The Eternal Daughter

A metafictional work elevated into something new: deeply felt and true as a story about parental enigma, spectral remembrance and ingrained British repression.

[Swinton] is masterful.

I was really moved.

The dialogue is atrocious, the horror notes farcical and somebody needs to return the smoke machine to Duran Duran.

The Eternal Daughter is hardly designed as a routine tale of the unexpected. It is a story not about spooks, but about sorrow, memory, subtle uncertainties.

With an eerie, plaintive woodwind motif in the score and sound design that emphasises every arthritic architectural grumble, Hogg leans into the influence of British supernatural storytelling – it’s two parts Hammer, one part Tales of the Unexpected.

The twist may seem inevitable by the time it comes around, but The Eternal Daughter is a skillfully made ghost story which highlights a filmmaker always willing to test herself.

The Eternal Daughter is anchored by a lovely dual turn from Swinton, who conjures two very distinct characters and effectively portrays the fondness and frustration that exists between them.

While the film is often infuriatingly ethereal, patient viewers will find it intriguing and deeper than it looks.

Joanna Hogg treats us to a double dose of Tilda Swinton in this nuanced, atmospheric and gentle ghostly tale.