‘The Dreadful’ Review: A Knight in Frightening Armor

Natasha Kermani’s The Dreadful reunites Sophie Turner and Kit Harington after Game of Thrones and faintly tugs at one strand of an interesting idea: the hard fact of hunger. The film is a deeply silly horror fable haunted by an ominous knight. Marcia Gay Harden plays Morwen, a dour, manipulative mother-in-law who is diligently cared for by Anne (Sophie Turner) as she waits for her husband’s return from war.

With him absent, Morwen calls the shots, her puckering menace nearly comical even as it underpins her cold-blooded actions. When Anne encounters her childhood friend Jago (Kit Harington), she learns that her husband has died under mysterious circumstances. Now a widow, she and Jago begin to cozy up, much to Morwen’s chagrin, and the household’s tensions sharpen into violence and theft born of desperation.

A mysterious knight in frightening armor hovers in the distance, serving as the film’s paper-thin motif and primary element of fright while much of the shock comes from the score’s earsplitting clangs.

the dreadful, natasha kermani, sophie turner, kit harington, harden, morwen, anne, jago, horror, knight