‘Forgive Us All’ – Review
Welcome to the end of the world, New Zealand style. And what an end it is. Forgive Us All, the debut feature from visionary duo Jordana Stott and Lance Giles, is not your typical slice of undead cinema. It’s a grimy, gutsy, plague-ridden descent into madness; and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen from the Kiwi film industry before.
In a post-apocalyptic world, a virus has transformed humans into violently deranged cannibals. A bereaved mother, Rory (Lily Sullivan) has lost everything and takes refuge in an isolated mountain cabin, until a desperate wounded stranger arrives with a story of hope.
Set deep in the ravaged heartland of Aotearoa, Forgive Us All marks a bold new direction for local filmmaking, shifting gears from lush fantasy and feel-good drama to full-throttle, post-apocalyptic horror. This is the kind of blood-splattered, nihilistic storytelling that feels more at home in the darkest corners of cult cinema! And we’re all the better for it.
What makes Forgive Us All such a gripping ride is the sheer audacity behind its creation. Stott and Giles, fresh off their business success in Australia’s food industry, have thrown themselves headfirst into the world of genre filmmaking. Self-funded, fiercely independent, and backed only by their vision, this is a passion project in the truest sense; recalling the scrappy ambition of Shane Abbess’ Gabriel or even early Sam Raimi. It’s pure grindhouse guts filtered through arthouse lensing.
As a director, Jordana Stott brings a distinctively meditative, female-driven voice to the zombie genre, a perspective too often sidelined. This isn’t a story about the last girl standing or survival by brute force. Instead, Forgive Us All is a character-first horror, drenched in grief, trauma, and the psychological toll of life among the ruins. The undead, here dubbed “Howlers,” are feral, screeching beasts straight from your nightmares, but they serve as backdrop to the human decay unraveling within.
Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) gives a powerhouse performance as Rory, a woman navigating a path of guilt and redemption through a hellish wasteland. Sullivan’s performance is raw, haunted, and captivating; every choice weighted, every silence thunderous. She’s the emotional anchor of the film, and under Stott’s direction, her internal turmoil becomes just as terrifying as the monsters hunting her.
Backing her up is a rugged ensemble of Australasian talent. Richard Roxburgh brings gravitas and grit as Otto, Rory’s steely father-in-law, the kind of weathered survivor who’s seen too much and trusts too little. Then there’s Callan Mulvey, oozing malevolence as Logan, a sadistically brutal enforcer of crumbling authority who thrives on pain and control. It’s a twisted, menacing turn, and one of Mulvey’s best in years.
Visually, Forgive Us All is fantastic to look at. Filmed in Queenstown, the landscape is transformed into a scorched, pustulent hellscape, with cinematography that fuses the eerie stillness of No Country for Old Men with the frantic gore of Dawn of the Dead. Deep burnt oranges, sickly greens, and radioactive yellows flood the screen, creating a sickly palette that feels both alien and uncomfortably real. The atmosphere is thick, the tension palpable. When the action kicks off—and it does kick off—it’s loud, brutal, and unrelenting.
While Forgive Us All leans into slow-burn storytelling, it knows when to bare its teeth. The third act explodes with nerve-shredding violence and some of the nastiest cannibal carnage we’ve seen in recent memory. The Howlers are not just zombies—they’re frenzied, skin-torn maniacs, and their final appearance leads to the film’;s haunting closing sequence that is the stuff of sweaty-palmed nightmares, and will leave audiences filled with a burning dread and deeply unsettled.
Simply put, Forgive Us All is a bold, fearless watch. A daring, blood-slicked statement of intent from two fresh voices in the genre, and a much-needed jolt for New Zealand horror cinema. It’s gnarly, it’s gravely, it’s deeply unsettling — and it’s absolutely going on the cult classic shelf!
Image: Rialto Distribution
