly a messed up ritual is not the only unnerving thing going on with this family. While the trailer doesn't give away some of the movie's gnarlier moments, it does showcase some bloodshed and disturbing imagery, notably with the ritual involving stabbing, blood smears, and eerie symbols carved into the floor.
The film comes from writer and director Julia Max, a Los Angeles native known for her short film Pieces of Me, which premiered at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.
Kate Burton of Grey's Anatomy fame stars in the film as the mother, while Colby Minifie (The Boys) plays the daughter. Neil Sandilands, Vaughn Armstrong, Mia Ellis, Pete Ploszek, Chelsea Alden, and more also star.
The Surrender is an official selection from this year's South by Southwest Film & TV festival. Critics have praised this "female-facing horror" for its dark gore and visceral thrills. Deadline calls it "a bloody genre reworking of Postcards from the Edge."
Starting on Friday, May 23, Shudder subscribers will be able to watch The Surrender at home. Also worth noting is that Shudder will begin streaming another notable horror film next month with the Norwegian body horror flick The Ugly Stepsister arriving on May 9.