Film Fests
Unnamed Footage Festival Vol. 8 Has an INCREDIBLE Lineup!
I’ve heard of the Unnamed Footage Festival for quite some time but hadn’t had the opportunity to be a part of it…until now. When I requested press accreditation for this festival, I had no clue what films would be screening, but I didn’t care. If you know me, you know how much I love found footage. Let’s just say the lineup for this festival is BONKERS. Among other prestigious partners for UFF this year, they happily welcome new partner FoundTV. If you’re unfamiliar with FoundTV, it’s a found footage streaming service that is giving the big horror streamers a run for their money. The Found Footage Horror and In-World-Camera Film Festival returns to San Francisco March 25-30, 2025, and offers a hybrid festival experience like no other. There will be a ton of events for in-person attendees to sink their teeth into, and I’m jealous of everyone who gets to be a part of that. But what films will they be showing?! Let’s take a look! Check Out the Killer Lineup at Unnamed Footage Festival 2025!
I’ve heard of the Unnamed Footage Festival for quite some time but hadn’t had the opportunity to be a part of it…until now. When I requested press accreditation for this festival, I had no clue what films would be screening, but I didn’t care. If you know me, you know how much I love found footage.
Let’s just say the lineup for this festival is BONKERS.
Among other prestigious partners for UFF this year, they happily welcome new partner FoundTV. If you’re unfamiliar with FoundTV, it’s a found footage streaming service that is giving the big horror streamers a run for their money. The Found Footage Horror and In-World-Camera Film Festival returns to San Francisco March 25-30, 2025, and offers a hybrid festival experience like no other.
There will be a ton of events for in-person attendees to sink their teeth into, and I’m jealous of everyone who gets to be a part of that. But what films will they be showing?! Let’s take a look!
Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Check Out the Killer Lineup at Unnamed Footage Festival 2025
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
TINSMAN ROAD (2025, dir. Robbie Banfitch) (WORLD PREMIERE)
A young man searches for the body of his sister years after her tragic disappearance.
Shot fully on gritty 4:3 Mini-DV, Robbie Banfitch’s sophomore feature Tinsman Road takes us on an emotionally winding voyage into the wilderness of death and sorrow.
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
I DON’T LIKE IT HERE (2025, dir. Robbie Smith)
A recently paroled outsider returns to his desolate hometown, only to find a community plagued by a disturbing darkness. As he grapples with his own past and the town’s sinister secrets, he becomes the prime suspect in a series of gruesome murders.
After his powerful directorial debut, Grieve, Robbie Smith returns with I Don’t Like it Here, a poignant hybrid found-footage film that builds on the eerie, voyeuristic camera work of Grieve and combines it segments of faux-documentary footage in order to create something deeply haunting and highly original. I Don’t Like it Here follows a parolee who returns to his childhood home to find his family missing.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DOROTHY BELL? (2024, dir. Danny Villanueva)
After uncovering disturbing revelations from her early childhood involving her late grandmother, Dorothy Bell, Ozzie Gray sets out to video document her investigation into these past events. Desperate for answers, she attempts to communicate with Dorothy’s spirit but unwittingly awakens something malevolent.
Featuring a star studded cast including Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5) and Michael Hargrove (Candyman (2021), The Express (2008)) and a breakthrough lead performance from newcomer Asya Meadows, Dorothy Bell is found-footage gem, with intense scares and unexpected twists as it examines generational trauma through the lens of demonic possession.
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
SOLVENT (2024, dir. Johannes Grenzfurthner)
While searching for Nazi documents in an Austrian farmhouse, a team of experts uncovers a hidden secret buried in its bowels. American expatriate Gunner S. Holbrook becomes obsessed with solving the mystery, and as his sanity wanes, he must confront an insatiable evil.
After screening Masking Threshold at UFF 6 and its divisive follow up Razzenest at UFF 7, we’re proud to share Solvent, the final film in Johannes Grenzfurthner’s loose trilogy of unconventional horror films. While Solvent is, perhaps, the most conventional of the three films, it retains Grenzfurthner’s signature touch of absolute insanity.
LEECH (2024, dir. David Dawson)
The trials, tribulations, and trolls of a Youtuber who calls himself The Dark Lord of Loves Park.
The Dark Lord of Loves Park live streams regularly in hopes of receiving donations from his viewers who are only watching to see him self-destruct. Inspired by King Cobra JFS, David Dawson (Flesh Games, The Long Weekend) returns with a mumblegore, screenlife film that explores the internet phenomenon of LOLCOWS.
It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This (2023, USA, dir. Rachel Kempf, Nick Toti)
When a married couple (filmmakers Rachel Kempf, Nick Toti as themselves) purchase a rundown duplex in rural Missouri to be the set of their next horror film, they are delighted by the layers of graffiti and debris. Nick’s production of a documentary about their project and the entertaining dynamic between himself, Rachel, and her longtime bestie Christian gets sidetracked when strangers begin standing completely still outside their new home, silently staring at the house.
Hunting Matthew Nichols (2024, Canada, dir. Markian Tarasiuk)
Two decades after her brother’s disappearance, documentarian Tara Nichols (Miranda MacDougall) sets out to find answers. When she uncovers a disturbing piece of evidence: a horrific tape that the police covered up, she learns that there’s more to his disappearance than she’s been told, and that her brother could still be alive.
Dream Eater (2024, Canada, dir. Alex Lee Williams, Jay Drakulic, Mallory Drumm)
During a holiday at a remote cabin in the mountains, filmmaker Mallory Drumm decides to capture her boyfriend’s (Alex Lee Williams) strange parasomnia on camera. Despite their efforts, his episodes worsen, becoming violent and dangerous. As the couple seek a cure, they begin to expect that something more sinister is at play and begin to wonder if Alex’s malady is supernatural in origin.
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
The Lost Episode (2024, Canada, dir. Nick Wernham)
The Lost Episode follows police officers Paul Massaro and Terrence Williams (Anthony Grant and Benjamin Sutherland) as they patrol the town of Franklin on Halloween night. As the night progresses, the officers respond to a series of increasingly disturbing calls and begin to suspect a diabolical conspiracy lurking in the heart of their small town.
Nightfall: A Paranormal Investigation (2024, Australia, dir. Myles McEwen, Ripley Stevens)
Two young paranormal detectives investigate a haunting. One wields a video camera and can record the spirits of the dead while the other brandishes headphones and a microphone that can capture their voices. Together they delve into a haunting that pushes their skills to the limit. This simple setup serves as a springboard for some of the best cinematography and sound design found footage horror has to offer.
The Rebrand (2024, Canada, dir. Kaye Adelaide)
Nicole, a pregnant videographer takes a gig helping a pair of lesbian lifestyle influencers who’ve seen their brand and their reputation destroyed after being cancelled for an unknown transgression. As she films their lives, she finds that the pair have far more quirks in person than their online personas reveal.
McCurdy Point (2025, USA, dir. Jeremy Brothers, Nick Paonessa)
McCurdy Point follows five friends who travel to an old cabin in the woods to celebrate, but instead find themselves targeted by a malicious force that defies explanation. Starring an ensemble cast of improv comedians, instead of scoring laughs, they build intense tension and massive scares as the force picks them off one-by-one.
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
DOOBA DOOBA (2024, USA, dir. Ehrland Hollingsworth)
When aspiring singer Amna (Amna Vegha) is hired to babysit, she’s surprised to learn her ward is the 16-year-old Monroe (Betsy Sligh), a troubled shut-in who hasn’t left her home since watching her brother murdered. What ensues is a cat-and-mouse game with the tension of Creep and an absurdist sensibility of Too Many Cooks.
The Unsolved Love Hotel Murder Case Incident (2024, Japan, dir. Dave Jackson, Guy)
Dave Jackson and Guy, a pair of horror filmmakers and Australian expats living in Japan, decide to investigate their friend’s story of a murder and haunting at an abandoned love hotel. What starts off as a fun weekend trip becomes a nightmare when their friend vanishes and the love hotel turns out to actually be haunted.
Japandemonium (日本-悪魔) (2024, Japan, dir Sean Kurosawa / Kyosuke Koizumi, Nozomi Tomaki)
A double feature of Sean Kurosawa’s Girls Just Wanna Have Kill and Kyosuke Koizumi & Nozomi Tomaki’s Killmageddon, this midnight block is like seppuku for your senses. With minimal plot and maximal violence, Killmageddon is a blood-drenched fever dream. Girls Just Wanna Have Kill keeps up the insanity from its opening dedication to Cyndi Lauper to its splatter-pop idol heroine Momoko (Tenma Aida) and her gooey time-traveling hijinks.
What I Remember (2025, USA, dir. Alex Hera)
Based on Hera’s short film of the same title, What I Remember follows Ryan and Sam, a pair bound together by loneliness and by their deep desire to escape the bigotry and isolation of their rural hometown. Jumping between past and present, we watch Ryan and Sam’s relationship tenderly grow, all-the-while knowing that in the present Ryan has gone missing, may be dead, and that Sam is dead-set on finding the truth.
Distort (2025, Ireland, dir. Richard Waters)
A musician recording an album in the woods finds mysterious cassette tapes being left for him. On them, a woman researching an urban legend is being terrorised by a man and his vicious dog. A mix between Justin Benson / Aaron Moorhead’s Resolution and Turner Clay’s The Blackwell Ghost, Distort is a beautiful and welcomed return to the woods.
Image courtesy of Unnamed Footage Festival
Baleful (2024, Canada, dir. Denman Hatch)
Eddie has a serious problem. He doesn’t know what’s real. He doesn’t know who he is. He doesn’t know why he wakes up covered in blood. Baleful is a hybrid anthology film that brings the Unnamed Footage Festival 8 theme—“Video Never Lies”—to chilling fruition. As reality unravels for a small community, its members turn to their cameras for the truth… only to discover that some images can’t be unseen. From the creator of Canada’s #1 horror YouTube channel, Deformed Lunchbox, Baleful also marks the long-awaited return of Kenny vs Spenny’s Spencer Rice to the big screen.
Fat Tuesday (2018, USA, dir. Jorge Torres-Torres)
Cinema-in-Public is a term we’ve come up with to refer to narrative films shot guerilla-style in public places. The actors know they’re making a movie, but the public is none-the wiser. Examples are rare, and include oddities like Randy Moore’s Disney World-filmed Escaped from Tomorrow and Jason Banker’s Toad Road.
UFF is proud to present its first Cinema-In-Public screening, Fat Tuesday. Filmed in New Orleans on-location during Mardi Gras, a group of friends is preyed upon by a mysterious killer (Hannah Gross). Shot and edited by the criminally overlooked Jorge Torres-Torres (Toad Road, Sisters of the Plague) Fat Tuesday transcends traditional slashers by adding an element of verisimilitude previously unknown to the subgenre.
Reality Killers (2005, Italy, dir. Alessandro Capone, Pablo Dammicco, Volfango De Biasi, Francesco Maria Dominedò)
Reality Killers is a horror film in which a man obsessed with violent ‘snuff’ videos, featuring people being abused, tortured and killed, goes on to commit his own similar crimes. – Banned in the UK and lost for 20 years, Reality Killers is a surprisingly cinematic 90s style In-World-Camera film, which will find its theatrical debut as our Saturday, midnight screening.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like it will be a BLAST! Keep an eye out for our reviews, and if you plan on attending, you can purchase tickets HERE.
No way it’s the horror of 2026, but Hokum could be this year’s most solid “welcome to the big leagues, kid” horror. It’s a pill that’s got the potential to draw in new horror fans, but has enough flavor to satisfy a veteran for 101 minutes. Damian McCarthy definitely learned to polish up his idea of a nightmare from Caveat (2020), to Oddity (2024), to his best feature yet. Literally, sort of. With a single watch of each under my belt… Hokum has the same theme and tone as the previous two, just waxed and remixed. I’m not mad at it, though.
Hokum That Bridges Indie and Mainstream Appeal
Even the freaks like us who live in the underground horror tunnels can understand the public’s genre fatigue. I agree- it can seem like all these remakes and re-hashes are seriously weighing down blockbuster horror these days. The good indie stuff gets looked over, but McCarthy’s most recent film is a decent little in-between. It won’t bother you with a high cinema monologue, but it knows how to make you cringe, and will lock you in a dusty room with it.
It’s vague in exposition, not that a simple idea like this really needs to be super fleshed out. It stars Severance’s Adam Scott as Ohm Bauman, a famous Yankee novelist, a guy who grieves, and a big jerk. He arrives at a boutique Irish inn to scatter the ashes of his parents, and finish the last book in his trilogy. The challenge of writing an asshole lead that still has to convince the audience to root for them is damn refreshing. Scott’s performance holds it up too. He’s got a great jerk-face even without dialogue. He’s easy to pity, though- somewhere between Paul Sheldon from Misery, and a real life Stephen King, who shares the suspiciously balanced atmosphere that drove Jack Torrence nuts in The Shining.
Familiar Horror Influences with a Refined Execution
McCarthy borrows a lot from those two, and probably a catalog of blockbuster peek-a-boo scary movies. The reason Hokum is a good challenge for the horror gateway, is that it doesn’t try too hard to “elevate” (it does, though only a little) the genre. It listens and learns from its elders to complete the haunted hotel play-by-play. Not a repeat, but a re-do of the things that work for paranormal and folk horror. The aspect that Hokum brings home is the solid polycule made of production design, sound mixing, and cinematography. A happy, creepy home of cobwebs and jump scares.
The only hotel staff spared from Ohm’s terrible attitude is Fiona. When he learns she’s gone missing after a Halloween party he was famously blackout drunk for, he feels a responsibility to return the kindness and effort she had shown him. The last person to speak to Fiona was local kooky guy, Jerry (David Wilmot). His local status is confirmed by Ohm after Jerry claims Fiona is most likely dead in the honeymoon suite… because her ghost approached him and told him so. Jerry might be crazy, but Ohm has nothing to live for, apparently. Ohm agrees to investigate the suite that the hotel staff keep locked and out of service. It’s haunted by a witch, they say. Obviously.
Production Design and Sound Craft a Claustrophobic Nightmare
The suite, and the source of Hokum’s nightmares, is stunning work in the macabre department. Despite my distaste for them, it really is a playground for jump scares. Lighting and sound design do some real respectable heavy lifting that the viewer is forced (complimentary) to sit through. My personal playground, though, would be the dumbwaiter. The last time I had that much fun with one of those was when lowering Danny into the den of lizard aliens in Zathura (2005). Hokum’s dumbwaiter plays as much of a role as Adam Scott does in his.
Besides the horrors that persist in it, the honeymoon suite really comes alive with the one or two Resident Evil-esque puzzles in order to reach the meat of the mystery. A super engaging focus from cinematographer Colm Hogan to use frame ratio, and other visual camera tricks to induce the claustrophobia of the epicenter of scares. Bring back the dumbwaiter please.
Where Hokum Falls Short
What doesn’t work is excusable. The thin background information on Ohm’s trauma presents itself too often through a jump scare/flashback cocktail. Did this movie need to be 101 minutes, or could it have been 90? Did the viewer need to understand the weight of Ohm’s undesirable childhood? Not to this degree. I think these moments also risk confusion as to what supernatural thing we’re dealing with at the moment: the witch of the honeymoon suite, Fiona’s ghost, or the lasting haunt of Ohm’s mother’s tragic death? The film takes the “less is more” rule at about 70%- not awesome, but a passing grade, no doubt.
If you’re at the intersection of video games and horror, then you know not all video game film adaptations are created equally. For every Silent Hill (2006), Werewolves Within, or Detention (2019), there is a lot of heartbreak and titles we’re still trying to forget. Which is why, when Kotake Create’s beloved Exit 8 video game was tapped to become a film, we held our collective breath. How would this quick psychological nightmare transfer to a feature-length film? Would the filmmaker chosen understand the assignment? Luckily, the movie works overall, and horror and game nerds have another title in the win column.
In Case You Missed It
Exit 8 puts gamers into the shoes of an unseen protagonist who is stuck in a subway station. Players soon realize that this location is not what it seems. They are also tasked with spotting anomalies in hopes of making it to the eighth level and (hopefully) back to the real world. Some of the anomalies are subtle, some are anxiety-inducing, and some leave you wanting to scream WTF? However, the game is a pretty quick introduction to liminal spaces and self-gaslighting.
The film, written by Kentaro Hirase and Genki Kawamura, understands what made the game effective. They even keep and elevate some of the anomalies that were my personal favorites. The duo also builds three very distinct characters to keep us from sitting for 95 minutes of vibes.
Walking Man (Yamato Kochi) is not just the creepy guy making circles in this hallway with us in the film. He gets a full arc in his chapter that informs us he was a human who panicked and made the wrong choice. He is now doomed to spend eternity here as part of others’ nightmarish quests. While all of the performances are great, Kochi brings a humanity and sadness to the role that was unexpected. He finds ways of using his character’s repetitive nature as a way to add subtle layers. This makes the shift into his chapter feel more alive, frantic, and heartbreaking. We know this journey isn’t going to end well for him, but it’s hard not to fully invest and feel that heartbreak anyway.
It’s Not All Great at Exit 8
Exit 8 plays with us in the beginning before shifting from first-person perspective to reveal our protagonist will be Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya). He and his girlfriend are having a moment when he ends up in this subway station on a loop. Their phone conversation reveals she’s pregnant, so Lost Man is having a bad day before getting stuck in liminal limbo. This, on its own, is fine. However, after a lot of laps, he meets The Boy (Naru Asanuma) and discovers he is not an anomaly.
The Boy ties Lost Man and Walking Man’s stories together. He tries to assist both of them on their journeys while being too afraid to speak for most of his screentime. Again, all of the performances are great, but a kid killing it with a mostly silent role is highly impressive. His relationship with these two broken and frightened men is believable and palpable. He and Lost Man specifically bond and form a lovely duo that, unfortunately, underscores the pregnant girlfriend to lead to a very pro-life message.
Exit 8’s Politics Derail the Horror
Kawamura directed the hell out of Exit 8, and it’s a good time. However, it’s hard to wash away the very heavy swerve into pro-life territory in 2026. Especially as a person with ovaries who lives in a country that doesn’t want me to have autonomy. Horror is political, and this game has so many things that could have been expanded on. The insertion of an anti-choice layer into a film centered on three male characters (at three very different stages of life) is wild. I personally hated it because, aside from that, it does capture the vibes of the game. It feels like watching someone piss in the lemonade on a hot summer day.
The Horror Press Podcast Episode 59: Shudder & Sequels
[INTERVIEW] Alice Maio Mackay Talks ‘The Serpent’s Skin’
Overlook Film Festival: ‘Hokum’ Review
‘2001 Maniacs’ Is Spring Break…For Racists?!
‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: A Reboot With Mixed Results
5 Horror Movies To Watch When You’re Super Stoned
Everything You Need To Know About ‘From’
‘Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever’ Review: A Meth Trip That Never Ends
Overlook Film Festival: ‘Exit 8’ Review
The Crypt Keeper Takes Overlook Film Festival 2026
‘The People Under the Stairs’ Review: A Brilliantly Bizarre Horror Classic
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ and The Story of William Afton Explained
Slappy Was the Blueprint: How the Dummy from Goosebumps Became A Horror Icon
Glen and Glenda: Don Mancini’s Reverence for Queerness in ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)
‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
V/H/S Franchise Ranked, Best to Worst
Everything You Need to Know About Jason Voorhees
The 11 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Ever, According to an Actual Horror Fan
[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher