The Surrender

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

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
Countries	Canada United States
Language	English

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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."^[3] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[4]

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."^[5] 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."^[6]