Matthew Macfadyen has quietly mastered the art of recalibration. After spending years embodying corporate menace as Tom Wambsgans on Succession, his most recent work has suggested a turn inward, toward characters shaped less by power than by moral erosion. There is a philosophical throughline to Macfadyen’s post-Succession choices.

That instinct now leads him somewhere unexpected, and telling. Macfadyen is stepping into an intimate, psychologically charged indie that feels like a resurrection: a project that also marks a pivotal moment for its director, Tomas Alfredson.

The Succession star has officially joined Rachel Weisz in Seance on a Wet Afternoon, directed by Tomas Alfredson. The film is scripted by Emmy-winner Jack Thorne, whose recent credits include the hit series Adolescence and the BBC’s upcoming Lord of the Flies. Production is currently underway in the UK, positioning the project firmly within the European prestige-indie space Alfredson once dominated.

The film adapts Mark McShane’s 1961 novel, previously brought to the screen in 1964 by Bryan Forbes. That earlier version starred Kim Stanley, earning her an Oscar nomination alongside Richard Attenborough, Nanette Newman, Mark Eden, and Patrick Magee.

Executive producers include Thorne, Macfadyen himself, Farhana Bhula and David Kimbangi. Rachel Weisz  was already a part of the project ever since its conception. Weisz, is also on a comeback journey as she stars in Netflix's upcoming drama Vladimir. But the real pull is the premise. 

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This is a story about belief as manipulation, intimacy as entrapment, and the quiet terror of realizing you have been convinced to disappear.

Seance on a Wet Afternoon is a study of delusion weaponized as devotion. The story centers on Myra (Rachel Weisz), a self-proclaimed psychic desperate to prove her abilities are real. She persuades her husband Billy (Matthew Macfadyen) to kidnap the young son of a wealthy family, believing she can then discover the child’s whereabouts and finally force public belief in her powers.

What begins as an act of loyalty quickly metastasizes into something darker. As Myra’s motivations sharpen, and her manipulations become undeniable Billy realizes he is not just complicit in a crime, but trapped inside a belief system designed to erase him. Tomas Alfredson’s interest is not suspense alone, but the slow suffocation of moral clarity.

Seance on a Wet Afternoon feels poised to restore Alfredson’s psychological rigor while giving Macfadyen one of his most unsettling roles yet.

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Does this kind of restrained, morally fraught storytelling still have a place in today’s cinema landscape? Share your thoughts below.