As Ye Sow

‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap’ goes the Old Testament saying – highly applicable in Stewart Pringle’s creepy drama. Coming from regular perpetrators of theatrical horror, Theatre of the Damned, As Ye Sow is a genuinely disquieting experience.

Old and hunched Clifford is sat in a faded retirement home, slowly disappearing into the decrepit upholstery of a chair he rarely leaves. A visit from his daughter Susan awakens long buried memories of digging and deathly cold hands, memories that soon disturbingly bleed into reality.

With a clever soundtrack from Sami El-Enany, Joss Bromley and Liam Welton and eerie video design from Welton and Ian Long, before long just out of the corner of our eyes and ears something horrible is coming. Perhaps most brilliantly Pringle never overplays his hand, happy to sit quietly in the shadowy places where our nightmares flee to just as we wake up.

Jeffrey Mayhew as Clifford is fragile but never fully convinces, whilst John Garfield-Roberts and Stephanie Walls are solid as the electrician and nurse who are not entirely what they seem. But it is Scarlet Sweeney, putting in a superb performance as Susan, who subtly steals this scary show.