Grimmfest 2018 - I'll Take Your Dead

Director: Chad Archibald

Cast: Aidan Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro, Brandon McKnight, Ari Millen

Synopsis: William has a simple job: he makes dead bodies disappear. His little farm house in the country has become a dumping ground for the casualties of the gang related murders in the nearby city. His daughter Gloria has become used to corpses being dropped off at the house and is even convinced that some of them are haunting the place. And then a woman is dropped off who proves to be still alive...

Grimmfest say: There are some ghosts that you can't lay to rest...

Chad Archibald, director of the Antisocial films, makes a welcome return to Grimmfest with something very different: a low-key rural-gothic crime drama with supernatural elements. A sulphurous study of guilt and redemption, of good men forced to do bad things just to hold onto what they have, of innocence and decency surviving in the face of unspeakable horror, it recalls the early novels of David Morrell, and has the starkness, deceptive simplicity and rich character interplay of a classic Budd Boetticher Western. Beautifully shot, making great use of its wintery landscape and isolated farm location, and anchored by a remarkable performance from young Ava Preston as Gloria, it's a film that manages to remain genuinely surprising and unpredictable, even as it builds up to the inevitable final, fatal confrontation.

What I'm Expecting: My hope is to get a sort of western-horror combo. If you can imagine merging Shane with Straw Dogs then that's the sort of thing I'm expecting. I have to say, this talk of the film having 'supernatural elements' has me intrigued too: the set-up sounds terrifying enough without the need for anything paranormal lurking in the woodwork, so much so, I'd expect the 'supernatural elements' to be more in the background; used to advance the plot. Whatever the case may be, I'll Take Your Dead is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.