horror-movies

Review: ‘Hunting Matthew Nichols’ is a Worthy Canadian Found Footage Gem
Dropshock Pictures

I just finished waxing poetic about horror coming from the north and the ingenuity of filmmakers up here. Naturally,  leapt at the chance to consume a found footage gem that seems completely homegrown.

Hunting Matthew Nichols is a broad showing from Markian Tarasiuk who cowrote, directed and stars in this debut. As a warped version of himself, he plays a filmmaker making a documentary with Tara Nichols (Miranda MacDougall) about her brother and his friend who mysteriously went missing decades ago. Matthew Nichols and Jordan Reimer disappeared while making a film in the woods, and after an arduous investigation, their situation remained unresolved. Now, with resources and gusto, Tara, Mark, and Ryan (McDonald also as “himself) are seeking out the truth behind the disappearance and just what is behind those allegations of connections to the occult.

This film employs the Hell House LLC approach to found footage, serving as a mockumentary while splicing in some impossible raw footage. It’s not at all shy about its inspiration being The Blair Witch Project, and there are even clips of the two boys shooting homage and of Tara and Mark setting up in the woods like that ill-fated trio. From the trailer, I was reminded of Horror in the High Dessert and how the blend of filming styles would culminate in a terrifying finale. Hunting Matthew Nichols applies all of this well, using documentary title cards and access for exposition and mood then marking it with terrifying footage and overlays. Shifting from modern HD to fuzzy handheld video adds texture to the appearance, adding a meta-reverence to found footage of old and a quick shorthand to understanding the timeline. Like its inspirations and cohorts, it uses the camera as a light source to best capture its gruesome finale.

Much is saved for the film’s big finish, but that’s in no way a fault. The movie declines cheap tricks and buildup, but it does so at the risk of sending off a bored audience. At a tight ninetyish minutes, there’s not much waiting, but there is more spent on the investigative elements than the scares. At one point, a piece of evidence is consumed by the characters and the audience only gets the sound while watching the characters react. It’s a really clever way to save it’s scares for the finale and employ different sorts of scare tactics to keep the energy alive. Using a trio allows the camera to capture intimate conversations without having to eke out excuses for why they’re being recorded, and allows for Tara to have her moments while the other two reason it. Tarasiuk is adept within this genre and uses what might otherwise be limitations to his advantage.

Of course, there’s also the Canadiana. The movie takes place on Vancouver Island and they use the unforgiving terrain for their story, especially making it possible that the boys were lost to a ravine. Discussing Reimer’s family and the issues Indigenous peoples might have with police adds colour to a story that feels true to its locale.

Hunting Matthew Nichols always seems to call its shots, mentioning its cohorts then emulating their style, and Tarasiuk and his team have no doubt sunk their ball. Their slice of Canadian horror once again shows what a committed filmmaker is capable of, and with strong performances (MacDougall had to work) and crafty camerawork, he’s entered the canon of solid found footage features for horror fans’ delight.

Hunting Matthew Nichols hit theaters April 10, 2026

‘It Feeds’ is the Off-Season Sport for Fans of Jump Scare Greats
Black Fawn Distribution

The opening of It Feeds sometimes seems at a hint to the ending, but that’s only because it’s so reminiscent of another story about a supernaturally gifted cleanser of evil spirits. The cold open has its gifted psychic therapist working her way through a darkened world on another plane and witnessing a beast seemingly trapping a young child. It’s a lot like the finale of Insidious. This original Canadian horror feature has a lot in common with the great modern horror franchise, but it doesn’t seem to want to compete with it so much as stand proudly beside it.

Ashley Greene leads as Cynthia, a psychically gifted therapist who performs supernatural cleanses on her clients under the guise of offering traditional mental health care. As a way of protecting herself and her daughter (Ellie O-Brien) from prying eyes or those experiencing difficult demons, she has a set of rules to prevent letting their secrets out or bringing too much supernatural hazard in. When they meet a frightened young girl covered in burns who begs for Cynthia’s help and her garish father (Shawn Ashmore) who refuses it, they face an ethical dilemma where they have to decide if they should help her and potentially expose themselves to danger, and whether they should heed the warnings of the sharp patriarch.

 The rules of Cynthia’s practice are quickly established, but so are the rules of the movie’s in-world villains. It’s smart and makes for consistent storytelling where the stakes and dangers are always clear to the audience. Of course, it all comes down to cheering on Cynthia to slowly make the decision to assist, which requires the film to bring the danger closer to her. Cynthia has reasons to be reluctant and her daughter has reasons to push her, so they’ll each have to face or avoid the dangers on their own until Cynthia has to metaphorically suit up.

Writer/ director Chad Archibald knows his audience and knows his genre and either pays a lot of homage to it or borrows heavily from it. While the comparison to Insidious is apt and worn on the film’s face, it also has some plot elements that feel like Let the Right One In or even The Omen. The girl’s father’s motivations are difficult to track which makes for a clever secondary villain when different characters have different ideas about how to best a dark entity. It’s in these “disagreements” that It Feeds becomes more than another in the canon of demon jump scare movies.

Canadian horror fans will rejoice not only at another on our list of horror successes, but at the gaggle of Canadian genre icons like Ashmore, Julian Richings, and Juno Rinaldi (probably more of a comedy icon but I still cheered at her appearance). It’s still a good time to be a Canadian horror fan, and It Feeds is here to remind us.

It Feeds has a lot of unique elements that make it a worthy twist on familiar skulking-dark-entity horror, but in a lot of ways is a truncated version of those movies. It holds its own on plotting and scares, but much of it will feel familiar to fans of the canon of James Wan. Though I don’t expect it to spark its own long-running franchise of spinoffs and sequels, I do expect to see more from Archibald who could submit It Feeds as quite the impressive reel in a campaign to direct more like it.

It Feeds hit select theaters in April of 2025

‘825 Forest Road’ is as Imperfect and Endlessly Cozy as Stephen Cognetti’s Other Spooky Movies
AMC Networks

Maybe “cozy,” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the Hell House LLC franchise, but they certainly fit the bill for lots of horror fans. In a take for another piece and another day, Stephen Cognetti’s found footage movies tap into that coziness sweet spot of parallel play and immersive theater (even in a meta way in the third installment). Veering from the found footage style, Cognetti’s latest, 825 Forest Road, holds onto the cozy spooky air of his earlier films. But with that, comes some of the usual missteps.

Similar to the Hell House LLC movies, 825 Forest Lane is location based and involves a haunted menace attached to a particular home. This is the home that Maria (Elizabeth Vermilyea who will be familiar to franchise fans) and Chuck (Joe Falcone) are moving into with Chuck’s struggling sister, Isabelle (Kathryn Miller). Chuck is attempting to swoop in for Isabelle in perhaps an attempt to reconnect with her after she suffered the loss of their parents. Shortly after relocating to the too-good-to-be-true home away from the bustling city, the group starts to notice strange goings on and prying eyes from concerned neighbours. Chuck starts to investigate the story of Helen Foster, a ghost who haunts the area, pushing its residents to suicide. With Isabelle as a risk for self harm, the group works to find the location of Helen Foster’s missing home at 825 Forest Road to break the curse before it comes for their small family. Told in small parts- from each of the main characters’ perspectives- the audience learns more about how they have arrived at the cursed locale and how they are trying to protect themselves and each other.

The multi-perspective structure isn’t quite Rashomon, but it functions well enough to give the audience breadcrumbs about what is happening in each of the characters’ rooms, though it cuts off some story elements for no real narrative reason. It pays off the most for the leading women when the story ends up a bit of a tale of supporting each other. If I were perhaps to give it too much credit, I’d nod to the feminist subversion of the perspective switch in how it tosses out the lead skeptic of the bunch in favour of a new view of the women supporting each other in their difficult experiences. Then there’s the “mental illness horror” of it all, which isn’t completely egregious but probably is tired and potentially objectifies the issue by using it as an easy entry point. It’s ideas about suicide and depression are potentially outdated, but they do tap into similar themes from movies like Smile about suicide as a contagion and depression befalling a generation of young people.

While this is his first feature outside of Hell House LLC, it’s very much a Film by Stephen Cognetti. Yes, there’s the haunted locale, but there’s also a lot of familiar scares including live streaming gags, moving mannequins, and creepy piano tracks. The haunted home locks them in to torment them, and there is the deterministic plot built around the characters’ old art. So, this movie isn’t breaking any molds nor is it a campaign for the creator’s versatility, but it is perhaps more evidence that his movies can adapt a familiar style to make more media for those looking for a comforting fright. It has the same quality of Things Heard & Seen where it perhaps doesn’t all stack up to a flawless narrative, but it allows for the sweater-clad-tea-sipping comfort of someone bopping around a small town thinking about a ghost. The Hell House LLC movies often forecast their own scares with talking heads which allows the audience to comfortably brace for scares that feel like controlled burns. 825 Forest Road is a feature length version of that.

So, will this latest Shudder haunted house have you begging your friends to fall in love with the newest ghost, or making comparisons to the best of Mike Flanagan’s work? Perhaps not. But if you’re the type of person who likes the terror that comes with invisible guard rails and the right amount of nightmare fuel, 825 Forest Road is shrieking to be added to your regular list. What can I say? I’ve already watched it twice.

825 Forest Road streams on Shudder April 4, 2025