Benedict Cumberbatch makes an unmissable upcoming performance in horror-tinged drama The Thing with Feathers, which has just released an extended trailer.
The Doctor Strange star plays a recently widowed father of two who struggles to cope with the death of his wife.
As he descends into despair, the protagonist starts experiencing visions of Crow, a feathered creature who taunts him about his grief.
The trailer sees Cumberbatch’s character, known just as Dad, grappling with this unwanted presence in his home as his children realise there’s something off with him.
“Dad told stories. The stories changed when Dad changed,” one of the kids says.
Vue Lumière
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Crow’s voice becomes a regular fixture in Dad’s life, whether he wants it or not. In one scene of the trailer, the protagonist has a meltdown in a supermarket aisle as Crow talks down on him from the speaker.
“You’re not real,” he snaps.
An adaptation of Max Porter’s 2015 novella Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Dylan Southern’s film received its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Next, it’s going to play at London Film Festival this month before it’s out in cinemas in November.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Thing with Feathers has a critic score of 53% out of 30 reviews.
Critics have praised Cumberbatch’s “excellent” performance (via JoBlo’s Movie Network), with Collider calling the movie a “harrowing and distressing, yet somewhat cathartic” viewing for people that have experienced loss.
Anthony Dickenson/ Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Elsewhere, some critics weren’t entirely convinced by the on-the-nose metaphorical approach to this study of grief.
“The thinly veiled metaphor ends up robbing the story of all emotional power – fulfilling the opposite of its intention,” IGN Movies noted in its review.
“Cumberbatch throws himself into the role of a father dealing with loss, but the film severely miscalculates what it wants from him.”
Finally, Looper.com called the movie “an inescapably compelling drama” though “its concept is perhaps a bit more interesting than its execution”.
The Things with Feathers plays at BFI’s London Film Festival, which runs 8-19 October. It will be released in cinemas from 7 November.
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