THE SEVERED SUN (2024)

4 stars

Blue Finch Film Releasing. Digital. 6th October

THE SEVERED SUN is a Brit folk horror set in the typical out of the way wooded area, with simply dressed folk, and set at an indeterminate time – perhaps in the past.

A family sitting – the dutiful wife Magpie (Emma Appleton) and her two boys, David (Lewis Gribben) and Sam (Zachary Tanner). Waiting for the husband to arrive to drink the poison that she has poured for him. Later out in the woods the he dies.

The community gathers in a field. The pastor (Toby Stephens) is the leader of the community and preaches of how God spoke to them and that they are chosen (aren’t they always). He is also Magpie’s father.

She later returns to her husband’s dead body and chops off his hand. There are flashes of some kind of demonic creature. Into the gathered congregation a blood soaked Magpie wanders – the death of her husband is seen as an accident. However, her presence causes tensions within the people of the group — despite evidence that her husband was abusive. Accusations of witchcraft. She is drifting away from her religious upbringing. Will her strict father allow this? Her turning away from the teachings becomes manifest in a horned creature that begins to kill off the men (who are of course sinners behind closed doors).

An expansion of writer/director Dean Puckett’s 2018 short THE SERMON, this is slow paced and moody and initially feels a bit enigmatic. The sun kissed cinematography by Ian Forbes captures the isolated community and the film depicts a strong woman who is seen as a threat to the male dominated religious group. Mixing strict religion with horror, it explores the use of fear – real or imagined – to keep people in line. With a creeping sense of terror, this doesn’t shy away from the gore, and we also get incest and inferences of homosexuality within this repressed flock. There is talk of a fallen world – is that just that it is irreligious or has something happened in the wider world? This is mentioned in passing and not expanded on. Well acted by Emma Appleton and Toby Stephens.

Steve Kirkham