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Pyewacket (2017)

Name: Pyewacket
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 2017-12-08
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 5.9
Cast: Laurie Holden, Nicole Muñoz, Chloe Rose, Eric Osborne, James McGowan

Pyewacket (2017), directed by Adam MacDonald, starring Laurie Holden and Nicole Muñoz.

12/08/2017 BR Horror and Thriller 1h 30m

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Quiz about this movie

Be careful what you wish for. Someone might be listening.

Synopsis

A frustrated, angry teenage girl awakens something in the woods when she naively performs an occult ritual to invoke a witch to kill her mother.

Christian BielzCinematography
Adam MacDonaldDirector, Writer
Maureen GrantEditing
Jonathan BronfmanProducer

About the film

Pyewacket is a 2017 Canadian horror thriller film written and directed by Adam MacDonald. It stars Laurie Holden and Nicole Muñoz. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

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Plot

Leah Reyes is a teenager fascinated with black magic and occult practices. Following the death of Leah's father, her grieving mother decides to move to a remote woodland house for a fresh start, forcing Leah to leave her school friends behind and join her. After a fierce argument with her mother, Leah wishes death on her and performs an occult ritual in the forest from one of her books, to summon the demon Pyewacket to kill her mother. However, Leah bonds with her mother shortly afterwards, and she soon regrets her actions.

She begins to notice strange occurrences, including noises coming from the attic and piles of dirt on the floors. One night, Pyewacket appears as a shadowy entity in Leah's bedroom while she sleeps, and drags her into the forest. Waking up the next day covered in blood, Leah turns to her school friends for help, and her best friend Janice agrees to stay at Leah's house overnight to help her lift the curse. However, the following morning Leah and her mother find Janice cowering in the car, too terrified to say what happened to her. Leah contacts paranormalist Rowan Dove, who advises that the only way to stop the demon is to perform the same summoning ritual in the same place, but in reverse. He also warns that Pyewacket is a devious shape-shifter and Leah must not trust anyone until the curse is lifted.

Leah returns to the forest and begins the reverse ritual, but stops when she sees her mother lying dead nearby, but also hears her mother calling out for her. In a panic, Leah calls 911, and then her friend Aaron to pick her up. Returning to the house, Leah is confronted by Pyewacket, who first takes the form of Leah's mother, then of a monstrous hag. Leah hides in the attic, and when her mother returns home, Leah is convinced that she is another of Pyewacket's illusions, so that night she douses her mother with gasoline and sets her on fire, believing that she is killing the demon. This in turn sets the house on fire, and when Aaron arrives he finds Leah unconscious outside as the house burns down.

Leah is interviewed by a police detective about her mother's death. After playing a recording of Leah's 911 call where she said her mother's body was in the woods, the detective reveals that the only body the police found was a burned one in the ruins of the house.

Cast

Nicole Muñoz as Leah Reyes

Laurie Holden as Mrs. Reyes

Chloe Rose as Janice

Eric Osborne as Aaron

Romeo Carere as Rob

James McGowan as Rowan Dove

Bianca Melchior as Pyewacket

Reception

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 32 reviews, and an average rating of 6.98/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Pyewacket builds its atmospheric, patiently encroaching chills on a well-told story concerned more with emotional trauma than supernatural threats." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

Pyewacket at IMDb

Text from Pyewacket (film) on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyewacket_(film)

Trivia

It grossed US$ 166.610 worldwide.
It premiered on December 8, 2017, a Friday.
It runs 1h30 — a typical feature length.
As of September 20, 2026, it is on no subscription service in Brazil — only to rent or buy on Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies.
This film's quiz has 13 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.

Production

StudiosCave Painting Pictures, JoBro Productions, Just Believe Productions, Entertainment One
CountriesCanada
LanguagesEnglish
Box officeUS$ 166,610
StatusReleased

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Crew

Christian Bielz Cinematography
Adam MacDonald Director
Maureen Grant Editing
Jonathan Bronfman Producer
Victoria Sanchez Producer
Lee Malia Original music
Adam MacDonald Writer

Questions about this film

What is Pyewacket about?

Pyewacket: A frustrated, angry teenage girl awakens something in the woods when she naively performs an occult ritual to invoke a witch to kill her mother.

Who directed Pyewacket?

Pyewacket was directed by Adam MacDonald in 2017.

Who stars in Pyewacket?

The cast of Pyewacket includes Laurie Holden, Nicole Muñoz, Chloe Rose, Eric Osborne and James McGowan.

How long is Pyewacket?

Pyewacket runs for 90 minutes, or 1h30.

Where can I watch Pyewacket?

Pyewacket is available on Apple TV Store and Google Play Movies. Availability changes often: the list on this page is the most recent we received.