Remembrance — Remembrance(VOD)

Remembrance (2026) is a British psychological thriller written and directed by James Denton, co-directed by Richard Oakes (Feed Me, Hosts) and produced by Marc Zammit (Jitters, Witch).

After escaping a violent kidnapping, Grace (Alyssa Haymor, Jitters) comes round in hospital a week later in a coma, unable to remember her own name or anything about the man who held her captive. With him still at large, Detective Issac Phelps (James Denton) and Detective Amanda Bridges (Saffron Spearman, Mother Mary) send her to a remote country house to be kept safe, but as trauma and visions take hold, she can no longer tell what is real. The film was released digitally in the UK on 19 October 2026, courtesy of Reel2Reel Films.

The film opens with Grace locked up in a basement. Judging by the severe injuries caused by the shackles her kidnapper has her in, it looks as though she has been there for some time. The action kicks in quite quickly when she escapes her chains and manages to get away, closely followed by a large man with long hair and a scary-looking gait! She runs into the middle of nowhere and eventually ends up in hospital with amnesia after coming out of a week-long trauma coma.

Not long after, Detective Phelps arrives and starts asking questions to work out who she is and where she has come from. Grace gives him all the information she can remember, but of course, it turns out to be wrong, sending the police on a wild goose chase. Phelps and his boss, Detective Amanda Bridges, put Grace in protective custody while they try to identify her kidnapper and catch him. The problem is that every lead draws a blank because they have the wrong information.

I had to do a bit of a deep dive into the writer and director on this one, because the whole thing felt a bit rookie. The atmosphere was great, and the visuals were wonderful, but the story itself was filled with plot holes, and lots of things didn't make sense.

There was some not-so-good acting in it too, which really impacted my viewing experience. None of the characters had much warmth, and their chemistry felt off. One of the romance scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. I assume there was meant to be a slow-burn build-up, but rather than seeing that develop, I found the relationship sinister. At one point, I even thought Phelps was the kidnapper.

There was some interesting storytelling going on, though. I loved the way thoughts were portrayed through flashbacks. In one scene, Grace is in the bath after slitting her wrists, but this is only a brief moment in which she wants to die. It isn't real, and I loved that. It helped make a lot more sense of things as the story progressed.

The twist in the middle was good. I had an OMG moment, and I thought it was handled really well. But then we get to the detective taking a gun with him. In the UK? Really? I got the impression that he was a good cop gone rogue, but it still baffled me a little. It would have been better to introduce the firearm earlier in the story. I understand that they were trying to show how obsessed he was with the job, but it just didn't work for me. It felt too cold.

The final scenes were great, and the fight scene was actually pretty good, but what came at the very end was such a let-down. Yet again, the chemistry between the two fell flat. Remembrance is a good attempt, but I would have preferred more character depth, better acting and perhaps another tweak of the script. I'll give it a 2/5 for the cinematography and the twist, but the acting and plot let it down for me.