For many people, lockdown has made us much more aware of how much we miss quality time with our family members – something we used to take for granted not all that long ago. But before the pandemic struck, adults spending more time than usual with their parents after they’ve left the nest often lead to arguments. Luckily, though, things don’t tend to spiral quite as far out of control as they do in Jake Mahaffy’s haunting family-centric thriller, Reunion.
Sharing the same DNA as contemporary successes such as Ari Aster’s Hereditary, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, or Natalie Erika James’ Relic, Reunion tells the tale of Ivy, a heavily pregnant woman who returns to her recently deceased grandparents’ old family home to spend time with her estranged mother. But, what begins as a tenuous reunion slowly turns terrifying as her return triggers a succession of traumatic repressed memories.
With Reunion releasing in theatres and on VOD/Digital Platforms this Friday, February 5th, SCREAM sat down with Mahaffy who revealed how the genesis for the film came about during a conversation with friend about eccentric mothers which lead him down a rabbit hole of research on as varied subjects as the psychological schema imparted to us during childhood, repressed memories and Jungian alchemy…
Words: Howard Gorman
