As a gore fest, the film was a visual spectacle
Katie Stones as Eve in Final Pill(Image: Shepherd Creative)
Imagine this: the world is ending, you are on the cusp of either being ripped apart by a shockwave, or getting a lethal dose of radiation and succumbing to a helpless, agonising death. But first, you have to get through one final fight with your partner.
This is the premise of Final Pill, a small independent and entirely self-funded project by writer-director Caylem Scott, a film graduate of The University of Hull. It premiered at the Hull Truck Theatre on May 8, 2026, followed by a Q&A.
Our main characters – not so loved-up couple Jack and Eve – desperately want the eponymous ‘final pill’ of the title, a tic-tac-sized euthanasia tablet issued to every household by the government. Unfortunately, their kit only contains one pill.
The niceties of who gets to die peacefully are further complicated by intrusions from the couple’s neighbour, as well as Jack’s work colleague, Yara, who has something very important to tell him before they are blown to bits.
Entirely filmed in a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, Final Pill’s setting of a Hull flat feels suffocatingly cramped, which can only be a good thing for this horror-thriller. At times, it reminded me of 2019’s similarly claustrophobic The Lighthouse.
The cast and crew of Final Pill(Image: Shepherd Creative)
Perhaps an even more fitting parallel can be found in Raymond Briggs’ When The Wind Blows (animation, 1986) a harrowing view into the home of an elderly British couple as they muddle through an atomic war they are woefully unprepared for.
But while Briggs’ kitchen sink drama explores the tenderness and – ultimately – the futility of love, Final Pill takes us to an extreme of abuse and control that I hope few people witness outside of fiction.
Eve, played with maniacal energy by Hull actor Katie Stones, goes from zero to bunny boiler faster than you can say ‘Glenn Close’. Director Scott said he was inspired by The Shining and Stones’ performance definitely has echoes of a bug-eyed, axe-swinging Jack Nicholson.
It is compelling viewing, but as a result Jack (played by Will Oakley) has limited agency and becomes an almost doll-like prop for Eve to abuse. He bleeds profusely and protests feebly, but otherwise is literally gagged for much of the action.
Similar to Jack, Yara (Erin Hatfield) is not able to withstand the hail of verbal and physical lashings from Eve. As one of the few sane characters in this blood-splattered drama, Hatfield was convincing as a bewildered victim.
The mild-mannered and slightly dotty-seeming Neighbour (played by Laurence R. Harvey, known for The Human Centipede 2) occasionally injects comedy into the brutal proceedings, mostly with his cloud cuckoolander behaviour, such as his almost cheery delivery of news of a terrible tragedy in the film’s final act.
But as a gore fest, the film was a visual spectacle. In one delightfully ironic cut, we jump from a human tongue being severed to a pot of soup boiling on a stovetop.
Said tongue is disturbingly realistic – I had assumed a castoff from a local butcher – but apparently made from clay, and a credit to the props and makeup artist.
In another vivid moment, as a dead hand dangles unceremoniously out of a suitcase, Eve cracks a smile into a fractured mirror. These bleak, but comically realised, moments drew many appreciative laughs from the audience.
My favourite part of the film was undeniably the twist – clever, and deeply amusing. I probably would have ended it right there, but Eve has yet more violence to unleash before the film reaches its bloody conclusion.
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