What Josiah Saw
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What Josiah Saw
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that What Josiah Saw is a 2022 horror movie about members of an estranged family trying to move on from their disturbing past. This disturbing past involves suicide, sexual abuse, and incest. In one of the more disturbing scenes of the movie, the father of an adult son with developmental disabilities instructs the son to look at a pornographic magazine and masturbate for him. A flashback scene shows a woman's dead body hanging from a tree after suicide. Other violence includes ax murders, a nightmare involving repeated stabbings (blood shown), and characters shot and killed. One of the lead characters has just gotten out of jail after serving a sentence for statutory rape. There's cocaine and heroin use, cigarette smoking, and drinking in a bar. The father drinks whiskey all day and is shown passed out in a chair. Brief nudity (male buttocks) is shown as a man and woman have audible sex in a bed. Brief images show naked women in black-and-white pornographic magazine. Strong language includes "f--k" and some slurs. The movie includes some stereotypes of Romani people.
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What's the Story?
In WHAT JOSIAH SAW, Thomas (Scott Haze) lives in an old Texas farmhouse with his abusive alcoholic father, Josiah (Robert Patrick). They are the only members of the family still in the area, as Thomas' brother Eli (Nick Stahl) lives in an isolated trailer after getting out of jail for statutory rape, and his sister Mary is an art photographer desperately trying to live a relatively normal life in suburbia while trying to adopt a baby with her husband, Ross. Unable to fully escape their past, Josiah's three kids receive a letter from an oil company offering a considerable sum to buy the property for drilling purposes. Meanwhile, Josiah believes that the great evil of his wife Miriam's death to suicide must be avenged, Eli looks to pay back a debt by taking part in a robbery of a traveling group of Romani, and the traumas of Mary's past continue to torment her. Upon receiving the letter, Eli convinces Mary to return to the farmhouse of their childhood for the first time in many years, in the hopes of convincing Josiah to sell the property and also use this as a way to move on from the violence and deep dysfunction of their upbringing.
Is It Any Good?
This is a difficult and disturbing horror of the Southern gothic school. While ultimately a rewarding viewing in the way that the confusion one feels initially is made clear by the end, What Josiah Saw is a torturous journey in many ways. The story is told in three vignettes centered on the three adult children of a family from a farmhouse in rural Texas whose dysfunction is so complete, it makes the stories of Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor seem like sappy '80s sitcoms. At its best, it's an original and deeply unsettling horror movie, but at its worst, it's marred by clichés of horror movies, the South, and certain ethnicities.
It's a good but not great movie that seems like it has a shot at attaining cult status, as it's likely to reward repeated viewings (assuming one would want to do such a thing, considering what transpires in some of the more shocking scenes). It's a story of trying to break from the traumas of the past, and how difficult that is no matter how hard these characters try (and they do try). However, the movie is damaged by too-long scenes involving traveling Romani who are portrayed stereotypically. It's maddeningly close to being a great movie, but these forays into the Tarantino-esque (particularly with the second vignette) make the whole thing feel less inspired than the rest of it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies like What Josiah Saw. How is this different from most horror movies? How is it similar?
Is there stereotyping in this movie? Why is it important to be aware of stereotypes?
Did the violent and disturbing scenes in the movie seem necessary, or did they come across as excessive? Why?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: August 4, 2022
- Cast: Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Scott Haze
- Director: Vincent Grashaw
- Studio: Shudder
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters
- Run time: 120 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: August 5, 2022
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