---
title: "Mārama"
year: 2026
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/marama"
fi1m_id: "marama"
imdb_id: "tt15284556"
tmdb_id: 1364953
wikidata_id: "Q131613343"
fi1m_score: 77
critics_score: 82
critics_reviews: 4
published: "2026-09-21"
updated: "2026-09-21T01:48:33.325432+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Mārama (2026)

Directed by Taratoa Stappard · 1h 29m · MPA R · Horror, Drama, Mystery

## Identity

Mārama

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/marama
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** marama
- **IMDb ID:** tt15284556
- **TMDB ID:** 1364953
- **Wikidata ID:** Q131613343
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15284556/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1364953, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131613343

**Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 82 (early) from 4 reviews

*In a sentence:* Candlelight, crimson, a country house and a guest who has come a long way to settle a bill

> Taratoa Stappard’s first film puts a Māori woman inside the English gothic house and lets Ariāna Osborne hold the screen from the first shot to the last. It loses its nerve for a stretch in the second half. Worth your evening if you like your horror slow.

## Synopsis

England, in the middle of the nineteenth century. Mary (Ariāna Osborne), a young Māori woman, has crossed the world to find out who her people were, and a coach carries her across open country to the house of Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), a gentleman who has invited her and who claims to know about her family. The house is large, dim and mostly empty. Peggy (Umi Myers) works there and is the nearest thing Mary has to company; Arthur Cole (Jordan Mooney) and Jack Fenton (Erroll Shand) come and go on business of their own. Cole is courteous, curious and slow to answer questions. Mary wants the truth about her ancestry, and the house, and the man who owns it, would rather she waited.

## Review

Taratoa Stappard’s first film takes the oldest furniture in English horror, the great cold house with a secret in it, and asks what happens when the stranger who arrives at the door is a Māori woman. Mary (Ariāna Osborne) has come to England to learn about her ancestry, and Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens) has promised to tell her. *Mārama* is a good, slow, angry film, and it is at its best when it is quietest.

Gin Loane lights the house by candle and lamp, so most of every frame is black and the faces hang in it, and when red appears, in a dress, a curtain, a smear on a floor, it is the only colour on screen. The look itself is not new; anyone who has sat through a Hammer double bill will know it. What is new is who is standing in the shadow and who is holding the candle. The score, by Rob Thorne and Karl Steven, does without strings for long stretches and works instead with sounds closer to breath and wind than to an orchestra. Those sounds belong to Mary rather than to the house, and they tell you where the film’s sympathies lie before the script does.

Osborne carries it. She plays Mary as a woman who has learned to be polite in a language that is not hers and has kept a careful account of what that politeness has cost. She listens more than she speaks, and Stappard lets the camera stay on her while Cole talks, so we watch her decide, sentence by sentence, how much of him to believe. When she finally raises her voice the film has spent an hour earning it.

Stephens is well cast. Cole is not a monster in any scene we could point to. He is courteous, well read, and interested in Mary’s people in the way a man is interested in the contents of a cabinet he has paid for. We were more frightened by his questions at the dinner table than by anything in the film with blood in it, because they are asked kindly, and Mary has to sit there and answer them. Umi Myers, as Peggy, gets the film’s warmest scenes and one or two of its most uncomfortable, and she plays both without ever raising her voice.

The unevenness the early reviews mention is real. In the second half Stappard has to move the story from suggestion to event, and the film gets louder and less sure of itself. Dan Kircher’s cutting, patient for the first hour, starts to hurry, and a couple of scenes explain in dialogue what a look across a table had already told us. The scenes given to Hinemoana (Mihi Te Rauhi Daniels) and Arorangi (Turia Schmidt-Peke) are the truest thing in the film, and there are not enough of them to balance the weight of the house.

Set against the gothic it borrows from, this sits closer to *The Innocents* than to anything with a chainsaw in it, and it is more honest than most of that tradition about where the money for the house came from. Retribution is promised, and it arrives, and we will not say how. It is bloody and it is earned, and it is also the one stretch where *Mārama* feels like films we have seen before.

At 89 minutes it does not overstay. See it in a cinema, in the dark, and sit where you cannot see the exit.

*Fi1m score 77, published 21 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Mārama worth watching?**

*Mārama* is worth watching if you like your horror slow and candlelit, and we scored it 77. Ariāna Osborne holds the screen from first shot to last, and Toby Stephens is quietly frightening as the host who is slow to answer questions. It loses its nerve for a stretch in the second half, when suggestion gives way to event.

**How long is Mārama, and what is it rated?**

*Mārama* runs 1h 29m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a horror and drama film.

**Where can I watch Mārama in the US?**

*Mārama* is streaming on AMC+ and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Mārama, and is it suitable for children?**

*Mārama* is not suitable for children: it has no UK certificate yet, but it carries an R in the United States and its final stretch is bloody. For most of its 89 minutes the fear comes from dinner-table conversation rather than gore, so the squeamish will manage until the last act. Older teenagers who can sit through a slow build should be fine.

**How does Mārama compare to The Piano?**

*Mārama* is a gothic horror where [*The Piano*](https://film.one/film/the-piano) is a colonial romance, though both give a woman who will not be traded quietly the centre of the frame. Campion’s film is the more assured and sustained of the two; Stappard’s is the more frightening and the more uneven. Choose *Mārama* for dread by candlelight, *The Piano* for mud, silence and longing.

**What should I watch after Mārama?**

After *Mārama*, try [*The Piano*](https://film.one/film/the-piano) (1993, Fi1m 88): Colonial New Zealand, mud, silence and a woman who will not be traded quietly. Then [*Utu*](https://film.one/film/utu) (1983, Fi1m 74): Māori retribution in the land wars, told with anger and a surprising amount of wit; and [*Lady Macbeth*](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth) (2016, Fi1m 80): A cold English house, a bought bride and a temperature that never rises above freezing.

### Reviews we read (4)

- **IndieWire**, Alison Foreman (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Taratoa Stappard's debut as an arresting Māori gothic revenge horror that channels fury and grace. It won the top prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/marama-review-siff-new-zealand-horror-1235194507/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Brian Tallerico (85/100, inferred): The film is a phenomenal debut that employs the structure and visual language of Gothic Horror to explore Indigenous subjugation and colonization. It stands out for its confident genre handling, excellent production design, and a striking lead performance by Ariaana Osborne. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/fantastic-fest-2025-marama-mother-of-flies-bulk)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Taratoa Stappard’s debut is a striking, atmospheric gothic thriller that confronts Britain’s colonial legacy with bloody retribution, though it is at times uneven. The critic singles out Ariāna Osborne’s ferocious central performance and the film’s velvety shadows and saturated crimson visuals for praise. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/mrama-review-striking-debut-sees-a-mori-woman-confront-her-past-in-19th-century-yorkshire/5209565.article)
- **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it one of the most impressive films of the year to date for its fresh take on the Gothic that explores ancestry, inheritance and the legacy of colonialism outside the usual colonised setting. She singles out Ariana Osborne’s riveting central performance for keeping viewers gripped while highlighting the film’s atmospheric locations and effective meshing of Māori and English storytelling traditions. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/marama-2025-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)

## Details

- **Director:** Taratoa Stappard
- **Director:** Taratoa Stappard
- **Writer:** Taratoa Stappard
- **Cinematography:** Gin Loane
- **Editor:** Dan Kircher
- **Music:** Rob Thorne, Karl Steven
- **Producer:** Sharlene George, Paraone Gloyne, Rouzie Hassanova
- **Cast:** Ariāna Osborne as Mary; Toby Stephens as Nathaniel Cole; Umi Myers as Peggy; Erroll Shand as Jack Fenton; Jordan Mooney as Arthur Cole; Evelyn Towersy as Anne; Mihi Te Rauhi Daniels as Hinemoana; Turia Schmidt-Peke as Arorangi
- **Runtime:** 1h 29m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 17 April 2026
- **Genres:** Horror, Drama, Mystery
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_BNr2VerM

## Where to watch in the US

- AMC+: streaming
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, sd
- Apple TV: rent $5.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $9.99, sd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-21.*

Also available in: CA, FR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Piano* (1993), Fi1m 88: Colonial New Zealand, mud, silence and a woman who will not be traded quietly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-piano.md)
- *Utu* (1983), Fi1m 74: Māori retribution in the land wars, told with anger and a surprising amount of wit. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/utu.md)
- *Lady Macbeth* (2016), Fi1m 80: A cold English house, a bought bride and a temperature that never rises above freezing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lady-macbeth.md)
- *The Nightingale* (2018), Fi1m 78: Colonial Tasmania as a revenge story; harder to watch than this, and meant to be. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-nightingale.md)
- *The Innocents* (1961): The English gothic house at its most frightening, with nothing shown and everything felt.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/marama