The Dreadful (2026)
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A woman caught between a crude, survivalist relative and a mysterious soldier must navigate a landscape of religious guilt and supernatural dread.
The story
Set in the late-medieval period, Anne and her mother-in-law, Morwen, are struggling peasants awaiting the return of Anne's husband, Seamus, from the Wars of the Roses. While Anne is devout and gentle, Morwen is a crude grifter. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Jago, Seamus's childhood friend, who claims to have news of the husband's fate. As Anne begins to see visions of an armored knight in the woods, she finds herself caught between Morwen's desperate, often violent methods of survival and Jago's growing presence in her life. The two women must navigate their shared history and the looming shadows of a mysterious, potentially supernatural, threat.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Anne and her mother-in-law, Morwen, are peasants living in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses. When Jago, a friend of Anne's husband Seamus, arrives claiming Seamus was killed by thieves, Anne begins seeing a mysterious armored knight. Morwen, a ruthless survivor, treats Jago with suspicion but eventually uses Anne as a distraction to commit crimes. After a series of escalating tensions and a shared night with Jago, Anne eventually flees Morwen's control. However, she discovers Jago has lied about Seamus's death; Seamus had actually become a violent man who killed a knight and stole his cursed helmet. In a final confrontation, it is revealed that Morwen had previously killed her own son and was trapped in a grotesque form by the helmet. Anne eventually rejects both men, claims the helmet for herself, and is left alone with the whispering artifact.
- First release year
- 2026
- Runtime (minutes)
- 94
- Production countries
- United Kingdom; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Natasha Kermani
- Writers
- Natasha Kermani · writer
- Cast and characters
- Kit Harington · Jago; Sophie Turner · Anne; Marcia Gay Harden · Morwen; Laurence O'Fuarain · Seamus; Jonathan Howard · Brother Penros
- Genres
- Gothic horror; war
- Themes
- Survival; Religious Guilt; Sacrifice; Deception
- Tone and mood
- Gothic; Dour; Atmospheric
- Setting
- Late-medieval period during the Wars of the Roses.
- Premise and plot tags
- Folk Horror; Period Piece; Supernatural
- Source material / true-story basis
- Shin Buddhist parable
- Reception
- The film received mixed to negative reviews, with critics praising Marcia Gay Harden's performance but criticizing the plot as tedious or failing to land its third act.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 33 · scale: 100 · review count: 7
- Production trivia
- The film was announced in February 2024.; The cast includes Kit Harington, at the recommendation of Turner after they worked together on the television series Game of Thrones.; Filming locations included Cornwall.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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