Official synopsis
A family is terrorised by a dark presence after they move into a quaint cottage, and discover it lies on the site of a medieval prison which once housed women accused of witchcraft.
Review
Writer/director Jeffrey Scott Collins’ supernatural shocker The Caged (U.K., 2026) may follow some tropes with which seasoned fright-fare devotees will be familiar, but there are plenty of original spins on those expected elements to have it rise above the pack. Fine performances and impressive work at the helm are also on display.
In the late 1980s, recovering alcoholic fiction writer Robert (Edmund Kingsley), his wife Emily (Tamzin Merchant), teen stepdaughter Isabella (Raffiella Chapman), and young son Liam (Callen Carter) move into a remote mansion-sized abode in the English rural countryside. It had gone unsold and vacant for at least a decade so Robert and Emily got it dirt cheap, which we know means that there is a dark history behind it. As events ranging from creepy to deadly occur, the family learns that, in the 1500s, women accused of being witches were jailed there until their executions, and the spirit of a very infamous one, Ursula Kemp, still harbors revenge. The set-up is based on the true story of The Cage of St. Osyth, reputed to be a haunted location.
Merchant is excellent in her emotionally and physically demanding performance, and Kingsley is also impressive as a man battling personal demons while trying his best to keep his family together and safe. Chapman and Carter are also solid as the terrified children. The four leads give believable performances, avoiding overdoing things so that the acting avoids approaching any scenery chewing.
Collins paces The Caged nicely, allowing viewers to get to know the family members, their issues with each other, and some of the locals well in the first act so that we are invested in their outcomes. The film is one of the loudest in recent memory for me, with Supervising Sound Editor Daniel Bodsworth and the sound department crew providing plenty of aural jump scares. The Caged offers more than just jump scares, to be sure, with plenty of dread and eldritch atmosphere that builds to a frantic third act.
Aficionados of haunted house films and occult chillers should find plenty to enjoy with the well-acted, strikingly directed The Caged.
The Caged screened as part of Screamfest, which runs October 6–15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
