Son

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ivan Kavanagh directs. Piers McGrail behind the camera. Robin Hill cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 5 years ago.
• 2International production across 3 countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, United States of America.
• 3Directed by Ivan Kavanagh, shot by Piers McGrail. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Editor Robin Hill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Andi Matichak and Emile Hirsch and Luke David Blumm carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "You can't outrun a family secret.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt5624466 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Classified under 14 themes, including "detective", "paranoia", "motel", "gore".

The technical file

Cinematography

Piers McGrail

Editing

Robin Hill

Production design

John Leslie

Costume design

Tora Eff

Makeup / hair

Leo Corey Castellano

Sound

Aza Hand

Stunt coordinator

Lee Gifford

Runtime

98 min · 1h 38m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

Son (2021) ↗

Also by

Ivan Kavanagh

• 
  Never Grow Old

  2019 · ★ 6.0
• 
  The Canal

  2014 · ★ 5.8
• 
  Tin Can Man

  2007 · ★ 3.6
• 
  The Fading Light

  2009
• 
  Our Wonderful Home

  2008

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Son - Official Trailer [HD] | A Shudder Exclusive

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Son - OFFICIAL TRAILER

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• tmdb280390232022-08-27
  ★ 2/10

  Befitting its title, this movie feels like the son of The Exorcist and Rosemary – and in that sense it is proof that talent does skip a generation. It's as if screenwriter/director Ivan Kavanagh thought that revisiting Rosemary's baby was a good idea, even though someone else had already gone back to that particular well, and the result left a lot to be desired (I’m referring of course to Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby). Laura (Andi Matichak) is the young single mother of David (Luke David Blumm). One night, Laura stumbles upon a group of refugees from the Bramford Building in David's room. She runs off to a neighbor's house and calls the police. As it often happens in these cases, the police find not a shred of evidence of a home invasion, and one of the detectives (Cranston Johnson) obviously thinks Laura is one card short of a full deck. In contrast, the other detective, Paul (Emile Hirsch), is understanding, patient, and attentive – in short, he is so obliging that we immediately know he’s going to doublecross Laura sooner or later; it's just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Shortly after, David begins to experience symptoms of a disease that a battery of tests is unable to identify, but which we could call Regan MacNeil Syndrome. It turns out that Laura's father was the leader of a satanic cult/pedophile ring (a little too late to exploit the so-called satanic panic, ain’t it?). David is believed by all in the know to be the product of Laura being raped by her father, just as Rosemary was under the impression of having had sex with Guy, when in reality she had inadvertently become the devil's concubine (between the ages of 10 and 18, Laura, then known as Anna, lived a life of sexual subservience, and to give the devil his due, the newspaper clippings the characters look up are a very nice touch. Too bad the photo of the alleged victim depicts an incongruously smiling Anna/Laura). In keeping with the Rosemary pattern, David is not the fruit of an incestuous relationship, but of Laura's union with the prince of darkness. Now, as far as demon seeds go, David is rather underwhelming. To begin with, he has to eat human flesh; otherwise he becomes violently, and presumably fatally, ill. That is, the son of El Diablo is as dependable as a junky going through withdrawal. Sure, he's capable of subduing prey several times his size, but this is disappointingly pedestrian, especially when compared to Damien Thorn, who never had to get his hands dirty. The biggest problem here is that, while the best thing in the whole movie, Blumm's performance is not right for the character. David is (except when hunger overcomes him) more Regan than Damien (which doesn't stop Kavanagh from blatantly ripping off The Omen’s ending), and as such, we want him to find salvation, not see him embracing, so to speak, the dark side of the force.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Belladonna Productions

  US

• EL

  Elastic Film

  GB

• PA

  Park Films

  IE

Key crew

• Co-ProducerSaurabh Gupta
• Executive ProducerJan Pace
• Executive ProducerAna Habajec
• CastingSig De Miguel
• Executive ProducerEmile Hirsch
• Co-ProducerPiiyush Singh
• Executive ProducerAndy Mayson
• Executive ProducerMiten Shah
• Executive ProducerAli Jazayeri
• Executive ProducerLesley McKimm
• ProducerAnneMarie Naughton
• Executive ProducerJ.B. Shah
• Executive ProducerAbeer Thapar
• Co-ProducerRatan Ginwalla
• ProducerRene Bastian
• Co-ProducerAbhayanand Singh
• Line ProducerKevin Ivey
• Executive ProducerJames Atherton
• Executive ProducerAmar Thapar
• Executive ProducerWill Clarke
• Executive ProducerMike Runagall
• MusicAza Hand
• Line ProducerRyan Lough
• Co-Executive ProducerLinda Moran

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• detective
• paranoia
• motel
• gore
• murder
• lucifer
• hospital
• doctor
• police officer
• illness
• satanic cult
• mother son relationship
• demonic
• cannibalism

Release history · US

When it landed

• Digital2021-03-05NR

Also known as

International titles

• เด็กผวาTH
• HerdeiroBR