The Surrender

The Surrender
Film poster
Directed by	Julia Max
Written by	Julia Max
Starring	Colby Minifie Kate Burton
Distributed by	Shudder
Release date	March 9, 2025 (2025-03-09)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

The Surrender is a 2025 Canadian supernatural horror film written and directed by Julia Max, starring Colby Minifie and Kate Burton.

Premise

Robert, a family patriarch, is ill and bedridden, and is looked after by his wife Barbara and daughter Megan. After Robert dies, Barbara enlists the help of a mysterious figure to bring Robert back to life by means of an occult ritual.

Cast

• Colby Minifie as Megan
  • Alaina Pollack as Young Megan
• Kate Burton as Barbara
  • Chelsea Alden as Young Barbara
• Vaughn Armstrong as Robert
  • Pete Ploszek as Young Robert
• Riley Rose Critchlow as Lacey
• Mia Ellis as Nikki
• Neil Sandilands as The Man

Release

The Surrender was released in the United States on March 9, 2025 at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 40 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Extracting a maximum amount of creepy mood from a simple setup while reaching surprising poignancy as a mother-daughter story, The Surrender is a victorious feature debut from writer-director Julia Max." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Simon Abrams, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the movie 3 stars out of 4, praising the performances and calling it "an eerie and accomplished gut-muncher that also happens to have grief and mother-daughter trauma on its mind." Shaina Weatherhead, writing for Collider, said that the film is "unafraid to take risks" and "ultimately delivers a fraught family drama replete with gag-inducing body horror and a whole lot of blood."

External links

• The Surrender at IMDb
• The Surrender at Rotten Tomatoes