‘Someone’s Daughter’ Review: François Arnaud Nauseates in Striking Rape-Revenge Thriller

Wiebke von Carolsfeld casts the "Heated Rivalry" actor and co-star Pascale Bussières as an accused rapist and his defense attorney, stranded in the wilderness by a man they once faced in court.

“Wolves don’t attack for no reason.” That’s the vague reassurance that defense attorney Sam (Pascale Bussières) offers her unlikely hiking companion and ex-client, Paul (François Arnaud), when he confesses his deep fear of wolves on their first night stranded in the Canadian wilderness.

Québec‘s Eastern Townships, where director Wiebke von Carolsfeld‘s stunning “Someone’s Daughter” was shot, don’t actually have many wolves. But more cunning than most protagonists you’ll find on screen today, Sam spends nearly the entire film testing whether the man abducted alongside her shares a predator’s instinct for isolation and weakness.

It’s an almost luridly high-concept premise, effectively revisiting Sam Raimi’s blockbuster “Send Help” from this January through a profoundly tragic lens. Instead of a douchebag CEO and his hyper-competent employee working together after a plane crash, von Carolsfeld pairs an accused rapist with the woman who helped him go free. Now, both parties must fight for their lives thanks to Mr. Borden (Peter Outerbridge), the father of a dead woman he believes was driven to addiction because of the defense’s behavior at trial.

Threatening at first to collapse beneath the weight of its own moral architecture, “Someone’s Daughter” seems destined to become more didactic than it ultimately is. After kidnapping Sam, Borden rows away from shore and raises a shotgun to his chin. The blast rings out as the helpless attorney watches in horror.

Though Borden’s silhouette is too far away for gore, it’s close enough to stun both Sam and the audience into silence. And suddenly, the movie’s obvious villain is gone. What remains is a far more interesting addition to the rape-revenge tradition, albeit one that may frustrate viewers expecting more conventional genre thrills from a Fantasia premiere. Paul, who was taken before Sam and hadn’t seen his former lawyer in 15 years, reacts with immediate concern for his would-be savior. Is Sam OK? What a horrible thing to witness! For one fleeting moment, it seems shared trauma might forge a sincere alliance.

Then, they start talking.

Stuck together, wandering through thick green woods for days, the conversation between Sam and Paul drifts in an increasingly disturbing direction. First, the odd couple discusses the memory of the woman who put them there. “Her name was Lydia,” Sam reminds Paul after he refers to his accuser with troubling detachment. Of course he remembers her, he insists: “She ruined my life.”

But was Paul’s life really ruined? Whether he’s whining about wolves or reminiscing about his glory days as a competitive swimmer, Arnaud’s thirtysomething man-child somehow manages to make every fork in the road about himself. He’s arguably better served not reminding Sam he’s the reason they were put there in the first place. And yet, Paul can’t help but impose and offend, making even his expertise in home security sickeningly useless.

Recounting the acquittal, Sam suggests Paul’s vindication wasn’t rooted so much in the truth as in the limits of the criminal justice system. Of course, he hears something else entirely and quickly steers the conversation back to his own infantile desires. Paul “always had a crush” on Sam back then, he says. And it only makes sense for him to spoon her for warmth now, right?

Sleeping beside the same fire in a palpably awkward and dangerous dynamic, the tremendously flawed leads of “Someone’s Daughter” must rely on each other if they ever want to see their old lives again. But if Sam is a level-headed machine built for impossibly tough problem-solving, then Paul is a walking liability incapable of controlling his impulses long-term. Soon, even splitting the supplies and promising to stay together suggests looming betrayal. 

Compared to the environmental obstacles at work in other survival thrillers, “Someone’s Daughter” is remarkably tame and better for it. Co-written by von Carolsfeld and Doug Taylor, the story pushes past extreme natural elements to bore straight into the introspective side of sexually violent cinema. It derives its brutality not from elaborate physical harm, but from forcing two deeply compromised people to spend an excruciating amount of time alone together. That’s a fitting tactic for a director once known for her literary adaptations, and tight control proves von Carolsfeld’s greatest strength here. 

Too often, rape-revenge films become synonymous with spectacularly graphic punishment. And the subgenre is still shaking off the weight of controversial works from last century, like “The Last House on the Left” and “I Spit on Your Grave,” today. Even in 2026, the category’s identity is anchored in infamous scenes of maiming, torture, and cathartic bloodshed. Von Carolsfeld shows little interest in that expression, instead offering “Someone’s Daughter” as a kind of delicate experiment that turns literal proximity into philosophical rot.

If you accept that people cannot actually be forced to confront uncomfortable truths they’re determined not to see, then the closest thing to accountability we have is engineering circumstances where those truths can no longer be ignored. Whether that’s enough to actually inspire change is another question entirely, but at least in Sam’s case, there’s a reason Paul resembles a prison cellmate. Set against the sprawling openness of the Canadian wilderness, the location pulls off its own cruel trick in that sense. As “Someone’s Daughter” grows increasingly claustrophobic, its backdrop reminds audiences that this nightmare isn’t unique so much as one variation on an overwhelming societal theme. 

Taking Sam to the island where Paul is waiting in the first act, Mr. Borden tells her that the line of questioning Lydia used while on the stand destroyed his daughter. Sam matter-of-factly replies, “The system is tough,” asserting her role within it only went so far. Von Carolsfeld doesn’t attempt a sweeping indictment of the criminal justice system, but rather produces a devastatingly accurate portrait of the searing human complicity that allows some monsters to roam free. 

In the same scene, Mr. Borden asks Sam to remove her makeup because he wants to see what she really looks like. The answer? Someone’s daughter.

That revelation, corny though it may be, recalls the unforgettable confrontation in Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman,” too. When a university dean briefly believes her teenage daughter has been left alone with the same kind of men she once allowed to escape accountability, the fear comes from suddenly inhabiting another person’s vulnerability. “Someone’s Daughter” stretches that same thought exercise across sprawling landscapes and several harrowing days. If Sam truly believes Paul is innocent, surviving beside him should be easy. The fact that it isn’t becomes their journey’s most unsettling dramatic question.

That uncertainty works broadly because Arnaud never tips his hand too far in either direction. Cycling between effortless flirt and noxious manipulator, the “Heated Rivalry” actor transforms Paul into a mystery Sam has already solved — but still desperately wants to be wrong about. Meanwhile, Bussières charts that erosion brilliantly, allowing her character’s professional confidence to facilitate a fiery, complex performance essential to making the narrative work.  

As the real horror show comes to bear through conversations that almost resemble police interrogations, Sam has to contend with the reality of the defendant that she once vouched for. If her dialogue sometimes seems too eager to articulate the screenwriters’ own ethical arguments, that’s a small price to pay for a thriller so committed to exploring the impressive reach of violence. 

By the time the film gets back to the subject of wolves, von Carolsfeld has abruptly stopped framing her captive humans as wildlife. Whether Paul did it or not, whether Sam agrees with Mr. Borden or not, it doesn’t matter if the lesson learned gets back to civilization. Rather, returning to the big screen after a decade away herself, Von Carolsfeld exposes how easily predators can pass for ordinary people, until circumstance strips away the distance between them. In that sense, “Someone’s Daughter” suggests a severed penis can be just as radical as would-be prey paying attention.

Grade: B+

“Someone’s Daughter” premiered at Fantasia on July 21. It will reach Canadian theaters on October 23.

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