When Grief Gets Ghoulish: 'Lilly Lives Alone' Blurs the Line Between Trauma and Terror
- Romey Norton
- 4 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Romey Norton - August 17, 2025
Martin Melnick's psychological horror examines maternal loss through a supernatural lens, but at times, it struggles to balance its ambitious emotional depths.
Lilly Lives Alone hits our screens with weighty ambitions and a familiar premise: what happens when grief literally haunts you? Writer-director Martin Melnick's psychological horror drama follows Lilly (Shannon Beeby), a mother whose decade-long spiral following her daughter's death collides with potentially supernatural forces on the anniversary of her loss.
Shannon Beeby anchors the film with a raw, unflinching portrayal of maternal grief that never feels exploitative. Her interpretation of Lilly is simultaneously sympathetic and frustrating. A woman whose self-destructive coping mechanisms (alcohol, pills, meaningless hookups) create as much tension as any supernatural threat. When Ryan Jonze's Jed enters her increasingly unstable world, their dynamic provides moments of genuine human connection that make Lilly's isolation feel all the more suffocating.
The supporting cast, including horror veteran Jeffrey Combs and Handmaid's Tale's Erin Way, elevates material that could easily have devolved into exploitation territory. Combs, in particular, brings his trademark intensity to what appears to be a smaller but crucial role.
Atmospheric Horror Meets Psychological Realism
Melnick demonstrates a keen understanding of how trauma fractures perception, using the uncertainty of Lilly's mental state to genuine advantage. The film's strength lies in maintaining this ambiguity for most of its 100-minute runtime, creating an atmosphere where every creak and whisper carries weight. The script is interesting and thought-provoking; this isn’t a film to sit back and relax to; you need to listen to feel, understand, and appreciate its substance.
However, Lilly Lives Alone occasionally stumbles under the weight of its aspirations. The film's exploration of intergenerational trauma, Lilly's painful childhood memories, informs her current breakdown, feels somewhat underdeveloped, mentioned more than meaningfully explored. The supernatural elements, while atmospherically effective, sometimes compete rather than complement the psychological horror at the film's core. Whilst I appreciate the psychological elements over cheesy jump-scares, there were moments where the film could have thrown one or two in to help with the pacing.
There are some intense and intimate character moments, and the film does well to build tension through ominous music, dark cinematography, and slow panning shots. This film will have you on the edge of your seat.
The last twenty minutes are the strangers; that’s where the audience really gets to see Lilly confront her demons and what she’s capable of. With themes of grief, motherhood, relationships, addiction, and redemption, the film ties up nicely and will leave you in a state of shock.
Final Verdict: A Flawed but Fascinating Character Study
While the film doesn't reinvent the "grief as horror" subgenre that films like The Babadook and Hereditary have explored to greater effect, it offers enough genuine emotion and atmospheric tension to warrant attention from horror fans seeking something more substantial than jump scares. Dark Sky Films has distributed another entry that understands horror works best when it's grounded in recognisable human experience.
'Lilly Lives Alone' releases in cinemas August 22
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