If the 2004 song Dry Your Eyes Mate by The Streets was a horror film, then it’d be Healing Andy. Fresh from a devastating break-up, a heartbroken Bro (Matthew Kay) is cheered up by his fellow Bros when they take him on a Bro holiday to Italy.
The gang’s idyllic lads’ holiday takes a terrifying turn when they befriend local girl Ginger (Gemma Acosta), who leads them down a dark path where only extreme violence, humiliation and ball gags await. The film’s depiction of Bro friendship (the worst kind of friendship) is a grim but familiar sight; the terrifying vision of a boozed-up group of Lads On Tour careening towards you while on an otherwise peaceful European city break. At the same time, it’s updated the formula – a version of Hostel that’s clued into male mental heath and knows what MRAs and Incels are.
Another gesture to modernity is its takedown of influencer culture, in a plot which aims to explore the dissonance between reality and how this is carefully curated by whoever’s holding the camera. A noble sentiment, but one plagued with poor management of tone and overly grating performances.
A subplot about a fake beard and the surprisingly abundant references to Home Alone are amusing, but the screechy performances and its characters’ bizarre behaviour become more intolerable the longer we’re subjected to it. There’s no respite in the villains either, who prove just as incapable of shutting up as the film’s cache of Bros, and whose variety of evil also seems to involve screaming in people’s faces the entire time. In that respect, it is admittedly effective in building a discomforting atmosphere, even if it’s just by volume rather than content. Director Villablanca shoots the whole thing on iPhone, giving it an unsettling, all-too-real feel.
But, ultimately, like too-many a modern found footage film, it’d be better served as a shorter V/H/S segment than a feature film on its own. A shame, as Healing Andy does possess some solid imagery in the second half. It’s a bold play on found footage tropes, let down by headache-inducing performances and a lack of focus.
HEALING ANDY premiered at UK FrightFest on August 23, 2025.
