Thine Ears Shall Bleed (2024) Review

Thine Ears Shall Bleed (2024) Review

Say your prayers for THINE EARS SHALL BLEED, a chillingly haunting new horror that sees a minister and his family experience unholy terror in the wilds of the American West. This fearsome feature from director Ben Bigelow hits UK digital platforms on 15 July, thanks to Miracle Media.

It is the 1860s and a religious family are travelling across the western states in a covered wagon. Ezekiel (Andrew Hovelson – SHADES OF BLUE) and Sarah (Hannah Cabell – LAW & ORDER, THE BLACKLIST), along with their children Abigail (Lea Zawada – FBI: MOST WANTED) and Luke (Duke Huston), hear a mysterious sound from the woods, which they believe to be a calling from God. They begin to worship it… but it is not long before their faith turns to unimaginable terror.

What they believed to be divine is far more sinister and they soon realise that they have welcomed an ungodly presence into their lives. Will their faith in the almighty deliver them from evil?

THINE EARS SHALL BLEED proved to be an unexpected delight. It is by no means perfect but does make for a solid watch, offering up a compelling narrative and decent performances. writer-director Ben Bigelow’s debut feature never sags or overstays its welcome and it takes a different approach to religion and satanic horror than both THE FIRST OMEN and its remarkably similar bedfellow IMMACULATE.

Performance-wise Hannah Cabell steals the show as the preacher’s wife Sarah, conveying her increasing change of heart to her husband’s constant assurances to his family that God has both spoken to him and chosen him to set up base in the inescapable woodlands with aplomb. For me Cabell is the film’s heart and soul and the one character that you truly route for.