An interesting place to start with ‘Son’ is trying to figure out where it belongs as a genre film. If the female lead is imagining a lot of the goings on in the narrative, it’s a psychological thriller. If she’s not, it’s more of a mild horror thriller with shades of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and others.
In a provocative prologue, Laura (Andi Matichak) is giving birth to a baby in the front seat of her car, outside a diner. She is not happy to be having this child, but flash forward 8 years and she is now a loving mother to son David (Luke David Blumm). She’s now a school teacher in a small midwestern town, and mother and son enjoy a small-town life together.
One night, she opens her son’s bedroom door to discover an entire group of people in his room. Screaming and running to the neighbor’s house across the street, they summon the police, but when the cops arrive…nothing. No evidence that anyone was ever in this room, except the son, who is feeling so sick that he’s vomiting blood and must be rushed to hospital.
So far, director Ivan Kavanagh is keeping us both interested and off-balance.
An understanding detective is introduced, played by Emile Hirsch. He either believes Laura or is willing to humor her, and his grounded, quiet nature gives us someone with whom we can identify and get into the story.
Skipping over several plot reveals here, I’ll just say that mother and son go on the run, staying in motels and with a safe friend or two.
As the tension mounts, Laura makes some, shall we say, “extreme” decisions that, again, are either the result of a delusional woman whose past has been full of pain, or someone who knows what horrible steps must be taken to keep her son, increasingly ill, alive.
Son feels a cut above the norm for a genre flick- it’s well-made, well acted, professionally directed. That said, its twisty final act feels less than revelatory – because the film never got much deeper than an “is she or isn’t she” proposition, the suspense is limited to two stark choices.
There are not many scares in a “horror” sense, but you will stay intrigued throughout its well-paced 90 minutes. And for the blood thirsty viewer, there are scenes that will satiate.
Son is now streaming on Shudder | 2 ½ out of 4 stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
