In the Grip of Terror (2026)

Director: Lawrie Brewster, Calum Paul, Megan Tremethick

Year: 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Arriving at a run-down hospital, a group of people are brought into the basement by a supposed doctor who works there, where he tells them stories about the hospital's dark past.

Review:

A Watcher by the Dead-Agreeing to take on a wager, a man is tasked with looking after a corpse in a darkened room, which soon offers more than he bargained for when the body disappears. Overall, this was a massively entertaining and atmospheric segment. The initial setup here has so much to like, offering a genuinely unnerving premise in the first place about spending time with a dead body in a confined space, before adding a touch of Gothic with the cramped, darkened space requiring only enough room for a lantern to light everything. It creates an immensely chilling idea that gets explored more over time as the body keeps disappearing, taking his sanity with it as he keeps trying to stay in the good graces of the professor who gave him the assignment, eventually turning into an over-the-top finale with the dead proving they're not really dead. It's all silly and cheesy, perhaps a bit much so for some tastes, but on the whole, this is a fantastic start to things.

The One-Way Ward-Arriving for her shift, a nurse tries to get acclimated to the unusual conditions in a strange ward in the hospital, only to soon get dragged into the uncomfortable experiments. This was a solid if somewhat overlong segment that has a lot to like. The expanded story, involving her stay on the hospital floor, gets introduced to not only the staff and their way of handling the patients, but also trying to make sure she remains in good standing with the other members of the staff who are clearly hiding some dark secret that slowly gets uncovered the more time she spends around them. Once it gets revealed about the deadly operations and the dark secret about his experiments, this becomes rather fun as her downward mental spiral makes for a solid series of interactions together where the two of them are trying to conjure up the necessary ingredients for his serum on deranged patients, and while it's a bit overlong for what it's trying to be, this comes off pretty well.

A Diagnosis of Death-Preparing a special round for his patients, a doctor tries to decide the cause behind their shared instability only to uncover the truth about their mental states. Overall, this was a fantastic way to close things out with a lot to like here. The fact that it spends time on his methodology and looking into the different histories of the patients gives this a strong starting point to look into the generally unhinged nature of the different patients, as it becomes a bizarre series of setpieces that focus on the unknown nature of their stay. With this being tested through his equally bizarre experiments that range from occult practices to secret identities being revealed, and even a chaotic dance show that generates a slew of impressive moments and twists that take place. This attempts to cram in too many subplots for a short running time and probably could've chosen a single idea to work out better, but on the whole, there's still a whole lot to like here.

A Late Appointment-Arriving at a run-down hospital, a group of people are brought into the basement by a supposed doctor who works there where he tells them stories about the hospital's dark past. This is a rather fun wrap-around that serves the film best in that role. The simple setup of the team of strangers coming together and discovering they all have the same lack of information for being there has the hallmarks of a traditional wraparound, offering a fantastic way to introduce the next story when each of the individuals meet the doctor so it all works incredibly well in that regard. However, this soon grows into the same setup of an individual wandering off around the hospital which starts the next story, and a late arrival coming into play makes no sense when there were already three to start with. Some of the cheesy locations and sets give away the low-budget nature of what's going on as well as highlighting the issue of some of the characters being a bit too young to play these kinds of professions being what lets this down slightly.

Overview: ****/5

An effective anthology, even before being a solid return to form, there's a lot to like here and not too many drawbacks on display beyond a few expected and not-that-detrimental elements. Those with a general interest in the style of indie fare, who are hardcore anthology fans, curious about the reboot attempt, or are familiar with the creative crew, will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution.