Unnamed Footage Festival 2026: ‘Infirmary’ will make your blood run cold
Filmmaker Nicholas Pineda injects fear directly into the veins.
Nicholas Pineda’s Infirmary feels cursed. Playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, the film gets its kicks from scaring you with the darkest thrills of the human subconscious. Nothing about it isn’t an electroshock to the nervous system. With a limited cast, it can be difficult to sustain interest and intrigue. But Pineda adeptly maintains suffocating dread and suspense for the whole runtime. Infirmary feels familiar but justifies its existence through well-planned scares and the overwhelming sense that someone is always watching from the shadows.
Afghanistan war veteran Edward (Paul Syre) struggles to adapt to civilian life after being discharged. When he takes a nighttime surveillance job at an abandoned infirmary, slated for demolition, he’s hoping it will be the restart he needs for his life. His boss, Lester (Mark Anthony Williams), leads with a stern hand. In another life, he was a cop but was forced to retire, at least according to hiring manager Ms. Downey (Danielle Kennedy). Lester finds the work mundane but oddly rewarding. When he gives Edward a general tour of the premises, he shares a harrowing story about the Wilshires, who once conducted sadistic experiments on patients. Their work lives in infamy, hinting at what or who could be lurking in the desolate hallways.
Lester guides Edward through the records office, various other corridors, and the chapel, where a group of medical dummies is stored. There’s just something strange about the deafening silence. It’s louder than you might expect. After investigating a vagrant’s (Corinna Wagner-Smith) unwanted entry, Edward encounters increasingly unsettling noises and movements in the cafeteria. He attributes these bizarre occurrences to the old building and continues heading back to headquarters. Once the power goes out, it quickly becomes evident that whatever it is in the darkness is looking for bodies to snatch.
Infirmary, written by Pineda and Katy Krauland, swings directly for the skull, like a claw hammer scraping skin. It builds mood right from the beginning and doesn’t let up until the very last frame. The footage is something we should not be seeing, as though it’s been locked away for decades and only being released now. Pineda expertly uses the medical dummies to great chilling effect. If the clowns terrified you in Hell House LLC, the dummies will certainly scratch that itch here. Syre makes for an awkwardly charming lead, one you desperately hope somehow makes his way out of the terror.
Nicholas Pineda’s Infirmary makes a bid for one of the best found footage films of the year. The fear is so thick that your blood runs cold, your eyes bug out, and your skin grows tight. It’s a simple story that really packs a punch—and it will surely give you some damn good nightmares.
