BURY THE DEVIL (Canada/U.S., 2026)
Official synopsis
When a hospice nurse finds herself trapped with a dementia patient, she begins to suspect something else is wrong with the woman, something otherworldly, and must fight to survive the night.
Review
Director Adam O’Brien takes a single-take/long-take/real-time approach with his feature Bury the Devil, which works quite well. Viewers who normally look for editing seams with this type of film are likely to be too wrapped up in the thrilling proceedings to remember to take notice. Cinematographer Benoit Beaulieu does fine work immersing viewers in the insanity that hospice nurse Julia (Emanuelle Lussier Martinez) experiences as she tries to protect her patient Evelyn (Dawn Ford) from a group of men led by Evelyn’s ex-husband Randall (Bill Rowat). Avoiding major spoilers, suffice it to say that Evelyn may not be the one truly needing protecting. O’Brien, who cowrote the screenplay with Brad Hodson and Philip Kalin-Hajdu, directs with verve as he keeps up the suspense and unfolding mysteries at an engaging clip. Martinez is super in her role as a woman trapped between dangerous forces and Ford is outstanding as she gets to show a range of acting chops as her character goes through startling changes. Aficionados of supernatural shockers will want to put Bury the Devil on their need-to-see lists. The film is the first installment in a planned trilogy, and I’m greatly looking forward to O’Brien’s next two chapters.
Bury the Devil received its world premiere at FrightFest Glasgow on 6 March.
RED RIDING (U.K., 2026)
Official synopsis
After her mother’s overdose, teen Red Riding moves from London to her estranged grandmother’s Scottish estate, where dark family secrets, missing children, and a monstrous wolf blur reality, forcing her to fight for survival.
Review
Don’t confuse director Craig Conway’s fear-fare feature Red Riding with the recent spate of horror movies jumping on the public domain characters bandwagon. Although it uses themes from the fairy tale, it mostly deals in domestic drama and generational horror. Victoria Tait gives a bravura performance as protagonist Redele Riding, a teenaged student who finds her mother — the two are shown right away to have a fractured relationship — dead of a drug overdose. With no other relatives to turn to, she is forced to move to Scotland to live with her wealthy grandmother (Lynsey Beauchamp). The two have never met, and the grandmother’s gorgeous estate is a far cry from the London council house Redele grew up in. But as might be expected in a fright-fare offering, the house and its inhabitants — which include servants (Bill Fellows and Jenny Quinn) doing whatever grandmother desires — hold many secrets. There is a wolf (Ian Whyte), of course, but not the type you might expect. Conway, working from a solid screenplay by Peter Stylianou, delivers a fine debut effort at the helm, investing his film with a strong air of mystery and no shortage of grueling, gruesome elements. Red Riding is an impressively eerie slice of modern independent U.K. horror.
Red Riding screened at FrightFest Glasgow, which took place March 5–7 in Glasgow, Scotland.
