Director: Tim Riedel
Year: 2026
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Upset with her lot in life, a teen moves out of her home and settles into her aunt’s house to help heal herself from what’s gone on in her life, but the more she stays there, the more she’s convinced a metaphorical and physical demonic spirit is latching onto her and must fight to save herself.
Review:
This was a pretty solid and generally enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements to be found here is the manner in which this one builds up the threat throughout this as a means of dealing with the past that has come back to haunt the present. The central storyline here, involving the strained life she leads and the buildup we get here about her failing job, constant stress with her sister, and inability to cope with her mother’s death, makes for a harrowing start that brings us onto her side from the very start as she starts to get a handle on her life. The trip out to the remote house in the countryside where she tries to get back to normal and getting caught up in the intricacies of being around the house and the unnatural aspects of what’s inside all come together to generate a great start to things since it bases everything on this build-up to focus on making her deal with the unresolved trauma inflicted upon her through these generational curses manifesting in the form of a malicious, terrifying demon.
These sequences, focusing on the damaging effects of her interactions with the creature and how everything starts to unravel as she stays there, bring this along with some solid genre encounters. The first few scenes, with her believing that series of holes and disturbances in the house are the result of raccoons and being slowly proven wrong when everything starts to turn more supernatural in origin, help to unleash a far more overt turn in the second half when it comes to the dealings with the spectral being that’s actually responsible for everything. Tying in the series of revelations and earlier discoveries about the family backstory to help prey on her mind and give the scenes an extra intensity, the later scenes focusing on the spirit trying to get inside her mind for its own benefit give this some chilling setpieces to see play out due to the inclusion of victims to knock off so we can get a sense of what the spirit is capable of. Overall, these are what manage to hold this one up.
There are some issues here that bring this down. The biggest drawback in this one is the generally frazzled and split sense of family dynamics that are employed in this that make for a troubled point of understanding the demonic spirits’ purpose and intent. Most of the film is spent on trying to tie into the idea of the spirit being something that troubled the aunt and caused a lot of the family issues between her and the mother that are at the cause of the main girls’ psychological distress, but then there’s points where it feels like the spirit is targeting her simply because it’s haunting the house in general and that makes her next. This is due to the lack of information we get on it at the expense of the interactions and encounters, which start to drain her psychological mindset to the point of ignoring much else, so there’s little here about the true purpose of the spirit’s intentions. That also leads into the other small issue where it’s a bit too long for its own good, lasting closer to two hours than it should and not doing much to justify this and being the issues here to bring this down.
Overview: ****/5
A generally likable genre effort overall, there’s a lot to like here and not too many flaws, which manage to come together and give this one quite a lot to hold out over the few issues in here. Those with an appreciation for the style or approach attempted here will have a lot to like here, while those turned off by the issues on display will want to heed caution.
This review ran as part of our coverage of the 2026 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival. Click here to follow the rest of our articles about the festivities!
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