MATRIARCH (2022) — bensteinerfilm

My debut feature MATRIARCH (originally entitled WORMEATER) was commissioned and funded by Hulu and is streaming worldwide on Disney+ and Hulu.

MATRIARCH stars Jemima Rooper and Kate Dickie as LAURA and CELIA BIRCH, a long-estranged daughter and mother who are reunited after Laura mysteriously survives a fatal overdose. Claiming to be acting on a mother’s intuition, Celia contacts Laura the day after her near death experience and lures her back to the village from which Laura ran away as a teenager, promising to take care of her. But as Laura’s body starts to secrete a strange black ooze, the village’s shocking secrets come bubbling to the surface.

You can read a STARBURST Q&A about the making of MATRIARCH here, watch an interview with the CINEMONDO PODCAST gang here and read an interview with BRISTOL CITY OF FILM here.

SCREENINGS:

Screamfest 2022 (Los Angeles, US)

Telluride 2022 (Colorado, US)

Celluloid Screams 2022 (Sheffield, UK)

AWARDS:

Audience Gold Award, Best Feature, Celluloid Screams 2022

ROTTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS SCORE: 85%

REVIEWS:

‘Oozy and disturbing… Classy in every department’- Stephen Volk, writer of GHOSTWATCH

‘Bonkers… wow… definitely worth a watch’ - Mark Kermode

‘Not sure I’ve seen anything like it… damn insane’ - Brad Miska, founder of BloodyDisgusting.com

‘A simmering powder keg of a film with a satisfyingly fantastical payoff’ - Martin Unsworth, STARBURST MAGAZINE