Thy Will Be Done

​“Thy Will Be Done” is a short horror film that contains the quiet elegance of “Rosemary’s Baby,” and toes the line between fantasy and reality like “The Babadook.” It tells the story of one religious family’s struggle with addictions, fanaticisms, the desire to break free, and the constant cycle of destruction. While the story itself may be a simple one, it is what lurks within the story’s seams of quietness that reveal the darkness within us all.

​The story is told out of order, containing fragments of one whole. At the head of this family is the devout Maria and her firm husband Juan. They lead a sheltered and deeply religious life with their three children, encouraging constant prayer and confession and banning anything within the household that is not considered Biblical. At each meal, every member of the family is prompted to discuss sins committed, whether or not Confession was attended to, and assigned Biblical passages committed to memory.

​The eldest of the three sons, Chandler, maintains a dual life. While he appears to be a God-fearing son that his parents can be proud of, he worships a different sort of god altogether: that of catching the next high and losing himself in a haze of alcohol and drugs. He is a constant source of frustration for both of his parents who try their best to mold him into the perfect son, even to the point of setting up jobs for him.

​The youngest son, Simon, also lives out two personas, that of a meek and dutiful son and that of a ruthless bully with no empathy for his schoolmates. With a near sociopathic demeanor, Simon rules the elementary school with an iron grip, beating any child that steps out of line. Deep down, he remains a child, and it is through the brutal upbringing of his strict parents that he struggles to bury all vulnerability.

​Yet is the middle child, a young man named Jason, who is the center of the story. Gifted with a creative mind, he would love nothing more than to devote time to reading and writing fantasy novels. His beautiful paintings of beetles reach the point of obsession as he struggles to break the mold set for him by his upbringing. When the world refuses to accept his creativity, he is brought to the brink and must decide how far he is willing to go to break free.

​We arrive in the middle of the story and details are slowly revealed to us along the way. Reduced to a family of four without Jason, the family struggles to move on and retain their own sanity. Chandler becomes ever more distant from his family as he searches for money to buy drugs, and Simon lashes out at students who offer condolences for the family’s loss. Juan, meanwhile, spends more time hunting out in the forest, convinced that the “enemy,” an agent of Satan, stalks their every move. Maria remains at home, clearing out Jason’s former room and finding herself enraptured with the grotesque paintings of beetles everywhere.

​Beetles remain the motif in Jason’s absence, following the family wherever they go and highlighting the tragedy of their lives. In the wake of Jason’s death, and unable to find solace, each member of the family spirals into destruction. Simon’s young career as a school bully finally catches up to him, as does Chandler’s obsession with the next big high. Juan’s paranoia of the “enemy” results in a final stand-off in the forest. Maria herself is left with only her memories and the haunting images of Jason’s beetles, both burdens she is unable to escape. The struggle for the perfect Christian family comes to a dramatic close, and Jason himself may get the final word.