Processing Charlie
Official synopsis
With his marriage about to fall apart, Charlie gets a surprise visit from his long-lost cousin. Charlie offers Cole a place to stay, but as his dark secrets bubble to the surface, Charlie realizes too late that no good deed goes unpunished.
Review
Writer/director David Harari serves up a jaw-dropping indie chiller with his black-and-white feature Processing Charlie. As if Charlie (Michael Ursu) wasn’t having enough trouble between arguing with his wife Anika (Kelly Pantaleoni) about his desire to not have children with her and his fear of entering his deceased younger sister’s locked bedroom, along comes his cousin Cole (Asa Fris). Cole has left his parents’ home where he was homeschooled and Charlie reluctantly lets him stay at the house he shares with Anika. From here, Harari steadily builds up suspense as Cole’s odd behavior grows increasingly disturbing and invasive. The ensemble cast members, which also include Sophia Guillen as Anika’s flirtatious friend Carmen, give terrific performances, with Fris delivering an incredibly creepy turn as the manipulative — to say the least — Cole. Harari pulls no punches, leading viewers to suspect one thing while producing wholly unexpected shocks.
Wounds
Official synopsis
Caleb, a young SFX makeup artist, struggles to create realistic effects until he witnesses a brutal murder. Intrigued by what he saw, he descends into a psychological abyss as he takes on extreme measures to create his masterful effects.
Review
Both a valentine to practical effects makeup in horror films and a shining example of them, director Ron Krauss’s Wounds is an absolute blast. Special Makeup Effects Supervisor Andy Fowler, Prosthetics Makeup Designer Jonah Levy, Special Makeups Effect Artist Liz Scott, Makeup Department Head Donaldo Taylor, and Hair Department Head Kay Cantrell all deserve high praise for their work on this fine slice of fear fare. Along with the copious gory practical effects makeup work, Krauss — working from a screenplay that he cowrote with Johsua Cortade and Ryan Leeder — crafts an eerie descent-into-madness tale that finds budding but frustrated FX artist Caleb (Jack Kilmer) working on a film for his studio head uncle Jefferson (Eric Roberts). If not for that gig, he might be unemployable. When Jefferson gives Caleb a last chance to prove himself, fate intervenes in the way of Caleb witnessing a brutal assault and taking advantage of real-life wounds to inspire his work. Matters complicate further when Caleb mistakes supportive fellow makeup artist Ginny’s (Paris Jackson) friendliness as being romantic. Obviously, aficionados of practical effects makeup work in horror movies are going to have a great time with Wounds, but fear-fare devotees of all stripes should find this highly entertaining, well-acted, and impressively helmed feature to be a lot of gruesome fun.
Processing Charlie and Wounds screened as part of Screamfest, which runs October 6–15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
