Exhibition of Evil (2026)

Director: Jackson Batchelor, Sam Mason-Bell, S.N. Sibley, Darren Ward, Bhuna Baby

Year: 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Arriving at a strange museum, a man listens to the curator regale him with stories about the various objects in his collection.

Review:

Don't Look-Gathered together to partake in a seance, a group of friends learn they've stumbled onto something they should've kept secret. This was a great short piece to get things going nicely. The atmosphere is the main highlight here, working with the cramped room and darkened conditions necessary for a scene to take place as the night progresses, making the brief glimpses of the supernatural figure appearing out of nowhere have some solid shock jumps. With the final reveal bringing about a great gore gag to end everything on, this gets everything started rather nicely.

Golden Boy-Trying to go about his life, a man finds himself abducted and tormented by a gaggle of past associates seeking retribution for his past antics. Overall, this was a fairly solid entry with a lot to like. Speeding through the opening rounds of his sense of entitlement and self-righteous behavior, the majority of this one is based on the notion of the masked girls rounding him up and taking their revenge. Going from generally toying with the anticipation of what they’re going to do to him to fully realizing it will happen gives this a great bit of energy, and coupled with the standout visual performances here, everything has a lot to like.

The Medusa Stone-Following a strange discovery, a detective sets out to find the owner of a cursed piece of jewelry that turns those who look at it to stone. Overall, this was an incredibly fun segment that has a lot to like. The whole man concept of this one stems from the gradual reveal about what the stone actually is, with the segment making it obvious only after the encounter in the alleyway and subsequent scene of the one victim turning to stone, that it becomes obvious what the intent is. Following the blind man on his quest to recover it from others who managed to steal it from the scene and take it home as a gift for his wife makes everything rather fun waiting for his turn to come around the house and take it from them, and while there's some confusion about what's happening, it's not enough to derail this at all.

Salt-After the loss of her daughter, a woman sets out to poison her husband and get on with her life. On the surface, there's not much really wrong with her, but this is purely a one-note setup that plays out as you expect without much deviation. The setup allows for everything to come to pass rather normally, and with the end reveal turning everything together into a nice package as we wonder what will happen to him and when. Beyond that, it's pretty short and easy to guess what's going to happen, so it just feels like waiting around for the inevitable, which isn't a bad thing but does make this stand out slightly.

A Haunted Man-After a disastrous film premiere, a director is haunted by the prospect of his leading lady's fate during the course of filming. This is a routine that is still enjoyable enough, despite a big drawback. The idea of what's going on here is certainly chilling enough, especially once the ghost starts making moves and lets the hauntings start to take shape. That's the problem here, since it takes a while to get going as we follow his nervous and fidgety behavior for a while before the reveal comes about, making it make sense, and while everything works nicely with just enough to be enjoyable, this part does have a slow beginning to deal with.

Passion-Following a grisly series of murders, a deranged serial killer sets about killing various individuals who were part of his friend group. Overall, this was quite a bit of fun giallo homage. This series of setpieces in play, from the couple in their car by the woods fornicating to the point they don't notice he's there to the stalking of the woman in her house who's distracted moving so she doesn't notice him stalking her, comes together with a distinct flair for the genre. Coupling the black-gloved, fedora-clad killer moving through the scene without noticing his identity and some brutal kills, the whole thing comes together incredibly well and is a solid way to end this one.

Exhibition of Evil-Arriving at a strange museum collection, a man listens to the curator regale him with stories about the various objects in his collection. Overall, this is a solid enough wraparound that serves its purpose well enough. Being a means of getting the next story going with the appropriation of the next item in his collection and spurring off into the tale about it, this is a genuinely worthwhile type of starting point that has a lot to like. The connection with the item in particular, though, is sometimes flimsy and doesn't always make sense with the brief running time not always giving the next time's gimmick time to breathe, but as a whole, this is still a worthwhile enough concept for a wraparound of this nature.

Overview: ****/5

A really enjoyable indie anthology effort, this one has a lot to like about it, with every segment having something to like about it, despite a few being slightly better than others. Those with an affinity for this style of genre fare, who enjoy anthologies in general, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.