A Prayer for the Dying starts with a great idea and displays some visionary direction, but the writing quickly crumbles under the weight of its own ambition.
Director: Dara Van Dusen
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 95′
Berlin Film Festival Screenings: February 13-18, 2026
Release Date: TBA
There are many kinds of films: those made purely to entertain the audience, those which seek to teach us something, and those which attempt to warn us about real-world issues, just to name a few. A Prayer for the Dying is a very different kind of film: one that seeks to get under the audience’s skin and play with their emotions as harshly as possible.
While there’s certainly a place for these kinds of bleak, distressing stories, Dara Van Dusen’s feature debut offers little else to make her story more palatable, leaving a sour taste in the audience’s mouth without much entertainment or educational value.
A Prayer for the Dying follows a priest named Jacob (Johnny Flynn, of Goodbye June), who is struggling to shake off the horrors of his time in the American Civil War. When a dead body is discovered near his rural village of Friendship, Wisconsin, Jacob is first on the scene to bless the deceased man. But after a brief examination from the town doctor (John C. Reilly, of Boogie Nights) it becomes clear that the man died of diphtheria, unleashing a fatal epidemic on the town that neither Jacob nor the doctor can control. As death swarms around Friendship, Jacob is forced to protect his family and fight off the demons that run wild in his mind.
Despite its flaws, A Prayer for the Dying starts off really strong. Van Dusen does an excellent job of building an impenetrably tense atmosphere as the disease slowly spreads through the small town, focusing closely on Jacob’s internal conflict as he grapples with the responsibility of keeping the death toll under control. One of the script’s biggest strengths is its subtle but powerful discussion about medical ethics: is it right to unknowingly keep people in a dangerous environment to prevent the disease spreading further?
Unfortunately, this rich, analytic discussion only lasts a short while. A Prayer for the Dying moves at such a rapid pace once things get started, neglecting to give the characters any meaningful development and opting to simply expose the audience to as much shock and horror as possible. The harmony of this small town quickly crumbles under the rapidly increasing death toll, but unfortunately, so does the integrity of this story. We should be devastated when these characters start dropping off like flies at the hands of this vicious, gory disease, but it’s happening so quickly and frequently that we’re barely given time to notice.
Ultimately, the tense atmosphere that Van Dusen creates in the film’s first half just doesn’t feel cohesive with the rushed, emotionless storytelling that follows. Characters are treated solely as plot devices, with major deaths happening and being forgotten about within the space of five minutes. Everything builds towards a very bold, ambitious ending that could have been extremely powerful if it felt remotely earned. Instead, A Prayer for the Dying feels like it’s so desperate to be “more” than the simple premise it initially sets up that it ends up overbearing itself and being so much less.
There are definitely elements to enjoy in A Prayer for the Dying, and it’s an extremely ambitious project considering it’s the directors first feature-length film, but there are just too many obvious flaws in the storytelling to really let audiences immerse themselves in the plot. Its bold direction and dynamic visuals are captivating, but it feels like the film is really trying to make a statement without being entirely sure what that statement is.
A Prayer for the Dying (Berlinale 2026): Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
In 1870, the town of Friendship, Wisconsin, is enduring a dry, hot summer. The small town revolves around a hero of the American Civil War who, in spite of his many accomplishments, is unable to cast off the violence and darkness of his past as a soldier. He considers Friendship to be under his protection – a claim that comes to haunt him when the town is hit by an epidemic that the town’s doctor cannot contain.
Pros:
- Interesting directorial choices that give each scene a distinct visual flair
- Attempts at layered, nuanced commentary about the moral duty of being a leader during a crisis.
Cons:
- A third act that rushes so drastically none of the bold narrative choices feel weighted or meaningful.
- Lack of character development as the story values shock value over true engagement.
A Prayer for the Dying premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 13-18, 2026. Read our Berlin Film Festival reviews and our list of 20 films to watch at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival!