Though What Josiah Saw may include rather expected tropes of the haunted gothic subsect of the horror genre, Vincent Grashaw‘s self-contained chiller continually subverts our expectations with a brutal eeriness that’s likely to divide its audience between those who are enveloped by its slow burn mentality and those who prefer their horrors far less subtle.
The Josiah of the title is Josiah Graham (a dominating Robert Patrick) who, when we first meet him, seems harmless enough as a drunkard with far-fetched stories. It isn’t long though before Robert Alan Dilts‘ script shades Josiah with a certain intimidation and terror, revealing himself as a malevolent presence in the lives of his troubled children – Thomas (Scott Haze), Eli (Nick Stahl) and Mary (Kelli Garner).
Josiah’s abusive mentality has left scars – emotionally and physically – on his long suffering children, and through a series of seemingly disconnected chapters we bare witness to how his patriarchal influence has shaped their adulthoods; the film’s first vignette focusing on the violent dynamic between Josiah and Thomas, the second presenting a more dramatic departure through Eli’s troubled existence, and the third centring on Mary and her husband (Tony Hale) and their struggles in becoming parents.
The ghostly aspect of the film’s story, which relays to Josiah’s own past and the longstanding town rumour of his wife’s own suicide in her attempt to escape his violent clutches, allows Grashaw to lace the film with a gothic tone that viewers are likely to anticipate. But in this familiar pallet, the filmmaker offsets nightmarish imagery and a haunting performance from Patrick that moves What Josiah Saw into unpredictable territory, resulting in the type of film that feels deliberate in all its unorthodox choices.
At times it does appear difficult to truly fathom what type of film you’re watching with What Josiah Saw. It’s a journey over being a simple narrative, and any initial detachment it suggests proves intentional as it fuses its plot strands together in a particularly unsettling finale. As much a haunted house thriller as it is a drama about the lingering effects of familial abuse, Grashaw’s chiller continually renews itself whenever you feel its found a comfortable personality.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
What Josiah Saw is streaming on Shudder from August 4th, 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8vKfzewuk
