Death is no easy thing to deal with for a family, but usually there’s a recognizable pattern in how we deal with it. When we mess with that pattern? That’s where things go wrong, as evidenced in the trailer for the new Shudder film The Surrender, starring The Boys breakout Colby Minifie. Released ahead of the film’s May debut on the streamer, the trailer gives us a gut-wrenching peek into an unusual ritual that dares to ask what happens when humans try to defy death.
Minifie stars alongside Kate Burton in the film written and directed by Julia Max in her feature film debut. Also starring Neil Sandilands, Vaughn Armstrong, Mia Ellis, Pete Ploszek, Chelsea Alden, Alaina Pollack, Riley Rose Critchlow, and Lola Prince Kelly, The Surrender’s logline is as follows:
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead. As the bizarre and brutal resurrection spirals out of control, both women must confront their differences as they fight for their lives – and for each other.
The trailer gives us a good look at both Minifie’s character’s daddy issues and her fraught relationship with her mother, who refuses to communicate like a normal person, as well as the mysterious ritual she’s dragged into. Characterized by a lot of pentagrams and ultimately disaster, it spells madness and chaos for everyone involved, proving that it’s probably just better to pay those expensive funeral home costs and be done with it.
The Surrender is executive produced by Susan Gelb, Adam Maffei, and Rob Massar, with producers Mia Chang, Lovell Holder, Robert J. Ulrich, Max, and Ian McDonald. The film had its premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, and is Max’s first feature-length film after directing the shorts Pieces of Me, Distortion, and The Colonies.
The Surrender premieres on Shudder on May 23. Check out the trailer below:
