The Holding (2011)

A heart-pounding suspense thriller, set on an isolated farm in England's beautiful, rugged Peak District.

Director:

Susan Jacobson

Writer:

James Dormer (screenplay)

Stars:

David Bradley, Vincent Regan, Terry Stone

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
David Bradley	...	Cooper
Vincent Regan	...	Aden
Terry Stone	...	Karsten Rabe
Kierston Wareing	...	Cassie Naylor
Georgia Groome	...	Gemma
Jake Curran	...	Noah
Eileen Davies	...	Store Owner
Skye Lourie	...	Hannah
Mark Harris	...	Mick (as Mark Cooper Harris)
David Hobbs	...	The Vet
Christopher Brand	...	Dean
Maisie Lloyd	...	Amy
Jarrod Cooke	...	Jed
Gregory Oliver	...	Frazer

Storyline

In the countryside of England, lonely farmer Nancy raises her daughters Hanna and Amy with financial difficulties in her farm with her only employee Cooper since her husband has disappeared a long time ago. Her neighbor Karsten and his son intend to buy her farm and are pressing the family in an abusive way. Out of the blue, wanderer Aden appears in the farm and helps Nancy with the delivery of the offspring. Aden explains that he was a friend of her husband Dean in an offshore rig and he offers to work for food and lodging. Nancy accepts the offer and soon she has a love affair with Aden. But either Nancy or Aden have dark secrets.

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Plot Keywords:

farm | suspense | peak | evil | debut | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 September 2011 (UK)

Also Known As:

Passado Obscuro

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pistachio Pictures, Pistachio Pictures, Notorious Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Nobody seems to get this one.

I don't tend to review many films here at IMDb, because I run my own review site, Apocalypse Later. However I felt I should chime in on this one as none of the other reviewers seem to have got the point of this film and I didn't want potential viewers to be put off by their comments.

Yes, there are similarities to The Stepfather. Certain scenes are overt homages to it. No, it's not a rip-off or a remake or anything similar.

This is a feminist take on that whole genre of horror movies. The strong characters are the women, all of them. The men are only physically strong, but otherwise weak. That the 'stepfather' character gets ludicrous towards the end isn't weak writing. It's making a point. The only man in the picture with any strength is the one who's too old to do much that's physical.

There's also a blurring of the roles of 'killer' and 'victim'. Traditionally, Aden would be just the killer, but it's shown that he's a victim too, not to elicit any sympathy from us but to highlight that his failings are because he's not strong enough to be anything else. He can't break the cycle. Traditionally, Cassie would be the victim but she's anything but here. Even when she's playing that role for necessity's sake, she's the strong one in the scene. She just can't match Aden physically so she doesn't try.

I'd really like to see what female horror fans have to say about this film, especially those who have been subjected to abuse and found a way out. I'm male, but it seems to me that this would be an empowering film for abused women, far beyond its value as a horror/thriller that doesn't follow convention. I've seen it twice and felt that it played even better the second time through as I picked up on certain details that I'd missed first time round.