Reviews

Before he found fame playing Eddie Munson in Stranger Things season four in 2022, Joseph Quinn filmed this indie drama Hoard.

Luna Carmoon’s feature directorial debut follows Maria (Lily-Beau Leach), a young girl who grew up with her single mum Cynthia (Hayley Squires), a compulsive hoarder. One day, she is tragically taken away from Cynthia and placed with a foster mother named Michelle (Samantha Spiro).

The bulk of the story is set 10 years later. Maria (now Saura Lightfoot Leon), who is still living with Michelle, receives news about her mum that she does not take well – to put it mildly. All of the grief and trauma she has experienced over the past 10 years wash over her all over again and she starts to act out.

Michelle’s former foster child Michael (Joseph Quinn), who has plenty of emotional baggage of his own, gets caught up with Maria when he comes to visit.

Hoard is a deeply strange, sad and unsettling film. You are watching two people with shared trauma and mental health issues doing weird, inappropriate and off-putting things together and making each other worse. It’s uncomfortable watching someone descend into madness in front of your own eyes.

The devil finds work for idle hands, as the saying goes, and Maria and Michael get up to no good, primarily out of boredom. Maria has just finished school and her best friend Laraib (Deba Hekmat) has moved away so she needs some distractions with Michael, who she seems to have a deep unspoken connection with.

Leon is an unusual and distinctive performer – Maria has a unique way of moving and speaking and gives off awkward outsider energy. While you don’t necessarily approve of her behaviour, you understand her motives because of her backstory.

However, Quinn’s Michael isn’t afforded this rich history and it’s hard to sympathise with him. The actor shows great promise with his performance though, something which he’ll show off in blockbusters Gladiator II and A Quiet Place: Day One later this year.

Hoard will not be one of the masses because it is weird and challenging, however, it establishes Carmoon has a new bold voice in filmmaking.

In cinemas from Friday 17th May.

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