Benedict Cumberbatch’s savage bereavement horror sank its claws into me

The Thing with Feathers is the type of small scale British indie film which would get a lot less notice, affecting as it may be, without the pull of star Benedict Cumberbatch.

But this unusual and visceral examination of grief deserves your attention for the bold and sometimes uncomfortable way it approaches a young family’s struggle in the wake of a sudden death.

The Thing with Feathers flies closest in genre terms to ‘bereavement horror’, whether that be with its awkward frights – a school parent too keen to ambush Cumberbatch’s unnamed ‘Dad’ with their performative sympathy over his wife’s passing – or the more viscerally terrifying – a giant, bullying crow.

Dylan Southern adapts and directs this version of Max Porter’s 2015 novella Grief is the Thing with Feathers, turning it into a raw and desperately sad tale that’s a bit more cinematically digestible than its multi-perspective source material.

Cumberbatch’s character is clearly struggling to cope on his own with his rambunctious young sons (twins Richard and Henry Boxall, making their debut), while also failing to come up with anything for his next book, save for an ominous-looking scribbled crow.

But things take a sinister turn one evening when Dad receives a mocking voicemail message and the doorbell sounds: suddenly he has an uninvited and rather unbalanced house guest in the form of Crow, a new and chilling manifestation of his unmanaged grief.

This looming, giant cloaked bird, barely fully seen but always heard, is all sharp beak, ominous talons and inky black feathers. Brought to life by performer Eric Lampaert on stilts and with an animatronic head, Crow’s tangible presence makes the character seem both more possible and more daunting – even if it occasionally wobbles into the oddly comedic.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter star David Thewlis brings Crow’s voice to life with both mischief and malice in his growled Lancashire intonation.

The film has a vein of dark and savage humour running through it, most often heard in Crow as he jumps into everyday situations to ambush Dad, like at the supermarket, calling him ‘English widower’, ‘sad dad’ and deriding him as a ‘middle-aged, middle class, Guardian-reading, beard-stroking, farmers’ market’ attendee.

It’s the brutal things we say to ourselves in times of pain as Crow berates the father and even promises his sons that he can bring their mother back to life for a day as a reward in a moment of breathtaking cruelty.

However, it’s often unclear what is and isn’t happening in Dad’s head as lines blur between reality and his torment, sometimes to the detriment of the narrative.

The Thing with Feathers is naturally theatrical in its storytelling – the book has also been adapted successfully for the stage, starring Cillian Murphy, and is perhaps where it would feel most comfortably at home as an adaptation.

However, the film’s boldness is striking, even if every choice doesn’t land. Cumberbatch is also one of few actors who has the wide-ranging skillset to offer both tight-lipped, quiet repression and a big impersonation of a crow.

One of the film’s most poignant and honest moments sees Dad declare of his wife’s death: ‘I don’t want to come to terms with it, I don’t think there any terms that would make it alright’. It’s a heartbreaking line – and Cumberbatch is, unsurprisingly, extraordinary.

But for every moment of pathos there are also disturbing scenes with Crow, including a gruesome fight towards the end with innards being ripped out, abruptly bringing back the not-always-neatly-balanced horror elements.

But having said this, The Thing with Feathers is undoubtedly one of the most cathartic and unusual cinemas experiences of the year.

The Thing with Feathers is in UK and Irish cinemas from Friday, November 21.

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