Evil Cat (1987) – OHMC 2026 Day 11

11 October, 2026

Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)

When a whole bunch of eighties Hong Kong horror films turned up on Shudder, I knew I had to review a couple of them this month. There weren’t that many I hadn’t seen, however, so Evil Cat went on my list without my really knowing anything about it. And sometimes that’s the best way to approach a film.

Evil Cat is currently streaming on Shudder in the UK.

Synopsis

Master Cheung, an ageing warrior and sorcerer, is dying of cancer. He comes out of retirement, however, when the Evil Cat (yes, this is how it’s known) escapes from the pit in which Cheung and his father imprisoned it 50 years before. Armed with a magical bow and his last three arrows, he vows to slay the demon for good this time. As a cat, albeit an evil one, the entity has nine lives, and has successfully resurrected itself over and over, but this will be its last chance to become fully corporeal.

The Evil Cat goes on a rampage through an office block owned by Mr Fan, a wealthy businessman. It kills his security guards, but Fan himself appears to get away. Meanwhile, Fan’s chauffeur, Long, is driving back to the office after a tryst and runs Master Cheung over. This doesn’t stop them forming an immediate bond, and they head to the office block together. There, they meet the other main players in the story — a nerdy police detective called Handsome Wu, and Cheung’s daughter, who is a television reporter, who is unhappy to see her sickly father out on the hunt.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Evil Cat has possessed Mr Fan. It tries to take out Cheung and Long before they can stop it assuming its true form. In response, Cheung offers to train Long as his replacement, and the two of them go on the hunt.

From here, it’s all murder, sorcery, and wire stunts until the final showdown between our heroes and their deadly feline foe. Oh, and there’s a musical number. Don’t sweat it.

General Thoughts

Translating comedy must be tricky, especially from a language like Cantonese that lends itself so much to wordplay. There are clearly some jokes involving names in Evil Cat that just don’t translate into English, but it’s still weird seeing the general shape of them without any context. Some films do a better job of substituting other jokes to replace ones that can’t be translated, but I guess the translators for Evil Cat were on a tight deadline.

There is a moment late on in the film, involving the cat spirit stalking a pop singer, where the tone shifts gears. It’s like the producers suddenly remembered that they needed to market this as a horror film, so ramped up the sex and violence. While this works, it does have little connection to the rest of the film. I’m reminded of how Roger Corman added salacious scenes to Humanoids From the Deep in post production to make it more commercial.

While it’s far from explicit, Evil Cat is steamier than any Hong Kong horror film I remember from this period. It has moments that feel like they could come from either a seventies British sex comedy or a horny direct-to-video thriller from the nineties. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is unexpected.

Verdict

Evil Cat is a daft horror-comedy with lots of kung fu, and sometimes that’s just what you want. It is filled with the kind of fight scene where everything is a weapon and the environment is just there to be destroyed. Even so, it’s surprisingly dark in places, and it doesn’t hold back on blood and drama.

While this is a fun combination of elements, none of them is especially strong. The horror isn’t scary, the comedy is largely crass and groan-inducing, and the action is surprisingly tame for a Hong Kong film of the era. The fight scenes rely on editing and wire stunts rather than the prowess of their performers. It’s interesting to compare them with something like Encounters of the Spooky Kind, where Samo Hung’s acrobatic skills make the action and physical comedy so much more exciting. Even so, this shortcoming doesn’t come close to ruining Evil Cat.

Ultimately, Evil Cat is pure entertainment. It’s cheap-looking at times, and shows its age, but it’s so damn much fun that you won’t care. If you fancy some ludicrous action, weird magic, and a little bit of horror on the side, you could certainly watch worse this spooky season.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or on the other side of the mirror.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Messiah of Evil (USA, 1974)
Milk & Serial (USA, 2024)
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Russia, 2018)
The Visitor (Italy, 1979)
Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018)
Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003)
Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)
New Religion (Japan, 2022)
The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)
Saccharine (Australia, 2026)
Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)
Stéphane (France, 2023)
Send Help (USA, 2026)
Vampire Clay (Japan, 2017)
Hokum (Ireland, 2026)
Jack Be Nimble (New Zealand, 1993)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan, 2007)
Undertone (Canada, 2025)
Blind Beast (Japan, 1969)
The Appointment (UK, 1982)
Vampyr (German, 1932)
The Last Horror Film (USA, 1982)
The Fake Ghost Catchers (Hong Kong, 1982)
Fréwaka (Ireland, 2024)
Angst (Germany, 1983)
Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia (Canada, 1978)
The Cycle (USA, 2026)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italy, 1971)
Meanwhile on Earth (France, 2024)
The Ambulance (USA, 1990)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA, 2026)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.

And if you dig through the archives, you will also find episodes about a wide variety of horror stories and games. Happy nightmares!

Saccharine (2026) – OHMC 2026 Day 10

11 October, 2026

Saccharine (Australia, 2026)

Natalie Erika James came to prominence for writing and directing Relic (2020). While I’ve seen nothing but glowing reviews, I’ve avoided it because of the subject matter. After spending years dealing with the real horrors of dementia, I can’t face it as entertainment. So when I saw that she had a new film out, I thought it might provide an easier entry point to her work. Like its predecessor, Saccharine deals with real horrors through the lens of fantastical ones. This time, however, the focus is on disordered eating, which is something I also have experience of. Let’s hope this isn’t a rough watch.

Saccharine is currently streaming on Shudder in the UK.

Synopsis

Hana, a medical student, is trying to lose weight. She has signed up for an exercise programme at the university gym, conducted by Alanya, who Hana has a major crush on. Hana’s anxieties about her weight are exacerbated when she and her cohort are given the corpse of a morbidly obese woman to dissect in their anatomy class. The other students dub the corpse “Bertha” and make crass jokes about her.

While out for a drink, Hana bumps into Melissa, an old friend, who has recently lost a lot of weight. She tells Hana that her secret is an unlicenced drug that she refers to as “grey”. While the drug is expensive, Melissa gives Hana some free samples. The pills work, even with Hana’s binge eating, but they come with a free ghost. This entity is only visible in reflections on curved surfaces, so Hana is largely oblivious to it.

Hana uses the university lab to analyse the pills and discovered that they’re made from cremated human remains. Rather than freaking out, she decides to steal bits of Bertha’s remains and make her own pills. These work just as well as the originals, but now Hana starts seeing Bertha reflected around her home.

The pills seem to turn Hana into an earthly conduit for Bertha’s boundless appetite, although Hana continues losing weight no matter how much she eats. Is this related to the hungry ghost legends Hana’s mother taught her? And can Hana break free of Bertha’s influence before she starves to death?

General Thoughts

Saccharine is very much in the “horror as metaphor” camp, with an eating disorder externalised as a hungry ghost. But it absolutely succeeds as a ghost story in its own right, giving us plenty of creepy moments and a building sense of dread. More impressively, perhaps, it’s also grotesque without undermining its atmosphere or aspirations. Hana’s looting of Bertha’s corpse for raw materials is absolutely disgusting, and there is a surgery scene towards the end that had me cringing. I have to appreciate how well Saccharine succeeds in these very different areas without ever feeling messy or incoherent.

The story also made me wonder about where we draw the line with cannibalism. Is Hana swallowing diet pills made from cremains any less vile or transgressive than if she’d been scoffing down spare ribs made from Bertha’s corpse. Viscerally, they seem different, but I can’t rationalise that feeling.

The concept and presentation of the ghosts in Saccharine could come from an early 2000s J-horror film. They may be invisible but they are still very physical presences, with Bertha in particular creaking floorboards and furniture with her weight. I like the conceit of only being able to see the dead in concave reflective surfaces. This put me mind of funhouse mirrors designed to distort our body images.

Hana’s mother is Japanese, and she has a shrine in her home to appease hungry ghosts. I’d always thought of this as a purely Chinese belief, but a quick scan of Wikipedia has put me right. It seems be be more widespread across Southeast Asia than I’d realised.

Verdict

Saccharine is a masterpiece of pacing. It never holds back, ramping up the horror and the stakes as quickly as it can. Around a third of the way in, I found myself wondering how it would maintain this, as it had already reached what might have been the climax in another film. Yet it still kept building. Even as it reaches a resolution, it pushes on a bit further, giving us a gruellingly dark ending.

Underneath all the ghosts and cannibalism, Saccharine is a story about our relationship with our bodies. This is a tricky topic to handle sensitively, but there are no missteps here. While Hana is often irrational in her obsession, her actions are rarely unsympathetic or unbelievable. Anyone who has struggled with their weight will understand what drives her, if not the steps she is willing to take.

This could easily be a gloomier, more nihilistic film, but Hanna is such a proactive protagonist, using her medical skills to react to what is happening to her. Ultimately, however, this makes her situation so much worse. Intelligence doesn’t stop people from making terrible decisions.

It’s still early in the month, but Saccharine is a strong contender for my top three, and maybe my film of the month. Everything about it works, from the polished and assured direction to the imagination and craft of the script. And, unlike so many of the films I’ve watched so far, it is actually horrific. Saccharine deserves a place at your table this Halloween, if you have the stomach for it.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or on the other side of the mirror.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Messiah of Evil (USA, 1974)
Milk & Serial (USA, 2024)
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Russia, 2018)
The Visitor (Italy, 1979)
Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018)
Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003)
Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)
New Religion (Japan, 2022)
The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)
Saccharine (Australia, 2026)
Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)
Stéphane (France, 2023)
Send Help (USA, 2026)
Vampire Clay (Japan, 2017)
Hokum (Ireland, 2026)
Jack Be Nimble (New Zealand, 1993)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan, 2007)
Undertone (Canada, 2025)
Blind Beast (Japan, 1969)
The Appointment (UK, 1982)
Vampyr (German, 1932)
The Last Horror Film (USA, 1982)
The Fake Ghost Catchers (Hong Kong, 1982)
Fréwaka (Ireland, 2024)
Angst (Germany, 1983)
Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia (Canada, 1978)
The Cycle (USA, 2026)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italy, 1971)
Meanwhile on Earth (France, 2024)
The Ambulance (USA, 1990)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA, 2026)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.

And if you dig through the archives, you will also find episodes about a wide variety of horror stories and games. Happy nightmares!

The Driller Killer (1979) – OHMC 2026 Day 9

9 October, 2026

The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)

I’m of an age where I remember the video nasties furore in the UK vividly. For a few years in the early 1980s, horror videos were at the bloody heart of a new moral panic and the British tabloid press whipped the country up into a lather over them. The Driller Killer was one of the more visible targets, most of which was probably down to its memorable title. How is that name not going to leap out if you’re browsing a list of films? I suspect if our moral guardians had actually watched it, however, they might have been more perplexed than appalled.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s review this damn thing.

The Driller Killer is currently streaming on the Arrow Video Channel in the UK.

Synopsis

Reno Miller is a bohemian artist type who lives with his girlfriend, Carol, and her girlfriend, Pamela, in a seedy New York City apartment. Their existence is precarious, resting as much on Carol’s alimony as the few paintings Reno sells.

One day, Pamela tries drilling a hole in a door, which seems to awaken something in Reno. He is further inspired by a TV advert for a portable battery pack.

Pressures mount as Reno is unable to pay his rent. He hopes his next big sale will save him, although he is struggling to admit the piece is actually finished. His anger only grows when landlord rents the basement for a local band to use as a rehearsal space, filling the apartment block with the strains of their three-chord epics.

The final part of Reno’s origin story comes about when he sees a mugger knifing someone and enjoys the spectacle. As Reno starts to hallucinate, it’s apparently time to buy a battery pack for his drill and start putting holes in people.

General Thoughts

It’s difficult to pin down what exactly The Driller Killer is aiming for. There’s not enough focus on Reno’s motivations or state of mind for it to be psychological horror, despite a few half-hearted nods in that direction. The violence is infrequent and surprisingly restrained, so it’s not really trying to shock us. It really just feels like a film about the late seventies New York art and music scenes, punctuated by the occasional random killing. Anyone wanting a glimpse of the era could do worse than watch this and fast-forward through the murder sprees.

Whatever The Driller Killer is, it’s not a slasher film. This is more Andy Warhol than John Carpenter. It doesn’t really adhere to any slasher tropes, but maybe that’s not surprising. Halloween had only come out when this was made, and the genre hadn’t really developed its form yet. Reno is a neurotic artist who kills people for no good reason, not some implacable force of nature.

Even more unusually, Reno’s victims are almost all men. This is a refreshing change in what can be a very misogynistic genre. What’s more troubling is that Reno is initially friendly towards people sleeping rough in his neighbourhood, but they quickly become prey when he snaps. There’s an opening scene that reveals Reno’s father is homeless and mentally ill, which disgusts his son, so maybe this is meant to motivate him.

While the violence against humans is pretty unimpressive, there are a couple of scenes where Miller mutilates a real dead rabbit. These are genuinely grotesque. The rabbit in question was killed for food, so it’s arguably no worse than chopping up a steak, but that doesn’t mean it’s pleasant to look at.

This whole film should be an advert for the portable battery pack Miller uses for his drill. That damn thing just keeps going.

Verdict

While I enjoyed The Driller Killer as a portrait of a time and place, it’s a mediocre horror film at best. There is almost no tension, the gore is lacklustre, and the pacing is baffling. There is entirely too much footage of bands rehearsing, especially in the final act, when the horror should be building.

For a film called The Driller Killer, it’s ironic that the killings are the weakest part. Reno’s murder sprees are neither frightening nor particularly gory. There is little build-up or context — Reno just runs around and drills holes in a few people, then moves on.

In fact, the whole issue of Reno’s motivation isn’t well handled. We get hints of a family history of mental illness, and he is under creative, financial and relationship pressures, but the sudden switch to a killing rage feels unearned. Maybe the horror is meant to be that people don’t really need a reason to kill.

The acting is decent and pretty naturalistic. Ferrara has the perfect face and physicality to play Reno. Technically, the film is fine for what it is, although the audio is rough. Ultimately, The Driller Killer feels like a student film in its lack of focus or discipline. It’s a chaotic mess, but oddly watchable.

I wish I’d seen The Driller Killer when it first came out. It probably would have made more of an impression on me back then. Now, however, it’s of more interest as a time capsule from late seventies New York. Unless that sounds irresistible, you’re probably better off watching something else this month.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or on the other side of the mirror.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Messiah of Evil (USA, 1974)
Milk & Serial (USA, 2024)
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Russia, 2018)
The Visitor (Italy, 1979)
Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018)
Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003)
Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)
New Religion (Japan, 2022)
The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)
Saccharine (Australia, 2026)
Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)
Stéphane (France, 2023)
Send Help (USA, 2026)
Vampire Clay (Japan, 2017)
Hokum (Ireland, 2026)
Jack Be Nimble (New Zealand, 1993)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan, 2007)
Undertone (Canada, 2025)
Blind Beast (Japan, 1969)
The Appointment (UK, 1982)
Vampyr (German, 1932)
The Last Horror Film (USA, 1982)
The Fake Ghost Catchers (Hong Kong, 1982)
Fréwaka (Ireland, 2024)
Angst (Germany, 1983)
Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia (Canada, 1978)
The Cycle (USA, 2026)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italy, 1971)
Meanwhile on Earth (France, 2024)
The Ambulance (USA, 1990)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA, 2026)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.

And if you dig through the archives, you will also find episodes about a wide variety of horror stories and games. Happy nightmares!

New Religion (2022) – OHMC 2026 Day 8

8 October, 2026

New Religion (Japan, 2022)

I had originally planned to watch Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, but it disappeared from Shudder sometime between putting my list together and today. As much as I love the convenience of the streaming age, it can make my selection process into a series of moving targets. Looking for a last-minute replacement, I remembered seeing a synopsis of New Religion that made it look weird and upsetting. Seeing as weird and upsetting are two of my favourite things, I decided it would be a decent substitution.

New Religion is currently streaming on Shudder in the UK.

Synopsis

Miyabi is struggling to come to terms with the loss of her young daughter, who climbed over the railing of her balcony and fell to her death. Now, some time later, Miyabi is a sex worker, employed at an agency where she and her colleagues spend their time in a dingy basement, waiting for a driver to take them to their next client.

One of Miyabi’s colleagues, a younger woman named Akari, seems trapped in some kind of regression to childhood, telling rambling stories about her father. While returning from a job, Miyabi’s car passes Akari on the street as she embarks on a killing spree, attacking random men with a Stanley knife. Later, the news reports that Akari is still at large, having murdered 12 people.

Miyabi retreats further into guilt and isolation, pushing her romantic partner away and reliving her daughter’s death over and over. At a low point, she starts seeing a new client — the last man Akari had been with before her rampage. This strange recluse, who is obsessed with moths, lives in a clinically minimalist flat and speaks through an electronic voicebox. He only wants to photograph parts of Miyabi’s body, adding the polaroids to his unusual collection.

All of this sparks a strange transformation within Miyabi. But is she doomed to follow Akari’s path of destruction or is it leading her somewhere stranger?

General Thoughts

The opening of New Religion is simple but powerful. Using red tints over cityscapes, and reversed footage of a wax heart melting, it creates a sense of the infernal. This is made all the more unsettling by an ominous, droning score. So much of the film is simply ordinary events set to this score, presented with no dialogue. The result is oppressive, wringing anxiety from the mundane.

A prime example of this is Miyabi’s ongoing obsession with the small garden on her balcony. There are so many scenes of Miyabi tending to the plants, or simply looking at the spot where her daughter jumped. Nothing happens in them, but the cumulative effect is an almost sickening dread.

New Religion was an independent production, crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Director Keishi Kondo has since made a sequel — a short film called Neu Mirrors — which appears to be included on the DVD/Blu-ray release of New Religion. Frustratingly, I can’t find it streaming anywhere, otherwise I would have included more about it in this review.

Verdict

I suspect a lot of viewers will hate New Religion. It is a slow, nebulous film that relies on style far more than substance. While it is suffused with dread, there is no release of tension. For a film that centres on acts of violence, we see only see their lead-up or aftermath. The horror is emotional, not visceral. Similarly, the resolution is implied, if not wholly ambiguous, but what it does imply is bleak and disturbing. This may be an oblique film, but it is not a nice one. It wants to hurt us.

Part of the reluctance to show us the horrors is probably down to budget. New Religion is a beautifully made film, and it never looks cheap, but its restraint allows it to avoid expensive stunts and makeup. Most of the visual effects budget seems to have gone on red lighting and filters.

Ultimately, New Religion is a moody and disturbing film, but not a scary one. If you are the kind of horror fan who prefers gloomy, morbid atmosphere over blood and guts, you may find it to your taste. But if you’re looking for shocks or more straightforward entertainment this Halloween, you will probably want to look elsewhere.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or on the other side of the mirror.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Messiah of Evil (USA, 1974)
Milk & Serial (USA, 2024)
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Russia, 2018)
The Visitor (Italy, 1979)
Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018)
Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003)
Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)
New Religion (Japan, 2022)
The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)
Saccharine (Australia, 2026)
Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)
Stéphane (France, 2023)
Send Help (USA, 2026)
Vampire Clay (Japan, 2017)
Hokum (Ireland, 2026)
Jack Be Nimble (New Zealand, 1993)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan, 2007)
Undertone (Canada, 2025)
Blind Beast (Japan, 1969)
The Appointment (UK, 1982)
Vampyr (German, 1932)
The Last Horror Film (USA, 1982)
The Fake Ghost Catchers (Hong Kong, 1982)
Fréwaka (Ireland, 2024)
Angst (Germany, 1983)
Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia (Canada, 1978)
The Cycle (USA, 2026)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italy, 1971)
Meanwhile on Earth (France, 2024)
The Ambulance (USA, 1990)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA, 2026)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.

And if you dig through the archives, you will also find episodes about a wide variety of horror stories and games. Happy nightmares!

Daniel Isn’t Real (2026) – OHMC 2020 Day 7

7 October, 2026

Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)

I had Daniel Isn’t Real on my OHMC list in 2024, but it disappeared from Shudder before I had a chance to watch it. Happily, it’s now part of the Arrow catalogue, giving me another chance to meet Daniel and see if the rumours about his unreality are true.

Daniel Isn’t Real is currently streaming on Arrow in the UK.

Synopsis

Luke is having a troubled childhood. His mother struggles with schizophrenia and his father has left home, frustrated by his wife’s reluctance to take medication to manage her illness. When Luke stumbles across the aftermath of a mass shooting, he meets Daniel, a boy around his own age, who follows him home. No one else seems able to see Daniel, but he soon becomes Luke’s only friend. This becomes a lot less wholesome when Daniel convinces Luke to make a smoothie for his mother containing all her psychiatric meds. His mother survives, although this is a close call, and she convinces Luke to lock his imaginary friend away, trapping him in a dollhouse.

Jumping forward many years, Luke is now at college, studying law. When he comes home for a visit, he finds his mother in the midst of a mental health crisis. Luke also has hallucinations of his own, making him worried that he has inherited his mother’s illness. Lost and adrift, he decides to open the dollhouse, releasing his old friend.

Like Luke, Daniel has grown up. He tries to convince Luke to embrace his creative side, acting as a muse. When Luke enters the early stages of a relationship with an artist, however, Daniel becomes manipulative, driving Luke to hurt himself and those around him.

So is Daniel just a symptom of Luke’s mental illness? Are there really demons walking the earth? And are Luke’s other visions of tormented souls just hallucinations?

General Thoughts

The shadow of Clive Barker lies heavily over Daniel Isn’t Real, both in the production design and in the kind of story it tells. The weird, demonic visages and borderline erotic body horror could easily come from one of his films, and the psychosexual discomfort throughout is pure Barker. At the same time, I am also reminded of Jonathan Carroll’s story “Mr Fiddlehead”, about a woman who reconnects with her childhood imaginary friend only to led into committing terrible acts against those she loves.

Daniel Isn’t Real is far from the first story to explore the connection between psychotic illness and belief in demonic possession. What makes it stand out is how much it delves into the mental health side of this equation. The scenes of Luke in therapy, discussing Daniel without us being able to see him, bring home just how much his situation presents as psychosis. Luke’s fears of inheriting his mother’s illness and his difficulty in coping with both of their self-destructive impulses are more frightening than any leering demon. I was almost disappointed when this ambiguity is resolved in the final act.

Apparently, Daniel Isn’t Real is based on a novel called In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw, who also co-wrote the screenplay. I must pick the novel up and see how much it differs. Books often have the freedom to offer less clear-cut resolutions, and I would be interested in seeing whether that’s the case here.

Verdict

Daniel Isn’t Real would probably be my film of the month if the entire thing had lived up to the first ten minutes. It has one of the strongest openings I’ve seen in a horror film — moving fast, grabbing our attention, and setting out the premise of the film with economy and ease. It takes a long time to build up momentum again after the time jump, although the tension ratchets up once Daniel lets his friendly mask drop. By the time we get to the third act, the story has hit its stride again and we can relish its sinister and gothic atmosphere. The ending itself is a little obvious, but still gripping.

While Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays Daniel, has gone on to bigger projects, it is Miles Robbins’ performance as Luke which really stands out. Luke goes through significant shifts in personality as the film goes on, and Robbins embodies them flawlessly. The rest of the cast are also terrific, but this is Robbins’ film.

After a number of selections this month that only border on horror at best, Daniel Isn’t Real is refreshingly nasty, eager to upset and scare us, and occasionally gross us out. It blends subgenres nicely, giving us a dash of monster movie amongst all the psychological and existential horror. While I can’t imagine it giving anyone sleepless nights, there are creeps galore.

All in all, Daniel Isn’t Real is an above-average horror film that demonstrates real imagination and style. It falls short of being great, despite its exceptional opening, but it is still entertaining and pitch dark. Definitely worth a watch this month if you’re looking to make a new friend.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or on the other side of the mirror.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Messiah of Evil (USA, 1974)
Milk & Serial (USA, 2024)
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Russia, 2018)
The Visitor (Italy, 1979)
Lake Michigan Monster (USA, 2018)
Save the Green Planet (Korea, 2003)
Daniel Isn’t Real (USA, 2020)
New Religion (Japan, 2022)
The Driller Killer (USA, 1979)
Saccharine (Australia, 2026)
Evil Cat (Hong Kong, 1987)
Stéphane (France, 2023)
Send Help (USA, 2026)
Vampire Clay (Japan, 2017)
Hokum (Ireland, 2026)
Jack Be Nimble (New Zealand, 1993)
Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan, 2007)
Undertone (Canada, 2025)
Blind Beast (Japan, 1969)
The Appointment (UK, 1982)
Vampyr (German, 1932)
The Last Horror Film (USA, 1982)
The Fake Ghost Catchers (Hong Kong, 1982)
Fréwaka (Ireland, 2024)
Angst (Germany, 1983)
Full Circle: The Haunting of Julia (Canada, 1978)
The Cycle (USA, 2026)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italy, 1971)
Meanwhile on Earth (France, 2024)
The Ambulance (USA, 1990)
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (USA, 2026)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.