Oddity (2024): On the surface, Oddity has a simple premise: a haunted house, a murder, a mystery. Also, a golem. But Damian McCarthy’s feature is rich with texture, wrapping the viewer in unease, while slowly revealing the cards it holds. Carolyn Bracken does double duty, with two very different characters, even if they are twin sisters: the doting wife versus the elusive psychic. While “odd” is in the title, it isn’t one particular thing that makes Oddity into something unusual, but rather its embrace of unlikely character choices that, still, somehow, make sense. It doesn’t abuse cheap scares, instead fostering an atmosphere which defines the viewing experience. If it has shortcomings, they are in the ultimately mundane plot, but it all works well enough to not undermine what is a standout freaky movie. 8
The Feast (2021): On the surface, this is a simple allegorical movie about the rich (and depraved) exploiting earth’s resources and paying dearly for it. This theme of corruption runs deep, even if it lacks significant complexity. We follow a wealthy family as it prepares for a feast, which aims to convince one of their neighbours to sell their ancestral land so they might drill for mcguffins. Things take a strange turn when their help for the day arrives, the enigmatic Cadi. As the evening grows, so does the violence. An integral part of the movie is the spectacular Pawson Life House, which you can rent if you ever end up visiting the middle of nowhere, Wales. It’s director Lee Haven Jones‘s deliberate style and aesthetics that make The Feast memorable. 7
Undertone (2025): If you’re looking for a movie that will make you change how you think of people talking in their sleep, look no more. Undertone is Ian Tuason’s directorial debut, and it stars Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale, you actually see her) and Adam DiMarco (White Lotus, you don’t actually see him). Kiri plays Evy, whose mother is dying. She also happens to host a scary stories podcast with Justin and their stories get next level scary when they are sent a series of tapes of a couple exploring their sleep-talking. This isn’t the kind of movie that will blow your mind, but it does the things it does very well, creating a tense and discomforting atmosphere, with excellent sound design, that should just about creep you out. 7
Exit 8 (2025): Staying in the realm of videogame adaptations, here’s an unlikely one that works. I had not played Exit 8 before (but did so immediately after the movie), so didn’t know what to expect. It’s a simple format, of a person stuck in a loop when trying to exit the subway on his morning route. He enters this predicament just as he finds out he is to become a father. The goal is to identify anomalies that occur on a couple of winding corridors and if they appear, the “player” needs to go one way, if they don’t another. Do this eight times correctly and he reaches Exit 8. It’s an eerie setup that’s surprisingly effective. The game itself is maybe half an hour long, but what this shows is that a good concept is far more filmable than a convoluted plot with B-dialogues (Resident Evil, I’m looking at you). I don’t think Exit 8 manages to hit it out of the park, struggling to not be gratuitously obtuse, which is not to say that it doesn’t leave a fair share of food for thought on the table. 7
Iron Lung (2026): Youtuber movies aren’t necessarily exceptional, as Iron Lung proves. Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier went all in here, directing, writing, editing and starring in the adaptation of the videogame he streamed with much excitement, Iron Lung. We follow “the convict” Simon, as he is paying penance for a terrorist attack by being submerged in a small submarine to the bottom of the (blood) sea. It’s a Lovecraftian world down there and a post-apocalyptic world above, but the story is mostly contained to the sub. I was instantly sceptical of the 2+ hour runtime, which was confirmed as the movie meanders and slogs a lot of the time. I really liked a blurb of a review on it, saying Iron Lung makes Event Horizon look like 2001: A Space Odyssey. There is obvious inspiration from Event Horizon here, but without the acting chops of Sam Neill & co, I never got a sense that Iron Lung is harrowing or intense. It’s an experiment which fails, a B movie with pseudo-philosophical lines ripe with trite, whose claim to fame is using the most fake blood in cinema history – a fact that barely stood out while watching it. 4
tributary stu 
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