“Son of Sara: Volume 1” (2025), commonly known as “Son of Sara,” is about the titular woman (Chloe Van Landschoot) who is pregnant after a one-night stand with Troy (Garrett Hnatiuk), who ghosted her. When she bumps into him, he invites her to meet his mother, Agnes (Jane Moffat). Ignoring her current partner’s reservations, she goes and discovers that the pair have an agenda and are interested in her child, not her. Will they get what they want? If you are fine with a mostly derivative movie for the first hour and a fairly solid final twenty-five minutes devoted to mixing some horror tropes in a fresh way with a message about women’s autonomy and a child’s well-being, then consider yourself warned and enjoy, but some may think that the lemon is not worth the squeeze.
“Son of Sara” is plagued with two-dimensional characters, which means the cast has a heavy lift to get their audience invested in their characters’ plight. Bi-sexual Sara is having a rough patch in the last part of her pregnancy but is fortunate to have her partner, Carol (Tymika Tafari), in her life to fully support her physically, financially and psychologically. If you even have a passing knowledge of “The Omen” franchise, “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) and “Hereditary” (2018), you will recognize that Sara’s symptoms are not normal. As long as you have innate sympathy for a pregnant woman, you should be able to sympathize with Sara, but it is going to be hard because she seems to run into the arms of heteronormativity without even a skosh of survival instincts until the red flags become visible from outer space.
Even though the movie is not supposed to be about Carol, you may find yourself rooting for her more than Sara because her character has a crap girlfriend and would not even be in danger if she had a better significant other. Tafari makes Carol into the most relatable character in every scene, but relatable is not the same as engrossing. If it was not for Sara’s bad decisions, Carol would not have much of a story. If you are tired of a strong Black woman holding it down and endangering herself for everyone’s mess, this movie is going to be a tough watch. Imagine having to work then deal with your pregnant lover’s nightmare family after she would not listen to your solid advice.
“Son of Sara” gets interesting once everyone arrives at the isolated farmhouse that has belonged in Agnes’ family for generations. It felt as if the movie would have been better if it was told from Agnes and Troy’s perspective, especially since the opening scene ruins any sense of suspense and reveals how they treat their guests. Hnatiuk is more riveting with his shirt off than fully clothed. Moffat has the most fun character as the clearly nightmarish grandma to be/boy mom. She is respectable in front of Sara, but a foul mouthed, verbally abusive mother. There was potential for a delicious ambiguity regarding whether Agnes was delusional, an abuser born from abuse, or a supernatural power player. Because writer and director Houston Bone has good ideas, but does not know how to stretch them out, he does not utilize his strongest asset, Moffat. He also could have devoted more time to Sara becoming reacquainted with Troy and truly tempted at the prospect of a feasible renewed effort to a societally accepted relationship. Instead, Bone is slightly as guilty as the mother and son and treats his characters as vehicles to get to the baby.
If you have issues with gross audio, you may want to skip “Son of Sara” because Van Landschoot earns her keep with tons of retching and other mouth noises. While “Saccharine” (2026) was more repulsive, it was more expected because it is advertised as a film devoted to an eating disorder and a cure with unusual symptoms. There are hair balls, puking and spitting blood. It is nonstop. A lot of the physical aspects of the story seem emphasized to run the clock on a thin story with not a lot of character development or dynamics. This movie has a low budget and suffers from the same problem that a lot of productions such as “Game of Thrones” have even though they have better financing: it is hard to see the nighttime or darker scenes depending on how you are watching the film. I saw the screener on a computer desktop, which is the worst way to see it, so that meant that a lot of the film was more like listening to a radio drama, not a movie, so if you have a chance to see it in theaters, do so. The medium affects the reception. It may be clearer on a cell or a television screen, but it is important to consider. Perhaps watch the trailer on whatever device you plan to watch it on to see how it will fare before deciding to spend your hard-earned money.
What Bone lacks in crafting characters, he substitutes with sex and stalls with a lot of sexual situations without a lot of consummation. There are two simulations in a short amount of time between Sara and Carol, a flashback between Sara and Troy and a handful of erotic scenes with different combination of mother, son and Sara. Incest is the low hanging fruit to signal that a family is packed with deviants, but Sara’s reaction is way too chill and not repulsed at all. While being queer means a person will be more open minded, incest is not considered acceptable in any community. Right!?! Right.
The last twenty-five minutes almost makes the hour feel worth the slog. The practical effects are delightful. While the individual elements of the denouement feel familiar, once strung together, it becomes a bonkers delight. Tafari and Hnatiuk are their best when they are dealing with each other. Shout out to Tony the Taxi Driver (Tony White) for not realizing that he was in a horror movie.
If “Son of Sara” has an issue, it is the tone of the ending. Obviously only speaking for myself, I do not want a sequel. Once the movie started, I barely wanted to watch it the first time around. Volume 1 does not just imply one sequel, but aiming for a franchise, but revisiting this world is not appealing given the characters.
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So the titular character is the son of Satan complete with horns and a weird appearance. I get why Sara loves the kid because biologically, she does not have a choice, but Carol, stand up! This chick almost dumped you for a mama’s boy, and you almost died saving her. Now you are cooing over a homicidal baby. Damn, Carol, get therapy. You deserve better! At least if you are going to take care of Satan’s baby, your girlfriend should be awesome, so it makes it easier. Sure, the message of the movie is that people have agendas, but do not actually like the people whom they are engineering to come into existence, but we know that. With all due respect, Sara is not that interesting, and Carol needs friends so they can stage an intervention called, “What Are You Doing With Your Life: Volume 1.”
Except for Agnes, none of these characters are riveting on a good day because they are barely worthy your pulse rising when you are watching them on their worst day ever. When I watch movies, I know nothing about them except for the summary and maybe the trailer. Bone should ask himself why he was so committed to telling a story that was not about his experience so he can understand what story only he can tell. Was Sara supposed to be the main character because it does not feel like it? It feels like it is actually Carol, but he never accepted and explored it.
