Eight for Silver

Director: Sean Ellis
Screenwriters: Sean Ellis

Institute History

  • 2021 Sundance Film Festival

Description

In the late nineteenth century, brutal land baron Seamus Laurent (Alistair Petrie) slaughters a Roma clan, unleashing a curse on his family and village. In the days that follow, the townspeople are plagued by nightmares, Seamus’s son Edward (Max Mackintosh) goes missing, and a boy is found murdered. The locals suspect a wild animal, but visiting pathologist John McBride (Boyd Holbrook) warns of a more sinister presence lurking in the woods.

Writer-director Sean Ellis follows up his audience award–winning feature Metro Manila (World Cinema Audience Award, 2013 Sundance Film Festival) with this gruesome gothic spin on werewolf lore. Eight for Silver is a beautifully crafted period piece and a supremely effective horror tale. Moving from the creepy candlelit interiors of the family manor to the misty woods beyond, Ellis conjures a clammy atmosphere of doom and dread, punctuated by waking nightmares and sudden bursts of body horror. As Holbrook’s haunted hunter comes closer to his quarry, Eight for Silver takes an unflinching look at the monsters that lurk inside of men.

Contains extreme violence and gore.

— M.C.

Screening Details

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