Directed by Dara Van Dusen – Screenplay by Dara Van Dusen.
Following its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, the western-adjacent drama, A Prayer for the Dying, from debut feature filmmaker Dara Van Dusen, just had its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026. As part of my remote coverage of the latter festival, I got the opportunity to watch this ambitious debut. Dusen’s Western-adjacent debut, which is being prepared for a post-festival US theatrical release on October 9th, contains fascinating surreal imagery, pitch-black dark character predicaments, and a challenging role for its competent leading man. Although it has some blemishes, I thought it was mostly quite effective.
Based on the Stewart O’Nan novel of the same name, Dara Van Dusen’s A Prayer for the Dying is set in Wisconsin in 1870, only a few years after the American Civil War. The film follows Jacob Hansen (played by Johnny Flynn), a Civil War veteran and Norwegian immigrant, as things go from bad to worse in his small town. The local doctor (played by John C. Reilly) suspects that diphtheria may be spreading in town, and there’s talk of a nearby wildfire that could shift in the direction of their little community. In addition to being a war veteran, Jacob also pulls triple duty as a sheriff, a de facto priest, and the undertaker. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also a husband to Marta (played by Kristine Kujath Thorp) and a father to a baby girl. With an increasingly high risk of contagion, Jacob tries to juggle all of his duties under the guidance of the doctor, but at the same time, he’s also haunted by his past, which troubles him day in and day out.
You can’t watch, think, talk, or write about A Prayer for the Dying – a film about the risk of a life-threatening disease spreading that could not only end the town itself but also its inhabitants – without thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic. Given it’s, however, based on a novel that predates the aforementioned pandemic, the exact extent to which it is meant to influence one’s reading of the film isn’t entirely clear. Still, I think it’s impossible to fully rid your mind of the very real pandemic as you watch Jacob Hansen try to navigate the conflict between clinging to faith and trusting medical advisors, all the while struggling with his own personal demons and the concern over the potential impact on his family.
What is quite overwhelming about this film is how dark it gets narratively. Although I wouldn’t call it an outright horror film, what happens here is not for the faint of heart. It is the kind of film that isn’t afraid of showing even its most innocent creatures and characters experiencing hardship. It’s a film full of death, vomiting, blood, and buzzing flies. There are plenty of quite bleak moments that make characters struggle with despair. It also isn’t exactly a classic Western despite certainly looking the part. Even though it was shot in Slovakia, as I understand it, you never feel far from the world of tumbleweeds and other classic Western symbols. Rather, it is really more of a character-centric drama with, as has been established, someone who is really struggling. It is the kind of film that transports you to its main character’s bad dreams, as well as blurs the line between real and imagined in certain dreamlike sequences.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about A Prayer for the Dying is the quality of the filmmaking craft. Production designer Hubert Pouille helps to create a convincing (and believably disadvantaged) small-town Western setting, and Beata Hlavenková’s ominous score helps to set the tone for the film’s most nightmare-like scenes. Together, Van Dusen and DP Kate McCullough create a fascinating visual style. Presented in a boxed-in Academy aspect ratio, A Prayer for the Dying often rests on painting-esque, gorgeously framed wide shots that allow for the environment to really settle in. These often quite long takes present a ‘living picture,’ as the phrase goes, but the film’s tableaux aren’t entirely static. In addition to featuring slow zooms, pans, or tilts, the film also has more forceful in-camera movements, such as sudden whip pans. The movement of the camera also sometimes makes it feel like a participant in the action, with the way it sometimes moves like it’s searching for something or how it flies past our lead character in one of his dreams. It is a heavily stylized film with expressionistic dream sequences that have a red or orange color palette far from the otherwise earthy, wooden (and sometimes slightly sickly) colors of the ‘real world.’ Those dreamlike visuals are quite impressive and engrossing, and, for the most part, the camera movement works quite well. There is, however, one scene where a group passes by town in which the camera movement becomes not only overwhelming but distracting in such a way that it takes you out of the experience of watching the film for a second there.
As a side note, I will say that I, as a Dane, was incredibly curious about the extent to which the main character’s Scandinavian background would influence the proceedings. In recent years, there have been some quite interesting Scandinavian Western-adjacent titles, such as Kristian Levring’s relatively star-studded Mads Mikkelsen-vehicle The Salvation, Nikolaj Arcel’s Denmark-set historical epic The Promised Land, and Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt. Dara Van Dusen, the New York-born but Norway-based first-time feature director, doesn’t quite have her main characters’ Scandinavian background play as much of an integral part in the narrative as I thought it might. Her lead, Johnny Flynn, obviously isn’t Scandinavian, but even though she surrounds him with several Scandinavian actors, the most notable moment of Scandinavian influence is when Jacob Hansen insists that he and a local ought to switch to English. There is one scene in which a character openly questions him about who he once was, but the actual Nordic origin mostly stays in the background, even though some immigrant characters speak in their mother tongue a couple of times.
I mentioned the Scandinavian supporting cast, and while Johnny Flynn doesn’t quite sound Scandinavian, the addition of genuine Scandinavian talents to the cast does ensure that the film has hints of Scandinavian-accented English. A Prayer for the Dying is lucky to have two Nordic rising stars in Sweden’s Gustav Lindh (Dronningen) and Norway’s Kristine Kujath Thorp (Den Store Stilhed). Their parts aren’t the most richly drawn, admittedly, but in addition to helping to make the Norwegian immigrant-to-America character traits feel authentic, Thorp ensures that there is an emotional current running through parts of the film. Where Thorp and Lindh contribute partial authenticity, veteran American actor John C. Reilly lends the film gravitas. But, really, Johnny Flynn shoulders most of the focus, as the camera often rests on images of him. Flynn plays a character that becomes increasingly more likely to break under the pressure, and eventually, he does get to play moments with shattering conflict or a sudden wave of overwhelming emotion that makes you lean forward in your seat. It’s a challenging role for Flynn, and he delivers admirable work.
There are, however, a few elements that hold the film back somewhat. It aims for an ambitious, prestige-seeming presentation with long takes of tableaux, and it is deliberately slow-paced to envelop you in the environment and atmosphere. But it does get a little bit too slow for its own good. Despite only having a runtime of around 90 minutes, it feels longer than it is, and the film is arguably at its best in the opening two-thirds of the film. It felt, to me, like the film was building up to more of an active role for John C. Reilly’s character in the third act, but he doesn’t get to fully take over the film in the way it initially seems he would. If the medicine versus faith theme is supposed to be as integral to the film as I think it was intended, then I think the film ought to have more of a confrontation between the personifications of these differing approaches.
On the whole, Dara Van Dusen’s A Prayer for the Dying is an ambitious and confidently made debut. Although its slow pace will test some viewers, its painterly wide shots and its foreboding surreal images help to make this a sufficiently engrossing and intriguing Western-adjacent bleak drama that isn’t afraid to depict tragic fates unflinchingly.
7 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
Dara Van Dusen’s A Prayer for the Dying is set to be released in US theaters on October 9th, 2026.
