Gothic horror is often thought of as very Eurocentric, with pale white women drifting through dark, dank halls in nightgowns that match their ghostly complexions. It’s a white-washed genre that Taratoa Stappard is working to reclaim, starting with his feature film, Mārama, a Māori gothic tale about reclaiming identity and confronting generations of trauma. With this film, Stappard flips the script, having the colonized confront the colonizer on the colonizer’s land. Not only is Stappard tackling the typical tropes of obsession, guilt, and revenge, but he’s also examining intergenerational trauma, cultural appropriation, and what it means to get justice, if that’s even possible in the face of colonialism.

It’s 1859, and Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) is a young Māori teacher who has recently arrived in England from Aotearoa (New Zealand) after being summoned there by a supposed relative who could tell her more about her past. But when she arrives at Hawsker Manor, she discovers this relative is dead, and she has nowhere to go. Reluctantly, she accepts a job from the manor’s owner, Sir Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), who deeply respects Māori culture. Some could even say he’s obsessed with it. Mary is to teach his granddaughter, who can even speak Māori, and ensure she is immersed in the culture. But the longer Mary stays at Hawkser Manor, the more she realizes there’s something haunting its dark halls…

Also Read: ‘Meat Kills’ Review: Lean, Mean Extreme Horror Takes A Bite Out of Modern Activism [Fantastic Fest 2025]

The plot synopsis reads like a familiar gothic novel, but with obvious key differences. This isn’t a poor British woman coming to a grand manor in search of money or status. This is a woman of color trapped in such a role, but with the added hell of a boss who fetishizes her culture to the point of nausea. Stappard expertly weaves the old with the new to craft something familiar yet fresh in a canon of supernatural period pieces.

At times, though, Mārama is a bit too reliant on gothic tropes to craft its scares. Think ghostly reflections, candle-lit hallways, and spectral shadows a la films like Crimson Peak, Dracula (1992), and even The Changeling. While Stappard innovates in the narrative and thematic departments, that innovation falls short when it comes to creating unique scares. But that’s easy to forgive, especially with the revelations in the final act and with Osborne’s powerhouse performance grounding the film. 

Also Read: ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Review: Panic-Inducing Cinema At Its Finest and Most Crucial

Osborne is poised yet furious, a simmering pot of red-hot rage ready to boil over, but JUST under control enough to mask in polite society. This is a challenging role, one that places a lot of weight on the actor’s shoulders, and Osborne accepts that challenge with horrifying calm. Her haka, especially, is guaranteed to give anyone goosebumps as she screams in the face of her oppressors while adorned in a blood-red dress. 

The pure rage oozes through the screen with Mārama, a film that exemplifies that male writers and directors CAN tell gorgeous stories about female rage; they just need to take the time to listen and understand. Osborne certainly helps with her emotional performance that captures the complexities and nuances of a Māori woman searching for answers in the land of her colonizers. It’s a painful film, but a beautiful one, and the first in Stappard’s Māori gothic trilogy. If you need any more proof that horror is, and always will be, political, then put Mārama at the top of your watchlist. 

Summary

Mārama is a painful film, but a beautiful and necessary one told perfectly by Taratoa Stappard.

Categorized: Reviews