“The Withering” (2026) may be filmmaking on a budget, but the quality of the storytelling is priceless with an old-school, small-town Stephen King vibe with an epic potential like “The Stand” (1978). Being diagnosed with cancer has not made seventy-something year old Judith Faraday (Debra J. Onsager) into a better person. Instead, she starts amping up her mischievous ways regardless of who it affects even endangering herself. In contrast, her nurse, Haley Sumner (Gareth Tidball), is an earnest goody two shoes addicted to responsibility and caring at the price of her own well-being. When Judith finds an amulet that heals her, she is not perturbed when she later finds out that it is at the price of other people’s health. It exacerbates others’ existing conditions until they die, but gradually the price for more time and life rises, which Judith does not mind. When Haley crosses paths with a town newcomer, Lana (Gareth Tidball), she wonders if she could be Judith even though she is way younger. Will Haley be able to save the town without succumbing to the same temptation that Judith enthusiastically gave in to?
“The Withering” is appealing because it is refreshing to have normal looking actors behaving like real people that you may know in a fantastical scenario. For instance, when Judith and Haley go to the pharmacy, they still must wait for the prescription even though it is supposed to be ready. Employed adults still live with their parents and cannot get jobs after graduating from college. People go out on dates at real restaurants with piles of food, not five star, expensive venues that are feasts for the eyes, but famine for the stomach. People go to work sick. While the acting is not going to win any awards, and some actors deliver their lines in a stilted fashion with zero trace of an organic delivery, the overall result is at least television movie quality.
Judith is a horrible person. She deliberately wreaks havoc with her wheelchair to grab Haley’s attention because she feels possessive of Haley, but when Haley is willing to spend time with her off the clock, she is nasty, but not wrong that Haley needs to take care of herself too. Most movies are unable to elicit sympathy for a character when they are awful, especially women, but as Judith gets worse, “The Withering” actually ratchets up the explanations, not the excuses, for Judith being a nasty bit of work, and she has a point. It is refreshing to have a movie that would not only pass the Bechdel test (two women talking about subjects other than a potential romantic interest) but ignores the patriarchal impulse to dehumanize women and make them perfect thus incapable of bad behavior or consequences.
Haley regularly takes a lot of crap to help people. In one scene, a woman curses her out and decides to take her frustration out on the Good Samaritan. “The Withering” often uses Haley as Judith’s foil and a way for the audience to meet the other people in Barlow, Wisconsin. There is not actually a town called Barlow, so director and cowriter Daniel J. Pico and cowriter Wil Loper were probably referencing King’s 1975 novel, “’Salem’s Lot,” which featured a shopkeeper called Barlow, who was really a vampire’s human familiar, i.e. agent in the day.
Haley’s sister, Sara (Zoe Fassler), suffers from an unstated mental disability, which is likely schizophrenia, and “The Withering” showcases the best depiction of the illness that I have seen in a movie though an incredibly functional version compared to others before the supernatural takes hold. Instead of criminalizing her, Sara has extra insight regarding what is happening in town. Attorney Charles Wheeler (David Kaye) exchanges some hilarious dialogue about empathy that you will not see coming. Lawyer jokes may be low hanging fruit, but it is a good and new one.
“The Withering” also does a great job of showing ordinary men. Haley’s old classmate, Mason Williams (Jarrod Langwinski), is just an average, normal, decent man. He has a job that he settled for, not a career. When Haley gets sick, he shows concern. When they date, it is a series of ordinary settings with pleasant conversation and a willingness to go beyond the superficial. Haley and Mason are awkward. There is no PDA, and they are just getting to know each other. Refreshing! Minor red flag: he gets more interested in Haley because then he could live in her apartment and have air conditioning, which is a modest goal, but not a reason to get invested in a relationship.
“The Withering” benefits from repeat viewings. In the first round, if you are wondering who characters are when they suddenly become important as if they were already introduced, the second time around, you will notice when the groundwork was laid earlier. It is just another detail to appreciate about this movie. When filmmakers do not have a lot of money, it is great when they devote more time and attention to what they can control. If the story could have been tighter, it was the municipal government shenanigans, which was still welcome because it was a natural source for humor and to reflect how the town was deteriorating. The exchanges between receptionist Gary (Mic Frommelt), Tony (Jordan Jael Thompson) and Ann Kinkade (Leslie Connelly) in any combination is quite amusing though it is delivered as if they were delivering the lines to the back row of a theater, but a slight tweak in direction may have strengthened the performances. If the satire about pandemic response and survival in the US and trying to remain functional was more central to the main characters, it would have worked even better.
The mythology feels real, and if there is a flaw, the trailer offers slightly more information about the amulet’s origins than “The Withering” because the year and location, 1903 in Egypt, is indicated onscreen. The sound department did an effective job of associating the amulet with a beckoning sound to indicate how it calls to people. The mythology comes in the form of a traditional prose dump right before the denouement complete with an old photo album and newspaper clippings, so whoever worked on those objects behind the scenes deserves praise. It felt a bit rushed but Julia Deane, who plays Laura Jackdaw and has a terrific head of hair, knocked it out of the park, and it would have been nice to get a peek showing how the amulet affected her in the town montages which show its effects. Some shots could have benefited from more money but still looked good such as the Northern Lights or the homage to “The Exorcist” (1973).
“The Withering” is the kind of movie that will leave you wanting more when it ends, especially the town’s reaction to the plague that hit their town. It will grab your attention for the entire runtime, which is not short at two hours three minutes, and you will not be tempted to look at your phone once. It works as a movie and could expand into a television series. Well done.
