"Son" a twisted, unsettling ride into darkness

Son (2021)

Following 2014’s “The Canal,” Irish writer-director Ivan Kavanagh makes a natural progression from one parent’s nightmare to another with “Son.” Though it initially doesn’t quite do more than expected—one can find a dash of “Midnight Special,” drops of “Let the Right One In,” a cup of “The Prodigy,” and a few slices of “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers”—the film is drenched in sinister portent and a willingness to wade into a wicked pool of darkness. A horror film about post-cult trauma and a mother's unconditional love for her child as much as it is about the spawn of something else, "Son" manages to creep under one's skin.

Kavanagh begins the film with an edgy hum on the open road and a subliminal flash of some infernal imagery that’ll be missed if you blink. Pregnant with her unborn child, a muddied and clearly distressed Laura (Andi Matichak) finds refuge in a diner. As soon as she realizes she’s back to being followed, she flees in her car, only to give unwanted birth in the front seat. Eight years later, Laura is a schoolteacher and a single mother. She has left her past behind her, but it has given her a son, David (Luke David Blumm). Their happily quiet life in Mississippi gets upended one night when Laura checks in on David, only to find a group of people surrounding him in his bedroom as he sleeps. Before she can do anything, the door slams and locks. When Laura runs to get help (in familiar Laure Strode fashion) and returns to her house, the people have scattered. David seems fine, the doctors run tests and find nothing wrong with him, and though detective Paul Tate (Emile Hirsch) can’t find any signs of forced entry, he believes Laura. Before she knows it, David won’t eat and keeps throwing up blood, as if he’s contracted some sort of illness. The side effects just get worse from there. If Laura wants to save her son, she will have to make some sacrifices. 

“Son” is effective in toying with expectations. It’s no long-kept secret that Laura was raised in a cult, and the film does reveal in dribs and drabs what actually went down in the cult to make her stop drinking the kool-aid and get out of Dodge. Laura’s mental health is also put into question, but there is such emotional investment in this mother and son that one stays on Laura’s side and believes the group of people in David’s room are actually after them. Andi Matichak (2018’s “Halloween”) is appealing and persuasive, rendering all of Laura’s extreme actions plausible as a mother who must cross moral boundaries to protect her son. Luke David Blumm (2020’s “The King of Staten Island”) eschews Damien Thorn-style stares when his striking looks caked in blood speak for themselves. Emile Hirsch also lends solid support as the trustworthy Paul, even if he is more so along for the ride.

When it’s time for “Son” to get horrific (and gory), it does not hold back, even on those who don’t deserve it. Then again, when Laura and David’s on-the-lam journey finds them in a seamy, neon-lit motel, it’s safe to say that a bald, tatted, abusive pimp (a perfectly reprehensible David Kallaway) who smokes through a hole in his throat will not be around much longer. The fleabag motel setting in particular is most atmospheric, as danger builds on top of danger, and cinematographer Piers McGrail shoots it all with a classically moody clarity. As the story wraps up, the film throws in one more red herring before revealing something unexpected. It’s in the closing moments that make “Son” even more twisted and unsettling than it already began.

Grade: B

RLJE Films is releasing “Son” (98 min.) in theaters and on digital and on demand March 5, 2021.