Horror films aren’t exactly known for their subtlety, but The Thing With Feathers has no subtlety in sight. On paper, The Thing With Feathers does seem like

Another title for “The Thing With Feathers,” which premiered Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival, could be “The Giant Talking Crow.”

Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, he is an artist of sorts; some people call his work “comic books,” others call them “graphic novels,” a term he thinks is “wanky.” His output is alluded to in the film’s atmospheric credit sequence,

Benedict Cumberbatch is committed, but Dylan Southern's 'The Thing With Feathers' is simply burdened by wallowing in its characters' despair

In "The Thing With Feathers," based on the 2015 novel "Grief is the Thing With Feathers" by Max Porter, grief is manifested by a giant, anthropomorphized crow, who alternately haunts and helps a family recover from the sudden loss of its wife and mother.