Editorials
‘Son’ – The Remarkable Exploration of Trauma in One of 2021’s Best Horror Movies
Written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh, 2021’s Son is one of the most fascinating works of psychological horror I’ve seen recently, and I feel it should be getting a lot more recognition. Its premise already seethes with mystique – years after a young mother named Laura (Andi Matichak) has escaped a cult, she walks into her son David’s (Luke David Blumm) room one night to find several people surrounding him. Overtime, he becomes horribly sick, requiring human flesh and blood to survive.
How far is this mother willing to go to protect her child? Who were those people? What was the cult all about? These are the questions the film prompts immediately into the viewer’s mind, the writing establishing effective pacing in how information is provided to the audience. However, while the mystery behind David’s illness and the cult are captivating, Son’s real strength – what allows it to be so psychologically harrowing – is that of Laura. For though Son may pull viewers in with its supernatural/cult angle, what delivers greater horror is the heartbreak she endures.
Please note major spoilers to follow regarding Son’s plot.
The men tailing Laura at the beginning of the film already get us curious as to what they want with her; it isn’t too long before Laura brings up to a detective named Paul (Emile Hirsch) that a cult from her childhood is after her son. Why is this cult after the son? Why are they resurfacing now at this time in Laura’s life? Well, when Paul’s partner Steve (Cranston Johnson) does a little digging around, he finds out some additional details about Laura’s past.
Laura describes the cult as an organization that believes they are working towards resurrecting some sort of deity; the research done by Steve however shows that Laura’s actual name is Anna, and that she was forced into a sex trafficking ring. When the latter information is presented to us, it throws off some of our understanding and gets us to question what may be going on. This is a horror movie, so we expect some level of twist and turns involved – is Laura right and the cult is some form of evil religious group, or is Steve correct and this woman is undergoing a delusion? Though the film ultimately ends with an explicit choice regarding this, much of the narrative does toy with the audience’s expectations.
Because Laura is not a delusional, trope-ridden character – though she does suffer with PTSD – she displays a great level of comprehension regarding her state of mind. She understands the horrific environment she was raised in and that she was abused – she just believes that things went down somewhat differently when it comes to that abuse. In the years since her escape, she has sought treatment to help improve her mental state. At one point, she brings up with another character her efforts to address her trauma and her fear of slipping into psychosis. Laura isn’t the type of horror stereotype where one can just write her off as completely detached from reality; she is more aware of things than people give her credit for.
Part of the symptoms that make up PTSD is how one’s trauma can distort their past. Laura isn’t trying to cover up anything, what she believes is genuine to her. This element of Memory Distortion has a remarkable power to stir intrigue within the audience, keeping us hooked and curious as to where plot points will eventually lead. As viewers who may already watch a bunch of horror movies, and possibly a good number of psychological films, we are sort of trained to be cautious in how much we trust characters. How much can we trust what we’re seeing on screen when it comes to David? Does he really need human blood and flesh to survive? Could this be something Laura fabricated to cope with the new trauma of him being sick? When Laura walks into a room and finds him eating someone for the first time, she covers for him by taking the victim’s blood and writing the cult’s message on the living room wall – “He Is Coming.” She also includes their symbol alongside the message, implying that they are the ones who killed the victim.
I think this moment is brilliant in how it plays into the psychological narrative and audience interpretation. When the detectives arrive to the house, they think it’s Laura who killed the person and feel she wrote the message in a disillusionment. Perhaps stemming from archaic horror tropes we’ve seen a hundred times from other horror movies, we don’t know where to put our trust when it comes to character perspective. At this time in the movie, we haven’t learned enough about the cult to confirm how active they are as an organization. The cops could also just be ignorant as hell regarding the horrors that are after Laura and David. Regardless, it does bring a what-if element to the story, even if we are aware of David’s bizarre condition and things do become more explicit overtime (in terms of what is going on).
Son may have some supernatural and cult-focused intrigue working in its favor, but its core horror is that of the psychological. The narrative not only works to present the chaos and anxiety wreaking havoc in Laura’s mind, but is also gets the viewer to question the logic of actions taking place. The detail provided into exploring Laura’s trauma is both heartbreaking and remarkable. Her character thankfully escapes the role of problematic stereotyping, allowing her to be a fleshed-out character with agency. Playing into the concept of Memory Distortion creates a layer of curiosity and narrative distance as well, keeping the audience on edge and wondering what plot details could be real and what could be delusions.
Sometimes trauma in films is handled in such a gross, over the top way; a character may be completely detached from reality and be overtly neurotic. Or they’ll be plagued by an abundance of hallucinations, and it takes this giant moment of revelation to reveal that they’ve been living some kind of lie. While PTSD can certainly have a domineering brutality on some, this isn’t always the case for everyone, and those previous examples are dramatized Hollywood tropes to sell an idea of PTSD. Laura’s trauma is a realistic depiction, one where she is aware of herself, surroundings, and to a decent degree, her past.
Son provides a nuanced approach in exploring trauma. While it can be bloody, gruesome, and chilling in its supernatural aspects, the most devastating part of Son’s horror is the pain Laura holds and her efforts to save David. As his condition worsens, Laura’s state of mind also begins to chip away; not only because of having to relive trauma of her past, but because her son is also dying. When we see her with David by her side – the little boy in an agonizing, weakened state – it’s horrific. Son conveys a great deal of sadness that provides a painful essence throughout its runtime. Not so much dread or melancholy, but just this roaming sadness. That these good people are having their life teared apart.
If you have not checked out Son yet, I strongly encourage you to watch it. It is currently streaming on Shudder and can also be rented on YouTube. Not only is it one of 2021’s best horror movies, it is also a captivating work of psychological horror – one that displays great care in its haunting nature.
You can explore our Unveiling The Mind article archive here.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.