When Sophie Turner reunited with Kit Harington for the 2025 gothic horror film The Dreadful, much of the early buzz centered on the novelty of the casting. Former on-screen siblings from Game of Thrones were now playing lovers, a dynamic Turner herself jokingly described as “vile.” But behind the headlines, the real test of the production had little to do with awkwardness—and everything to do with endurance.
Set during England’s War of the Roses, The Dreadful was shot in just 18 days, under cold, wet conditions meant to mirror the desperation of its characters. Turner wasn’t just the film’s star; she also served as a producer, helping shape its suffocating tone while racing against time. To ground herself emotionally and creatively, she turned to a film that has long topped her personal favorites list: Onibaba.
Directed by Kaneto Shindō, Onibaba is set in a war-torn medieval Japan where survival erodes morality. Turner has spoken about studying the film closely, not for its surface-level horror, but for how it portrays human beings pushed to extremes by scarcity and fear. That lens became essential for her portrayal of Anne, a young woman trapped in a brutal power struggle with her domineering mother-in-law, Morwen, played by Marcia Gay Harden.
Turner drew direct parallels between the two stories. In Onibaba, peasants kill passing soldiers and sell their armor to survive. In The Dreadful, Anne and Morwen scrape out an existence on the fringes of a collapsing society. Neither story asks the audience to judge easily. Instead, both explore how desperation reshapes identity.
What resonated most with Turner was what she described as the “Shin Buddhist parable” at the heart of Onibaba. The film’s famous demon mask is less a monster than a symbol—representing how jealousy, desire, and fear can strip away humanity. Turner used that idea as an emotional map, tracking how Anne’s vulnerability slowly transforms into something harder and more dangerous as control shifts between the two women.
The punishing schedule helped rather than hurt. Directed by Natasha Kermani, the production leaned into physical exhaustion. Turner has said the mud, cold, and lack of comfort weren’t obstacles to overcome, but tools that pushed performances into a more instinctive, “animalistic” place—much like the raw physicality she admired in Shindō’s film.
Harington’s character, Jago, disrupts the fragile balance Anne and Morwen have established. His return pulls the story away from familiar heroic territory, allowing him to shed the legacy of Jon Snow and inhabit a far more morally ambiguous role.
Scheduled for release on February 20, 2026, through Lionsgate and True Brit Entertainment, The Dreadful is already being positioned as a serious entry in modern folk horror. By drawing from Onibaba, Turner helped anchor the film in a tradition where terror doesn’t come from ghosts—but from what people become when survival is all that matters.