Possum

Philip is a children's entertainer whose career has ended in disgrace. He comes back to the derelict family house and his stepfather, carrying a leather bag containing a puppet with a spider's body and a human face.

Matthew Holness, best known for the comedy Garth Marenghi, made a film with almost no dialogue and no relief, about abuse and the impossibility of throwing away what was done to you. The puppet keeps returning to the bag no matter how many times Philip destroys it.

Sean Harris gives one of the great performances in British horror, almost entirely internal, and the Norfolk marshland is filmed as the bleakest place imaginable.

The score, by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is a large part of why it is so hard to sit through.

It is deeply upsetting and the metaphor is never softened.