Writer and director Dani Barker has had quite the career trajectory, going from YouTube star to polymath horror filmmaker. If you hadn’t been paying attention already, Barker marked herself as a talent to watch with Sylvia Carminer’s Follow Her, which she wrote and starred in, and was partly based on one of her YouTube misadventures. The writer and actor steps all the way behind the camera for this debut feature, which aims to do for the demonic possession subgenre what Follow Her did for erotic thrillers.
Actress on the decline Melody Palmer (Teagan Vincze) hopes to resurrect her ailing career by starring in the romantic comedy film Renovated Romance. However, lurking on location is a demonic presence (or five), which threatens to derail not only Melody’s acting career, but also what remains of her sanity. But will anyone even notice? Actors are weird people, after all, and much of Melody’s madness is initially dismissed as the eccentric behaviour of a past-their-prime movie star.
Five is a very different kind of horror film from Barker’s previous work, going broader with the comedy and harder on the supernatural element. Co-written by Barker, Erin Boyes and Mike Hassan, it’s a genuinely funny take on two crowded subgenres (demonic possessions and movie shoot horror films), with a nicely observed takedown of the Hallmark Channel romcom to boot.
While Five is lighter in tone and touch than Follow Her, its chills still get the job done, especially in earlier scenes where Melody’s affliction first begins to make itself known. Vincze is tremendous as the troubled actress, while Donna Benedicto gets big laughs as ditzy Lala, and Sean Depner is a plausible Hollywood hunk.
An inspired version of one of horror’s more overdone genres, Five is another feather in the cap of its writer and director (and, yes, there is a cameo too). It’s an inventive and original comedy horror that should tickle the fancy of fans of demonic possession horror movies and cheesy Hallmark romcoms.
FIVE premiered at UK FrightFest on August 23, 2025.
