Margaret’s horrific past begins tearing down her successful life when her abuser David returns with intentions to control her once more. He threatens her daughter, manipulates her into various forms of punishment, and drives her to levels of insanity. David is cruel and rotten, and Margaret is willing to go to any extent to protect her family.

Resurrection stars Rebecca Hall as Margaret and Tim Roth as David. Grace Kaufman plays Margaret’s daughter Abbie, and rounding out the cast are Michael Esper, Angela Wong Carbone, Josh Drennen, Winsome Browne, and more. It’s written and directed by Andrew Semans. “When you’re working with actors like Rebecca and Tim, they need very little… I would give very simple direction, and they would be able to translate it into performance immediately, readily, and beautifully, because they’re just so experienced,” said Semans.

Resurrection marks Semans’ sophomore feature as writer and director, premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It will be released by IFC Films in theaters on July 29 and on-demand on August 5. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home in November 2022.

Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth in Resurrection

When Margaret crosses paths with David again, for the first time in years, she immediately spirals into frantic despair, becoming overabundantly protective. It bleeds into her relationship with her daughter more and more, pushing her further and further away. It’s not until around the end of the first act, in an expertly executed monologue-styled scene that carries for several minutes, that Margaret’s past is fully revealed, shedding light on her trauma.

“I was absolutely ecstatic when we rolled the camera and Rebecca dove into that. It was nerve-wracking because if that doesn’t work, it just stops the movie cold, and I don’t know if an audience could ever recover. But by that time — we shot that about halfway through production — we were so confident working with Rebecca, and she was doing such amazing work that we had so much faith she was going to be able to land it. She sat down, we rolled the camera, we did it twice, and we had two brilliant takes… and as I sat there watching her do it, I was just over the moon… She knew precisely what to do,” explained Semans.


Semans also commented on how Roth delivered his performance, pouring on just the right amount. “One thing that Tim really wanted to do is not play the character as some over-the-top villain, as someone who’s just oozing malevolence, danger, and violence all the time. He wanted to play the character as someone who thought he was the hero of his own story, as kind of the romantic lead who was doing right… he wanted to play the character in a natural, low-key way, which he felt was going to be more truthful and, in the end, more frightening. I think he was correct to do so.”

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The Ending of Resurrection

Without giving anything away, the ending of Resurrection leaves room for interpretation. That’s certainly not a knock on execution, however, as all the elements leading into the ending are what allows viewers to invest in deconstructing it. The performances, the script, or the score by Jim Williams providing an “emotional undercurrent,” as Semans put it.


“It’s an ambiguous ending on purpose. It’s not something where it’s like a riddle, and you can solve it if you pay close enough attention. There are no right or wrong answers. I encourage anybody to take away what they think is most interesting, valuable, and provocative. From this ending, my hope is that even though it doesn’t follow a realistic ending, my hope is that it’s emotionally realistic, that it feels that the sense of catharsis and sense of redemption that Margaret experiences through this ending are satisfying and consistent with what happened before. Even if the movie takes a turn into different spaces, that an audience member feels that it’s worth their thought, consideration, and conversation at the end. Now, of course, I have my own feeling about what happens, my own kind of preferences, but I don’t really want to inflict that on an audience because a part of the fun of an ending like this, is bringing your own ideas to it.”


Resurrection is a production of Secret Engine, Square Peg, and Tango Entertainment.