The Big Picture
Family Portrait
explores familial delusion and connection, with a surreal horror atmosphere.- Sound design and well-framed shots contribute to the eerie experience.
- The film touches on the pandemic and our tendency to numb ourselves to coming crisis.
Watching Family Portrait, the fascinating feature debut by writer-director Lucy Kerr that begins as a slippery drama before gradually descending into something closer to surreal horror, I remembered how much I dislike taking family Christmas card photos. The ritual is one defined by a desire to not just capture a moment in time in order to memorialize it, but to cling to a happy construction, even when the reality of the situation may not actually match up with this, that you can then share with the world. For Kerr, this disconnect is the entry point to an ephemeral and eerie look at a family who has gathered for what initially seems to be an ordinary day in Texas. As they begin to talk among themselves, dialogue often overlapping and drowning itself out, you get the increasing sense that something is perpetually off. And yet, everyone carries on as if this is normal, hardly ever stopping to think about what is going on around them, even when death comes knocking at the door. It is then a portrait of familial delusion as much as it is the connecting force that holds them together: an intentional ignorance of anything that could disrupt the false tranquility of the cursed gathering.
As this haunting experience began to unravel, my mind leaped to other confident feature debuts such as this year’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell and the recent Skinamarink. This is not because Kerr is operating in the shadow of such visions, far from it. Instead, they’re united by their distinct approaches and patience in letting a series of well-framed yet often unassuming shots accumulate into something unexpected. In Family Portrait, this is enhanced with sound design by Andrew Siedenburg and Nikolay Antonov that starts out feeling like it could be capturing naturally occurring noises before a cacophony of dread begins to burrow its way under your skin. The dread that gets created has as much to do with the way what we see doesn’t match up with what we feel. Something is wrong, but hardly anybody is talking about it. Something bad is happening, but nobody seems to care. Even if the false family portrait may eventually get taken, this is merely a fragment of the full picture.
Family Portrait (2023)
- Release Date
- October 14, 2023
- Director
- Lucy Kerr
- Cast
- Deragh Campbell , Chris Galust , Rachel Alig , Katie Folger , David McGuff
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Writers
- Lucy Kerr
What Is 'Family Portrait' About?
We open with a scene of a family milling about on a grassy field, their conversations initially muted. It is like they are underwater with a strange humming sound nearly swallowing up all the sounds they are making. The camera drifts back and forth with kids running around wearing red Santa hats while the adults halfheartedly try to keep an eye on all of them. In the midst of this, we see a singular figure who is desperately trying to drag everyone over to a specific location. Katy (Deragh Campbell) is the closest Family Portrait has to a central figure, as she is one of the few people who seems to be not just aware but alarmed by what is happening. That she too is still clinging to the importance of taking a photo above all else proves to be deeply disquieting. After much herding, Katy successfully gets the group over to a location to take a photo, and we start to hear the conversations more clearly. However, it still feels like nobody is paying attention, as they all talk past each other before the title card drops. The film is then about following Katy, her boyfriend Olek (Chris Galust), and the rest of the family as they spend their remaining day (or is it multiple?) together drifting through time.
To get this out of the way early, this is a film that is, in part, about the looming pandemic. A key turning point comes when characters briefly discuss that someone has died offscreen from what they believe is pneumonia. When this information is first spoken of to Katy, Olek seems not to process it even as he is sitting right there before asking again if they are still taking the picture. This is already plenty horrific on its own, but the devastation that we feel is coming makes it even more so. However, while other films about the pandemic have been rather cloying, Family Portrait is one of the few that feels more honest and illuminating.
It stands apart because of the way Kerr and cinematographer Lidia Nikonova frame everything, capturing visually the chilling feeling that comes from our tendency to not look at what's important. A scene where a character discusses a photo of a family member in detail (which we notably never see) before drawing a connection to the iconic They Live makes almost cheekily explicit what it is that this film is similarly getting at about our capacity to numb ourselves to the sickness at the core of our lives. Much of the rest of the film is left far more out of reach, never once holding our hand as we see the way Katy is trying to bring everyone together just as her mother seems to disappear. There are times when we see cracks beginning to form in the humdrum interactions that the family has, be it in a character reaching deep inside his mouth in what seems to be pain or when two men have a bizarre conversation about a live webcam of a coffee pot. The off-kilter tone is the point, as everything lingers for a bit too long and is perfectly framed in exactly the precise way to create a haunting feeling that you can’t shake. Campbell is similarly excellent, with every expression she makes ensuring the final full plunge into horror in the end is all the more effective.
'Family Portrait' Builds to a Petrifying Finale
Without going into too much detail, it is around the 45-minute mark where Kerr takes some of her biggest leaps. Namely, it sees Katy abruptly extricate herself from one environment to go into another. Though she goes into the woods away from her family, it’s an act that feels less liberatory than it does constricting, creating the sense that we have become unbound from whatever it was that we were only tenuously clinging to before. While the film already felt less linearly constructed, this is where any grounding points get tossed to the wind. Kerr executes this shift with confidence, never once feeling like she has lost a handle on what remains rather slippery material. Instead, it gets more contemplative even as it sends a chill up the spine.
Too often, the imagery in films we take in can end up being merely consumed rather than considered. Kerr invites us to do more considering, letting us watch as the already troubled Katy begins to wander from her family and, potentially, even life itself. This culminates in a series of devastating final shots that rip the rug out from under you and leave a sense that something has shattered. Even though you might not precisely know what this is, this works in its favor and ensures its closing impact remains inescapable. There is almost entirely no dialogue to any of this, but it speaks with a poignancy that is no less petrifying. If you’re willing to take the plunge, it’s a haunting experience. Whether you come up for air or retreat back into the woods, well, that’s another thing entirely. Either way, best take a photo. It'll last longer.
REVIEW
Family Portrait (2023)
Family Portrait is a haunting feature debut from Lucy Kerr that is worth taking the often horrifying plunge for.
- The sound design by Andrew Siedenburg and Nikolay Antonov is magnificent, creating a cacophony of dread begins to burrow its way under your skin
- Deragh Campbell gives an excellent performance, ensuring that the final plunge into horror is all the more effective.
- Kerr remains completely in control of the whole experience, making the crushing conclusion all the more shattering.
Family Portrait comes to theaters in the U.S. starting June 28. Click below for showtimes near you.
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