Review Category: Movie

A single-take horror film from director Adam O’Brien, Bury the Devil is a bold cross between demonic possession and home invasion movie. Caught in the middle of this unholy blend is hospice nurse Julia (Emanuelle Lussier Martinez), whose cosy night in with an elderly dementia patient (Dawn Ford) takes an unexpected turn when a set of late night visitors arrive on their doorstep, late at night. What follows is somewhere at the demented intersection of Evil Dead and Mother! as Julia finds herself facing a desperate battle to survive the night.

Where many single-take films can feel exhausting, Bury the Devil feels surprisingly smooth. It’s a rollercoaster, to be sure, but one with well-oiled tracks. Indeed, it’s so coherent and efficient that one tends to forget about the storytelling device, giving a fully immersive experience which puts the viewer right there in Julia’s shoes. Its 86-minute runtime flies by, throwing the poor nurse into the thick of the action without wasting much time. It reaches boiling point quickly, and doesn’t let up from there. Along with director O’Brien (who previously helmed 2024 FrightFest darling Mom), co-writers Brad Hodson and John Petrizzi stir the pot with a firm hand. Martinez does great work as unlucky nurse Julia, ably taking everything thrown in her stride. She’s up against Ford as her patient, who turns on a dime from vulnerable, confused all the way through to utterly terrifying.

The first in a planned trilogy, Bury the Devil does a great job of setting up its fascinating mythology, cleverly teasing the planned prequel and sequel films. It more than stands on its own two feet as it is though – an unforgettable one-take horror film which never feels at risk of coming off the tracks, in spite of its many moving parts.

BURY THE DEVIL premiered at FrightFest Glasgow on March 6, 2026.

The Benefactress (An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom), directed by Guerrilla Metropolitana, is an uncompromising piece of underground horror that deliberately blurs the lines between cinema, performance art, and provocation. Running at just over an hour, the film operates less like a conventional narrative and more like a confrontational experiment that challenges the viewer’s tolerance and expectations of what a film can be.

The premise is deceptively simple. A controversial filmmaker is funded by a mysterious overseas patron; an unseen benefactor (played by Elektra McBride, who also funded The Benefactress) who insists on observing and influencing the production remotely. What unfolds is not just a film within a film, but a disturbing examination of power, voyeurism, and the darker side of artistic freedom. The project quickly descends into a claustrophobic scenario in which the filmmaker and performers push moral and creative boundaries in pursuit of raw ‘art’.

One of the film’s most striking qualities is its stark aesthetic. Shot with a raw, minimalist style combining grainy black and white with scratchy Super 8, and set largely in a single location, the film creates an atmosphere that feels documentary-like. The lack of polish enhances the sense that the audience is witnessing something illicit or forbidden rather than a carefully staged production. This voyeuristic tone is reinforced by the film’s meta-cinematic structure, with Gasper Noe-type flash cards between scenes, which constantly remind viewers that they are watching both a film and the making of one.

The performances, particularly from Juicy X and McBride, contribute to the unsettling tone. Their roles feel less like traditional characters and more like participants in a very bleak experiment. This approach may intrigue viewers interested in experimental cinema, though it also contributes to the film’s divisive reception. Some people will turn off quickly, and those who stay will find the experience a gruelling one.

Yes, The Benefactress is far from an easy watch. Its graphic themes and confrontational imagery have sparked considerable controversy and led many cinemas to refuse screening it. For some, the film’s extreme content overshadows any artistic intentions. For others, that very extremity is the point – forcing audiences to question the relationship between art, exploitation, and the viewer’s complicity.

But then, The Benefactress is not designed to entertain in the traditional sense. Instead, it functions as a provocative statement about cinematic freedom and the limits of artistic expression. Whether one views it as daring experimental art or excessive shock cinema will depend largely on personal tolerance and interpretation. Either way, it is a film that refuses to be ignored.

THE BENEFACTRESS is available now to stream on Fawesome.

A gritty action thriller set entirely inside one man’s prison cell, Jailbroken follows hardened criminal and inmate Joe (Bryan Larkin) as he attempts to negotiate the release of his family from a gang of murderous kidnappers. With only a contraband mobile phone (jailbroken, geddit) to work with, Joe’s gruff telephone is pushed to the limit, and he finds himself immensely compromised as his family’s captors make their terrible demands. It’s like Taken, if the phone call had been the whole movie.

Front and centre for the whole time, Larkin gives a captivating performance as Joe. The whole thing rides on his broad shoulders, and he capably takes it all. He’s ably supported by Armin Karima as shifty cellmate Naz, who gives Larkin someone to bounce off of that’s not just a voice on the phone. Veteran actor David Nayman (Bull) also pops up as an even shiftier prison guard, injecting a sense of grubby authenticity that the actor’s particularly gifted at. If it all starts to feel a bit alpha male-heavy, then The Descent star Shauna Macdonald serves as some relief, albeit as a voice over the phone.

Director Vasily Chiprina, directing from a screenplay by Raymond Friel, doesn’t let up. The film utilises Joe’s cell to drive home his sense of desperation and isolation, the walls seeming to close in as his plight worsens. It’s claustrophobic and tense, and the most successful film based around one phone call since Tom Hardy’s Locke. The Tom Hardy comparisons don’t end there either – there’s a prison cell brawl that’s reminiscent of the actor’s Bronson.

Given its single-location setting and ultra-low budget, Jailbroken has its limitations, but it uses them to its advantage.

JAILBROKEN premiered at FrightFest Glasgow on March 5, 2026.

When David Koepp’s novel Cold Storage was published back in 2019, we took the view, quite prophetically, that it was “a rampantly pulpy old-school horror/sci-fi hybrid unashamedly written with one eye on the multiplex.” Sure enough, seven years later (these things take time), the feature film version, directed by Jonny Campbell, arrives in cinemas on what appears to be a fairly limited release.

It’s a shame the film won’t find a broader audience and make a bigger splash at the box office, because it’s a big, brash, occasionally silly movie that absolutely captures the style and tone of its source material. But then again, Koepp has written the script, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s largely translated his story to the screen with the same brio and sense of outrageous fun he brought to his novel.

In 2007, biochemist Hero Martins (Sosie Bacon) travels to a remote one-horse town in Western Australia with “bioterror operatives” Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and Trini Romano (Lesley Manville). Here they find that a heavily mutated and virulent fungus has escaped from a fragment of the disintegrated Skylab space station salvaged by a local farmer decades earlier. It has devastated the town and exploded out of its population, and before the town is incinerated to stop any further spread, one of the group is infected. A sample of the virus is collected and stored in an underground facility in Kansas.

Fast-forward to the present day; the government has sealed off the underground vault, and the buildings above have been turned into a commercial venture known as Atchison Storage. Low-level night security guards Teacake (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgina Campbell) hear a stray beeping alarm, and their investigation into the lower levels reveal that the fungal virus has leaked from the vault and has already started to make its way outside.  It’s left to the hapless pair, along with Quinn and Romano, dragged out of retirement, to try to contain the fungus before it wreaks havoc across the world.

Cold Storage is great tongue-in-cheek fun that never takes itself too seriously, even as it delivers moments of gross-out gore – exploding animals spraying out green ooze, infected humans falling apart and being reduced to slithering goo – and some remarkably well-developed characters for a film that’s done and dusted in under 100 minutes.

From a casting perspective, it punches well above its weight, with Manville clearly having fun in an entirely uncharacteristic role and acting royalty Vanessa Redgrave in a quite touching cameo as an old woman who has come to the facility to commit suicide amongst the collected mementoes of her past. The balance between horror and comedy is pitch perfect and nicely judged; in one scene, a group who have come to loot the facility are confronted by one of the infected, bloated, drooling and suppurating and covered in fungus. “He’s got Covid!” cries one of them.

Cold Storage deserves the appreciation of a proper audience – especially with the currently hot Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell driving the narrative – and absolutely shouldn’t be given the cold shoulder. It’s really fun, guys.

COLD STORAGE is in UK cinemas now – but not for long.

Luke (Dustin Milligan) is selling up to move to Ottawa for his dream job, but his plans are derailed when his wayward older brother, Danny (Simon Rex), shows up. Danny has been living off-grid, entrenched in conspiracy theories, and claims to have stolen an object of great importance to the future of mankind. In disbelief but loyal to his sibling, Luke sets off on a (mis)adventure that opens his eyes to what’s really going on in the world.

Taking the premise of outlandish conspiracies (something that’s as familiar as ever in these crazy times), the debut for writer-director Michael Kvamme (aka Mikey K) is a riotous absurdist comedy that rarely stops for breath. The likeable pairing of Milligan and Rex guides us through the increasingly bizarre situations. There are also characters such as Tony Cavalero’s weapons supplier Klyle – yes, with the extra ‘L’ – and ‘badger’ Allison (Brenda Song) to aid Danny along the way, but there’s genuine danger as they are pursued by members of a secret organisation led by celebrities and founded by aliens. The only neutral place is the diner chain ‘Taco Gary’s’.

Mikey K has a deft sense of ridiculousness; there are running gags, a brilliant chase sequence incorporating some eye-wateringly painful ankle twists, and a ludicrous amount of ketamine and cocaine. Add Jason Biggs playing himself, and Doug Jones as an ethereal alien with two appendages, and you have a constantly unpredictable ride. Zoran Popovic’s frantic cinematography adds plenty of anxiety to the various hairy situations.

While Operation Taco Gary’s revels in its zaniness, its heart’s in the right place. There are real consequences, however, making for some poignant scenes later on. Although it’s likely to go under the radar of the mainstream, it’s the sort of movie we definitely recommend seeking out.

OPERATION TACO GARY’S is out now in US cinemas.

After sitting out the sixth film in the series, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to headline the latest entry in the long-running slasher franchise. Coming 30 years after Drew Barrymore first took a stabbing in the series’ most iconic kill, and with original screenwriter Kevin Williamson directing, it should have been a full-circle moment. Stomping all over that sentiment is the sudden departure of Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from the Scream films, creating a void that’s impossible to ignore.

Spyglass Media Group’s despicable treatment of Barrera bleeds through into the picture, which feels like a step backwards after what transpired in Scream VI. This clearly wasn’t the plan, and Sidney’s much-publicised return feels like a clumsy attempt to throw a curtain over the elephant in the room. Now Sidney Evans, she’s living in a small town with new husband Mark (Joel McHale) and teenage daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Her idyllic new life is thrown into chaos with the sudden return of (a) Ghostface, making their presence felt after a brutal murder at Stu Macher’s house.

Someone’s clearly out to get Sid, but who? Could a face from her distant past have returned to haunt her and her new family? Or is it another pretender, following in the footsteps of so many Ghostface killers before?

Campbell picks up where she left off without missing a beat, although Williamson’s screenplay (written with Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt) spends most of its time making her apologise for missing out on Scream’s New York adventure. Reducing the Core Four to a terrible twosome, siblings Chad and Mindy (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown) are back, although neither they nor the script deign to explain where the Carpenter sisters are. And there’s Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) too, taking something of a back seat after being put through the wringer in Scream VI.

It’s not just the returning members of the cast who feel like they’re going through the motions; Scream 7 brings little to the table that we haven’t seen before. Recent developments in AI and deepfake technology are a recurring theme, but ultimately go nowhere – aside from a real-life marketing campaign with Meta. Indeed, it doesn’t have much to say about anything at all, lazily coasting on references to its own past. Some of the kill sequences are effective (there’s one involving a beer tap that might be the nastiest we’ve ever seen), but without anyone to care about, they’re a wasted opportunity.

Scream 7 could be the worst film in the franchise. At least we could see what was going on in Scream 3, which is more than we can say for the ugly, miserable cinematography here. It’s the first one to feel like a Stab film rather than Scream proper – a phoned-in, heartless and panicked sequel, made easier to ignore for all that’s gone on behind the scenes.

SCREAM 7 is out in UK cinemas now.

There is a great deal of gloomy foreboding contained within Natasha Kermani’s Gothic horror The Dreadful. With her husband away at war, Anne (Sophie Turner) and her overbearing mother-in-law, Morwen (Marcia Gay Harden), eke out a poverty-stricken existence on the fringes of the local village; times are hard, and, despite her piety, Morwen must indulge in a little petty thievery to supplement the scant morsels of food they are able to grow.

Their lives are a daily grind of desperate prayer and under-cooked vegetables, with Anne forlornly awaiting news of her husband. Then, when childhood friend Jago (Kit Harington) turns up cheerily humming a tune and full of amorous intent, the film moves off in a different direction entirely.

Before you know it, Morwen has transitioned from petty thief to premeditated murderer, Jago and Anne have embarked upon an ill-advised affair, and a mysterious dark knight has begun roaming the woods lopping off people’s heads. There’s a lot going on.

And that’s the real issue. None of the threads ever really tie together. There is talk of a curse, but it’s unclear what that relates to, while Morwen’s actions carry no weight or apparent consequence. Ambiguity is all well and good, but here nothing is explained, and you’re left wondering what it was all for.

There is a great deal of promise at the outset, and the medieval world Kermani has created is so rich with texture that the mud virtually oozes from the screen. Sadly, however, it’s a little superficial, and the film withers away to a dull and unsatisfactory ending.

 

THE DREADFUL is released in US cinemas, on demand, and on digital on February 20th. 

From Return to Silent Hill through to Resident Evil, Exit 8, and The Convenience Store, several beloved horror games are getting the big screen treatment in 2026. Among them is DarkstoneDigital’s The Mortuary Assistant, an eerie and claustrophobic nightmare that captivated gamers back in 2022. The premise of the macabre game was simple – you play as Rebecca Owens, an assistant at a mortuary working alongside your boss, Raymond Delver. As you engage in the more mundane aspects of the embalming process, you must then discover which corpses are possessed, which demon possesses them, and which exorcism to perform to survive as the haunted mortuary becomes increasingly volatile.

The Mortuary Assistant became an instant hit, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews from fans and critics alike. A film adaptation was announced shortly after, with Slapface’s Jeremiah Kipp at the helm, starring Willa Holland and Paul Sparks. The plot of the film is largely the same as the game, with Holland starring as newly certified mortician Rebecca, who joins the night shift at a mortuary run by Raymond (Sparks). Her mentor reveals to her the dark, demonic rituals and secrets that reside within the mortuary, forcing her to confront her own traumas to survive the night lest she becomes possessed.

Video game adaptations have long been cursed to pale in comparison to the source text – take the scathing reviews every Silent Hill film has received as just one example. And while The Mortuary Assistant is a largely faithful retelling of the game, it lacks the same atmosphere and terror that had us gripped to our computer screens four years ago. There’s plenty of Easter Eggs for fans to enjoy, but the extra plotlines woven throughout mostly amount to nothing, leaving a muddled narrative to decipher, just like the puzzles we’ve become accustomed to in The Mortuary Assistant.

It has fleeting moments of creeping terror, with Holland’s portrayal of Rebecca and the gnarly special effects giving horror fans the bone-cracking, oozing gore they will crave. But its breakneck pace and multiple narrative threads detract from the film’s truly chilling aspects. The slow-burning of the game and patience in revealing its demons is what makes The Mortuary Assistant as scary as it is, and by showing its cards too early, the film cannot build to a satisfying conclusion, instead falling into an underwhelming heap by its third act.

The Mortuary Assistant is at its best when it focuses on the small, unnerving things that happen to Rebecca during her shifts that build to outright supernatural terror, and, unfortunately, this is largely pushed aside. While the bare bones of The Mortuary Assistant are apparent, this movie adaptation of the game is largely left cold on the slab, never getting the chance to rise from the dead and reach the same horrifying heights its source material did.

THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT is in US cinemas now.