101 Films, out on digital 22 March

When a heavily pregnant woman returns home to give birth in the bosom of her family, she discovers that families can be a nightmare, as she uncovers dark secrets from her troubled childhood.

Dysfunction exists to differing degrees in all families, but writer/director Jake Mahaffy’s (Free In Deed) New Zealand horror thriller reveals a familial dynamic more broken than most. The slow burn build-up never lets us doubt that something tragic has happened here, but how will it be resolved?

Julia Ormond (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) is matriarch Ivy, fussily tidying up her parents’ house ahead of a market appraisal, and never missing an opportunity to put down her daughter Ellie (Emma Draper). It’s a strained relationship to say the least, with the heavily-pregnant Ellie returning to a house full of bad memories.

Part of the movie’s MO is that we’re never really clear whether everything we’re witnessing is in Ellie’s head, or whether there’s supernatural activity in the old house (a wonderful set that reeks of decay). She starts seeing adopted sister Clara, who died in a terrible accident, but are these just vivid memories triggered by a return to the scene of the trauma, or is something stirring from its slumber that could harm her unborn child?

Ormond and Draper are on top form, scratching away at one another until finally there’s a breakthrough where what exactly happened that fateful day is addressed. Blame is a key factor here, driving years of guilt and an inability to move on. It’s a key driver in other recent family-based horror movies like Hereditary, Relic, The Dark and the Wicked, and it’s this sub-genre that Mahaffy’s chiller falls into.

More of a mystery and family drama than all-out horror movie, the final 15 minutes take us in yet another direction, the signposting being there from the beginning. Whether or not you buy the ending, or indeed whether that matters, will ultimately flavour your final appreciation of the movie.

Verdict: Ominous, unnerving and distasteful, the lack of big shocks and scares is somewhat compensated by great performances and a melancholy dread. 7/10

Nick Joy