Sleepwalker (2026) Film Review

Haunted by terrifying visions, Sarah’s sleepwalking episodes begin to intensify, accelerating her descent into darkness.

Sleepwalker is directed by Brandon Auman which is his directorial debut.

Sleepwalker is the very definition of a January released horror movie. It’s terrible, forgettable and makes little to no sense due to its botched filmmaking. Occasionally there’s a moment or two of good acting from Hayden Panettiere but that is nowhere near enough to save this movie from falling on its face.

As mentioned before, Hayden Panettiere occasionally has some decent moments where she’s able to work with the movie’s awful script and turn it into something somewhat salvageable. However those moments are very far and few in between, we get long periods of the actors trying desperately to make the script work but due to the empty and laughably bad script it all falls down quickly. Beverly D’Angelo’s character Gloria had potential here and attempts to tell some jokes but it ends up being more lame than anything else. Justin Chatwin as an abusive husband who ends up in a coma is quite terrible, his delivery during the more intense scenes is just not there at all and really lacks the tension and acting power needed.

The movie’s attempts at grief and abusive relationships while admirable, just does not work well at all. The grief attempts to combine it with sleepwalking which is admittedly a very solid idea, the execution however is a mess and not well done. Way too many jumpscares and a lack of a thrilling atmosphere make the movie fall flat immediately, as for the abusive relationships part while the set up is interesting that’s about as far as it goes. The dialogue does not do this movie any favors at all, it’s a shame because there is a few genuine good moments here that somewhat work. But all of that goes away when the rest of the movie carries on with its foolishness.

Lastly there’s how badly the movie is crafted. A lot of it is incredibly repetitive story wise, the ending is very abrupt and leaves the viewer with a lot more questions than answers (not in a good way.) The twist (if you even want to call it that) is very predictable and fails to land in any meaningful way.

Overall Sleepwalker has a decent idea here, but the execution goes horribly wrong in just about every way possible. Outside of the occasional decent moments, you are not going to get a whole lot from the movie as it fails to bring the viewer in.

Sleepwalker is available on all VOD platforms.

1/10 F

Mother Of Flies (2026) Film Review

When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods; but every cure has its cost.

Mother Of Flies is directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser directors of The Deeper You Dig (2019), Hellbender (2021), Where the Devil Roams (2023), Halfway to Zen (2016), Hell Hole (2024) and a few others.

The Adams family are back with a really solid and atmospheric experience with Mother Of Flies. A film that unlike their last film Hell Hole (2024), manages to keep the eerie atmosphere and deliver tons of chilling scenes that capture the feel of abandonment with its setting. The film does take a bit to get going and there are some rough moments with the acting, but in the end the film delivers on its premise and leaves the viewer satisfied.

The performances are about the same as they have always been in any of the Adams family’s films. In other words it can range from being decent to rough territory, however the charm of them being a family and doing these films together seriously helps out in the long run. Despite some of the rough acting, you can feel the passion that John, Zelda and Toby spread on screen. It definitely works a lot better in this case since the film feels a lot more intimate which does give the viewer some touching father and daughter moments between Jake (played by John Adams) and Mickey (played by Zelda Adams). Toby Poser as Solveig is a pretty formidable witch, she has this calm yet intimidating energy to her that the viewer feels right when she’s introduced. The film’s slow burn feel heavily relies on Poser’s performance which ends up working to the film’s benefit.

The atmosphere is dark and has the feel of abandonment, it’s the same type of feel that Hell Hole (2024) tried to capture but unfortunately fizzled out as the movie went on. Luckily that’s not the case here with Mother Of Flies, whether it because Toby Poser’s calm yet threatening performance that ultimately tries to get Mickey by herself, or the cinematography from cinematographer Fabian Gamper is just visually more interesting and tackles the feel of abandonment much more sharply.

The film does admittedly take a bit to get going, it’s a film that takes its time to build the world around it and I would say the wait is worth it. The film’s script definitely has it’s weak points particularly with the second act of the film where there does seem to be some repetitive moments going on here. However as the film’s mystery becomes slowly realized by Jake and Mickey things get much more investing and brings the viewer into it all.

Overall Mother Of Flies is a solid film from the Adams family, it’s a huge improvement over Hell Hole (2024) and brings the atmosphere front and center.

Mother Of Flies is available on Shudder.

7/10 B

Most Anticipated Films Of November 2025

We are in the home stretch folks! November is going to be a pretty busy month, for starters there are A LOT of reviews I have to do so expect a lot more quicker reviews. Luckily November is not THAT crazy when it comes to streaming releases (I’m going to be skipping a lot of the Christmas Netflix movies and some others this year…sorry), my watchlist is incredibly thin right now which is also great (October really helped knocking so many of them out).

Finally I left Frankenstein, Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent off the list since I saw all three already, funnily enough Frankenstein and Sentimental Value come out on Friday so expect reviews them this week!

Anyway let’s get to the list!

15. Christy – November 7th (Theaters)

14. Sisu: Road To Revenge – November 21st (Theaters)

13. Rental Family – November 21st (Theaters)

12. Rebuilding – November 14th (Theaters)

11. Eternity – November 14th (Limited) and November 26th (Wide)

10. Left-Handed Girl – November 28th (Netflix)

9. Keeper – November 14th (Theaters)

8. The Running Man – November 14th (Theaters)

7. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – November 26th (Theaters)

6. Wicked: For Good – November 21st (Theaters)

5. Train Dreams – November 7th (Theaters) and November 21st (Netflix)

4. Sirát – November 14th (Theaters)

3. Predator: Badlands – November 7th (Theaters)

2. Hamnet – November 27th (Theaters)

1. Die My Love – November 7th (Theaters)

Bambi: The Reckoning (2025) Film Review

After a mother and son get in a car wreck, they soon become hunted by Bambi, a mutated deer. The grief-stricken creature embarks on a rampage seeking revenge for the death of his mother

Bambi: The Reckoning is directed by Dan Allen director of Unhinged (2017), Mummy Reborn (2019) and It Came From Below (2021) this film serves as the fourth installment in The Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU) and is a horror retelling of the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods.

Bambi is next to get the horror treatment and well it goes about as well as you would think, at the very least I can say that this is better than Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) but considering how terrible that movie was that’s not exactly an accomplishment.

This movie suffers from a lot of the exact same problems as the rest of these movies in this series do, they take themselves way too seriously and don’t lean into having this comedic tone. That’s especially evident with this one which surprisingly has a emotional ending that while is the best part of the movie, makes the rest of the movie a complete whiplash in tone. It’s an ending that works fine enough in the context of the story, but only proves how serious these movies want to be taken which ends up backfiring hard.

The creature design for Bambi is admittedly pretty neat, it’s far and away better than anything the first Blood and Honey (2023) had and I would go as far as to say it surpasses Blood and Honey 2 (2024) and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025) when it comes to design. The design is the closest to not taking itself seriously and at the very least it makes for a couple of fun kills.

With that being said however, the rest of the movie does not have a whole lot going on here. Much like the rest of these movies, the human characters are incredibly bland who are only there to add up the kill count. The acting isn’t dreadful here but nobody here gives a passable performance, the emotional family aspect of the movie is incredibly out of place here. Sure it makes sense for Bambi as that is part of the story, but for the human characters it’s just another dull plot point added into a movie that already feels way too long despite only being 80 minutes.

Overall Bambi: The Reckoning has a couple decent moments here and there but that’s really about it. There really isn’t anything special to be said here, it’s yet another movie in this series that settles with being a dull and forgettable horror movie with a bunch of kills rather than actually being decently fun.

Bambi: The Reckoning is available on all VOD platforms.

3/10 D-

Eddington (2025) Film Review

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbour is pitted against neighbour in Eddington, N.M.

Eddington is directed by Ari Aster director of Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019) and Beau Is Afraid (2023).

When the clock reached midnight on January 1st 2020, I don’t think anyone had any sort of clue of how insane, chaotic and disastrous 2020 as a year was going to be. Ari Aster’s Eddington isn’t the first film to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic but it is the first to perhaps show how it heavily affected several people in ways that aren’t so great. The film is not talking about being trapped inside your home for a number of days, it’s talking about the people grew this main character syndrome, the conspiracy theorists, the opportunists who take advantage of well meaning activism and absolutely insane politicians.

For starters the cast is incredibly well done here, Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross which is quite possibly one of his best performances. He starts as this small-town sheriff and eventually a mayoral candidate who over the course of the film becomes more and more insane as paranoia and hostility start to occur. His turn to this maniac is both disturbing as well as hilarious, he’s able to capture the film’s black comedy atmosphere that truly makes certain scenes all the more memorable. Pedro Pascal is also fantastic here, he plays the mayor Ted Garcia who puts on this smile but in reality is a few steps away from having a meltdown, his character largely tackles a lot of the fake persona that a lot of politicians put on for the public and Pascal’s acting does such a good job of capturing that. There’s one particular scene with Phoenix and Pascal that captures this as well as a turning point in the story incredibly well, the way the scene is shot, edited and the use of Katy Perry’s song Fireworks is absolutely brilliant.

Emma Stone and Austin Butler are both fantastic here as well, while they don’t get the most amount of screen time (especially Butler) they still leave a lasting impression. Butler plays this cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak, who may come off as rational to people who think exactly like him but to others he’s insane, Emma Stone who plays Louise Cross eventually joins Vernon, Stone’s performance is a bit more quiet than a lot of the rest of the cast but it’s still just as strong and important. Lastly there’s Deirdre O’Connell who plays Dawn, Louise’s mother an insane conspiracy theorist that is very reminiscent of someone who clicks on clearly made up Facebook news articles and takes their word for it. She’s the person who would say “plandemic” at the Thanksgiving dinner you are with your family, O’Connell nails every single scene she’s in and is one of the film’s best assets. This is largely where the conspiracy theorist part of the film comes in and it’s done so perfectly and really does capture all of the insanity behind it.

The cinematography combined with the setting and the atmosphere are all spectacular. Cinematographer Darius Khondjii is incredibly well detailed and captures the insanity of this film. The film does sort of feel like you stepped into a demented Wile E. Coyote cartoon especially when the film throws its comedy into the mix. The use of Albuquerque and Truth Or Consequences New Mexico is absolutely brilliant, the film puts you in these areas where it’s a bit smaller in scale but that truly makes the last half of the film all the more terrifying. Not to mention that the locations really match the film’s many themes and are genuinely beautiful as well.

Lastly there’s the film’s writing and many different ways of tackling certain kinds of people during the pandemic. I’ve already mentioned the conspiracy theorists so I’ll skip over that and talk about the opportunists, there’s a scene that tackles the BLM protests. While there are people there that genuinely want change, you have people who are simply there to either argue, be performative or want internet fame. The film shows this incredibly well, it shows that certain people will do anything to get fame and claim to be good people yet don’t do anything beyond being performative.

This is a portion of the film that tackles this theme of nobody in this film is talking about the same thing or having the same conversation, the ability to reach other is completely meaningless because either nobody WANTS to listen or flat out does not care. The film shares this as this nightmarish world that became more noticeable when 2020 happened, it’s something that to this day is still very present. Ari Aster does such a masterful job of portraying this in such a grim yet humorous way that when you do laugh you are quickly shifted back into this “oh wait a second this is actually happening” type of feel. Something in our way of communication broke and has not recovered and quite possibly may not recover.

Eddington captures how terrible and nightmarish 2020 was as a year, it’s done in both this dreamlike and nightmarish way to the point where you feel like you are in purgatory. It’s one of the best films of the year and truly shows why Ari Aster is such a master at his craft.

Eddington is available on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Elio (2025) Film Review

Elio, an underdog with an active imagination, finds himself inadvertently beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s ambassador to the rest of the universe, he starts to form new bonds with eccentric aliens while discovering who he’s truly meant to be.

Elio is directed by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi which is the former’s directorial debut with the latter previously directing Turning Red (2022).

Elio is a pretty solid addition to the Pixar library, while there might not be anything new thematically or even story wise going on here, the huge amount of charm is undeniable and it all adds up to make an incredibly fun and adventurous experience for the viewer.

First and foremost the voice cast does a pretty solid job here, Yonas Kibreab plays Elio a character that the viewer can quickly relate to as soon as the film starts. Losing both his parents at a very young age, Elio’s imagination roams free which leads to some genuinely raw moments that, he’s obsessed with communicating with the outside world. Something a lot of kids did when I was growing up and I’m sure the viewer will have the same sort of feeling. The film portrays all of this in such a beautiful way that makes Elio feel like a very real character, yes the film does take liberties in throwing in fantasy elements when it gets to the aliens. But throughout the film the raw feeling of Elio as a character never goes away.

Zoe Saldaña as Olga Solís (Elio’s aunt) is a very important part in this story, there’s sort of an emotional separation between Olga and Elio. Olga gave up on her dreams of becoming an astronaut so she can raise her nephew. Elio’s obsession nearly costs Olga’s job which causes a distance between them. The film explores the pain of both sides incredibly well, it’s done in this thoughtful and genuinely touching way that really makes the viewer immediately care for Elio and Olga.

The animation is stunning, the use of color is very top notch, when the film reaches the space portion of the film it really does feel like you are in another world. While yes the space theme does feel a bit familiar in a lot of ways, what Sharafian and Shi are able to do with it is what makes it so fun, they are able to bring this fun aesthetic and a silly atmosphere that it’s enjoyable. You have your heartwarming moments as well to even things out. It’s some nice world building that while may not going into very deep territory, is still solid enough to capture the main mood of the film’s world.

The writing has many themes going on here such as feeling out of place, loss and loneliness all of which the film does a pretty solid job of exploring. The theme of feeling out of place in particular is beautifully done, combining it with the whole space theme is a smart move as well. Elio is in this spot where he doesn’t know where he belongs due to the loss of his parents, his connection to the outside world can only help him so much. This all leads to beautiful moments that are captured quite well and really are striking in their own ways.

The main criticism here comes from most of the aliens, outside of Gordon who does get quite a bit of development. The rest of the aliens don’t really get a huge amount of development, sure they have a few key differences from on another but there really is not anything that stands out. The antagonist Lord Grigon is just kind of there, he’s fine and he gets the job done but that’s really about it. I do find it interesting that the world itself has a lot more personality and gets more development than most of its inhabitants.

But as it stands Elio is a very strong addition to Pixar’s library, it’s touching, heartwarming and such a sweet film that you can’t help but smile after watching.

Elio is available on all VOD platforms.

8/10 B+

Bring Her Back (2025) Film Review

A brother and sister witness a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.

Bring Her Back is directed by Danny and Michael Philippou directors of Talk To Me (2022).

The main reason why it took me so long to review Bring Her Back is because there is so much to think over, I saw this a month ago and it really has not left my mind since then. I liked Talk To Me (2022) quite a lot but I was curious to see if the Philippous could go even further and deliver something even better…that was absolutely the case here. Bring Her Back is a quite disturbing ride from beginning to end, this is if you took the mean spirited nature that Talk To Me (2022) was leaning towards and made it into a huge part of the film. Combine that with some absolutely incredible performances, some quite heartbreaking and horrifying writing as well cinematography plus gore and you have yourself one of the best films of the year.

Starting with the performances everyone here does a fantastic job across the board, but the one who makes this film horrifying is Sally Hawkins. Her performance is what makes the experience feel so real, the flip like a switch like performance where she presents herself as a kind grieving mother to an insane and disturbed person who has no problem doing a lot of psychological manipulation that damages Andy (played by Billy Barratt) and his sister Piper’s (played by Sora Wong) relationship. As the film goes on you grow to hate Laura (played by Sally Hawkins) more and more that is until the ending, where the film has this interesting direction you still hate her but at the same time can’t help but feel some sort of sympathy towards her. The way this is executed is masterfully done, the score combined with the cinematography and of course Hawkins’s acting makes the ending perfect. Sally Hawkins is unbelievable, her performance alone is an experience along with bringing this disturbing nature to the film that gets under your skin.

Billy Barratt, Sora Wong and Jonah Wren Phillips are all fantastic here as well. Barratt plays this realistic brother type of role that shows he clearly cares about his sister Piper. Andy is guilt-ridden due to his father’s death and it haunts him throughout the film, the way this is portrayed and executed is simple yet very effective. He constantly blames himself for something he had no control over, these moments where he hears his father’s voice are just some of the film’s most chilling moments.

Sora Wong plays a realistic sister type of role, Piper slowly gets manipulated by Laura into turning on her brother over the course of the film. Which is heartbreaking and horrifying to watch, also Sora Wong was actually born with coloboma and microphthalmia which left her with limited sight much like her character Piper. This representation helps make her character all the more grounded and even more devastating. Finally there’s Jonah Wren Phillips who plays Oliver, we learn more about his character as the film goes on I won’t say too much about him since it does lead into spoiler territory. But I will say that he does bring some quite neat body horror moments as well as gore that is quite disturbing. His performance is also quite chilling.

The writing is filled to the brim with this dark atmosphere, the two compliment each other incredibly well. What makes the film all the more disturbing is just how well written the characters really are, the dynamics between the characters is so well done with a lot of tension and dedication from the cast fully fleshes out the character writing and moves the story along at this very focused pace.

The disturbing parts come in both a psychological or theme wise and as well as gore. The gore is incredibly gnarly and you get a little bit of everything, including body horror, simple slashes, splatters and so much more. It all adds up to be this incredibly uncomfortable watch that you can’t look away from, then you have the themes of grieving and manipulation which are incredibly effective here. A lot of films have the film of grief but the mean spirited nature of the film along with this surprisingly beautiful ending is more than enough to disturb the viewer.

Overall Bring Her Back is one of the best films of the year, it’s incredibly well acted, written, directed and will leave you disturbed. Definitely one to watch if you haven’t already.

Bring Her Back releases tomorrow on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Friendship (2025) Film Review

Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbour, but his attempts to make an adult male friend soon threatens to ruin both of their lives.

Friendship is directed by Andrew DeYoung which is his directorial debut!

The comedy genre is often one of the hardest genres to nail, you have to take a long of different notes into account such as “are my jokes funny enough?, will anyone get the humor I’m going for? What can I do to make my sense of humor or jokes standout from a crowded genre” and many others. Luckily Friendship goes for this very different approach, instead of a traditional comedy it goes for this fever dream like feel that works incredibly well. Sure other comedies have done that before but this film decides to do things differently.

Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd are absolutely hilarious together, the two’s personalities mesh well together and when the film needs them to their personalities clashing against one another opens the door to so many humorous moments. I’m not all that familiar with Robinson’s work, I’ve seen all of his film roles (which is not that many) and only seen very limited of his TV work, so I might be missing some context here when it comes to this is what Robinson’s career has been building up to. With that being said it’s a fantastic performance, he captures someone with a lot of social anxiety and really who really wants to make friends to the point where a normal desire for acceptance ends up being blurred. Robinson gives a chaotic, well acted and humorous performance that truly shows how with a flip of a switch his character Craig Waterman can go from being calm to yearning for acceptance in unhealthy ways.

Paul Rudd is also fantastic, he plays Austin Carmichael a man who slowly distances himself from Craig Waterman which kick starts the film’s main focus. Rudd and Robinson’s chemistry is so much fun. There’s plenty of laughs, dramatic moments and we get some character bits from the two. Carmichael slowly but surely becomes a man with mismatched intentions, there might not be incredibly strong character writing for Carmichael as there is for Waterman. But due to Rudd’s performance it works.

The writing is genuinely hilarious while also tackling some pretty interesting themes. There’s the desire of acceptance and how much of it is too much, there’s social anxiety and how it can be hard to make friends. Plus the film has this main theme of the connections we make as humans and showing that they can be incredibly messy, we have all had a messy experience with someone whether it ranges from an argument or something far more serious. The film highlights these in humorous and actually quite relatable ways, the awkward interactions including some pauses were genuinely funny and quite raw as well.

The direction from Andrew DeYoung has this raw feel that you quickly get attached to once the film begins, there’s moments where the film does take some liberties but the film is very consistently grounded. The fever dream style of humor really helps here especially with the actions of the characters, while not every character is incredibly well written. It’s the humor and facial expressions that really make them work as well as they do.

Overall Friendship is a very solid film that I do think is going to go on to be a classic in the comedy genre, not every single joke lands but that hardly matters when you execute the many themes of the film incredibly well.

Friendship is available on all VOD Platforms.

8/10 B+

Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) Film Review

Plagued by insomnia, a musician gets pulled into a nightmarish odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is directed by Trey Edward Shults director of Krisha (2015), It Comes At Night (2017), and Waves (2019)

The main reason why it took so long to review Hurry Up Tomorrow is because I kept going back and forth on whether or not I liked this, even currently I’m still not 100% sure what to make of it. This sort of hurts because I do love Trey Edward Shults, all of his previous films are some of the best films of the 2010s and even though Abel (The Weeknd) had The Idol (2023) under his belt there are many cases of many artists coming back with something stronger. Which in some ways this is absolutely stronger than The Idol (2023) but in other ways there really isn’t that much improvement.

Starting with the performances, Abel is better here than he was In The Idol (2023) that’s mainly due to the script being a lot more toned down. In this film he plays a fictionalized version of himself, while I do get what he was going for and I actually do not think he was terrible. There were a lot of moments of his acting that really needed a lot more power to them, there’s one particular moment I do think Abel nails down decently well but unfortunately that’s not quite enough to really say he gave a great performance. His performance feels very closed off for people who are not very familiar with Abel or his music, which I do think is ultimately the huge problem with the film (that I will get into later.)

While Barry Keoghan (who plays Lee, Abel’s fictional manager) is not in the film all that much, he does land a solid performance. The thing about Keoghan is that he thrives when playing absurd characters, there’s one ridiculous scene where in most cases you would mark it as terrible. But Barry makes it work, there’s one scene of him with Jenna Ortega that’s also quite solid as well, it’s clear that he has having a blast with the performance and using the time he has on screen as much as possible.

Finally there’s Jenna Ortega who is far and away the best part of the film, she really goes all out in this performance that portrays Anima a disturbed character who can snap at any moment. She channels Patrick Bateman from American Psycho (2000) masterfully, she’s intimidating in this unusual sense that creates a lot of the film’s atmosphere. She is given such an interesting character that while the film could have explored a lot more, Ortega manages to make work due to her facial acting, body language and some of her silent moments that can make the viewer uneasy. Her character is also by far the most interesting part about this, she gives the viewer several questions throughout the film such as who is she? What’s her story? Why is she running? Among many other questions. This is by far one of Ortega’s best performances and really shows how committed she really is to her work, without Ortega Hurry Up Tomorrow would fall flat immediately.

The cinematography from Chayse Irvin is incredibly strong here, the film has this cross between a dream and nightmare like look that adds to the film’s atmosphere. It’s quite effective during the later half of the film where the film’s horror elements kick in, the beginning portions also have some quite beautiful shots that really paint this beautiful yet haunting picture of what’s to come. The first half resembling a dream while the second half resembling a nightmare, it’s a quite clever contrast that while the film captures well has one huge misstep.

The main problem here is the script, some of it comes from a problem I hinted at earlier. Which was if you are not familiar with Abel or his music you are out of luck, it’s fine to throw references but mainly focusing on references in the sake of sacrificing the script is always going to hurt your film. The story itself does not go deep enough unfortunately, we are left with a lot of questions and throughout the film we are almost told nothing. I talk about wanting to invest the audiences as much as possible in my reviews, cases like this are why it’s important Hurry Up Tomorrow really fails in that department. Unless you are a fan of Abel you are going to be confused and lost, the story itself is unfortunately not large enough to keep the viewer hooked for very long.

Despite my issues with Hurry Up Tomorrow I did have a solid time with it, I don’t think it’s as bad as some have made it out to be. But I can absolutely understand where people are coming from, it’s a film that could have been so much more had the writing been improved I think there could have been something really great here.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is currently in theaters and releases on all VOD platforms June 6th.

6/10 C+

The Legend Of Ochi (2025) Film Review

A young girl learns to never go outside after dark because of reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. However, when a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to reunite it with its family.

The Legend Of Ochi is directed by Isaiah Saxon which is his directorial debut.

The Legend Of Ochi is one of those E.T. (1982) movies, you know the ones where a child discovers a creature and has to protect it and help it return home? You have probably seen at least one of these films before, while this one does not do a whole lot differently there is still a lot of charm here especially when it comes to the visual style.

The performances are solid, Helena Zengal who plays Yuri gives a lovely and charming performance. Her performance is not that much different than what you would expect from these types of movies, however there is heart here she clearly pours so it ends up working in the long run. Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson are both great here as well, their performances might not be some of the most memorable they have ever done but they are clearly having a blast and are committed to the roles.

The visual style of the film is what stands out here and quite honestly makes the film worth a watch. It takes on this dreamlike children’s book style that you almost feel like you are being transported into the film’s world. Saxton is primarily a music video director so it is no surprise that the visual style is the main priority here, a lot of the visuals do so much of the talking when it comes to world building mainly due to the script just not being that investing (we will get to that in a second.) So when you have some large in scale scenes that show off the visuals you get a bit more of a description of the world, the Ochi as creatures are also cute and while they may not be the most developed creature ever put to film. The bond between Yuri and the baby Ochi is admittedly very cute and filled to the brim with charm.

What holds this film back from being great mainly comes down to the script, it is a very basic E.T. (1982) like film at the end of the day. There’s not a whole lot going on here character wise, while the performances have charm the characters unfortunately do not get a lot of development and very much fit the character types you would expect from a film like this. Finn Wolfhard’s character Petro for example just feels there, the movie does not do all that much with his character. The only element that’s really keeping the viewer invested is the charming bond between Yuri and the baby Ochi, if you take that away you are left with some incredibly neat visuals but that can only keep the viewer invested for so long.

Overall The Legend Of Ochi is flawed but it has just the right amount of charm to give this one a look, the visuals are fun and the acting is decent. This is one that I’m probably never going to come back to, but despite my issues I do recommend giving this one a look if these are your types of movies.

The Legend Of Ochi is available on all VOD platforms.

6/10 C+