We Still Say Grace review – religious horror strays from the path of credibility
Nothing else in this schlocky horror-thriller comes anywhere close to matching its cheerfully grotesque opening. Harold, a white-bearded Bible-quoting hellfire fanatic (played by Bruce Davison), is presiding over a last supper; his wife and teenage daughters look terrified. After they’ve finished, he tells them that the wine was poisoned – they should prepare to meet their maker. Except it turns out not to be true. The whole thing is a sick test of the women’s submissiveness to him, their lord and master (though there is nothing godly about the way he squeezes his daughter’s knee). It is the last genuine moment of actual tension in this silly, derivative and wildly unconvincing film.
Harold and his family live cut off from the modern world on a farm 30 miles from their closest neighbour. They dress in simple homemade clothes like the Amish and, crucially for the plot, don’t have a phone, a car or even a horse). Harold’s wife Betty (Arianne Zucker) and his eldest daughter Sarah (Rita Volk) are true believers, but the script is thunderingly uncurious about how they might be identifying with him as their abuser. Daughter number two, Maggie (Holly Taylor), reads books so we know she’s going to be trouble. When a trio of young guys knock at the door – their car has broken down – Maggie sees her chance to escape.
Harold puts on a show of good-oldfashioned hospitality for their guests, but pretty soon reveals his endless store of wrath for anyone who has strayed from the path of righteousness. Davison plays Harold a bit too genially: there is a likable Jeff Bridges energy to his performance, and not an awful lot of fire in his rants and violent rampaging. In fact, though the movie is played straight, it’s not remotely scary; there might have been more mileage in chucking in a few gags and turning the material into a black comedy spoof.
• We Still Say Grace is released on 3 May on digital platforms.