Johanna Putnam fills her patient film Shudderbugs with sublime layers of grief and tension, showing us a woman who is just trying to understand the why of a parent’s death. She has made a remarkably sensitive and contemplative debut feature.

When her mother suddenly passes, Sam (Johanna Putnam) returns to her childhood home. In place of familiar spaces and memories, she finds only uneasiness and confusion. Things are missing, the environment seems unnatural, and the neighbour (Brennan Brooks) is suspiciously obtuse. Isolated with these mysteries, Sam wrestles with her instincts to untangle the truth.

Grief is one hell of a thing, and for those who have encountered it with both parents at a young enough age, it throws you off balance mentally, physically, and spiritually. You are unsure of everything, even just taking that next step in starting your day. Nothing makes sense, like a heavy cloud has blown in and decided to remain unmoved from above your head for the foreseeable future. We have lost that cord of guidance that we thought would always be there in our lives, and being cut adrift suddenly from your safety net is as isolating a feeling as you will ever feel.

This is where Sam is throughout. Entirely inept at grasping onto something concrete to help her keep her balance, everything feels… off. It’s unexplainable, but there. Yet, what stops the film from being one note is that it adds a layer of paranoia to proceedings. Noah is uncomfortable with Sam due to the ongoing dispute with their families, so his hesitation in giving the full picture of events rightfully has us on edge about his motives. Is he hiding something from her, and if so, how much is he hiding? The mystery keeps Sam fixated as her mother simply dying from a stroke isn’t sufficient enough at this point, as there is just too much doubt in the air for anything to make sense.

Director Putnam, who was working as a writer and lead on Shutterbugs, ensures sincerity and authenticity are present in being alone at possibly the mentally loneliest time of a person’s life. She takes her time to immerse us in her character’s solitude fully. Stuck reading the treasure hunt her mother had planned for her birthday, her mother has reminders saved on her smart device that play at random points throughout, making Eliza feel almost like a ghost to Sam. By crafting the film in this manner, we are given an amazingly genuine piece of cinema. As a filmmaker, it is a necessity that we hear more from Putnam; she has a strong confidence as a writer and director that it would be a true shame not to hear it again.

Johanna Putnam pours everything into this role, and she is absolutely breathtaking in it. You feel every ounce of emotion that she conveys as she tries to come to terms with what has happened and the ongoing rippling consequences of one person’s passing. She gives us an achingly heartfelt performance in Shutterbugs; your heart is continuously pouring for her character as she becomes more isolated and paranoid. While we are mourning for and with her, we are also given moments of levity, when she turns the tables on the person from the insurance company. That ability to keep us emotionally on our toes captivates you, and that is all done to this performance.

Encapsulating this is the terrific sound design; due to how silent the film is, each creaking step Sam takes around the empty house feels deafening. We hear the sounds of the animals that have taken her mother’s house as their home, the wind moves objects, and the sounds are always there, overwhelming us and Sam. It is wholly effective and shows us how just one person’s presence, or lack of presence, in this case, can change a place’s soundscape.

These sounds eventually lead to paranoia at night, the phone ringing a cause for another headache-inducing conversation. There are little moments that Putnam purposefully plays with her audience that you pick up. Sam keeps one person’s conversation “private”; we only hear Jo’s murmurs, as if we are not to hear a potential voice of reason pull us away from that isolated and paranoid ledge Sam has found ourselves on. These and the other subtleties mentioned create a wonderful overarching narrative that is truly compelling.

Shudderbugs is a psychological drama that does everything right. It is an emotionally elegant film. You are swept into the story and the emotions of grief that Putnam has brought forth with her feature debut. It is tremendous from top to bottom.

★★★★

Shudderbugs is out on digital now.

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