ScreamFest 2025: ‘Jimmy,’ ‘CognAItive,’ ‘The Dollmaker,’ & ‘The Devil Whispered My Name’

All films played at ScreamFest 2025

Jimmy

The filmmaker behind last year’s excellent Binary, David-Jan Bronsgeest returns with Jimmy, an expanded version of his Meet Jimmy short. The story follows Dilara (Sonia Eijken) when she returns to her hometown and reunites with her friends. Viral true crime podcast “Jimmy” sheds light on local murders, but every time someone listens, they’re stalked and killed by a supernatural entity. Against her better judgment, Dilara listens and triggers a disturbing series of events. It sounds way cooler on paper than it does in execution. Scriptwriter Tim Koomen (who also wrote Binary) misses the mark with dull characters and a tepid storyline — which is frustrating given how Binary excels on all fronts. While Bronsgeest and Koomen remain ones to keep your eyes on, Jimmy does neither of their talents any real justice with a film that should have stayed in drafts.

CognAItive

AI horror inhabits a strange space these days. With artificial intelligence poised to take over our jobs, Black Mirror and other futuristic media are not some far-off postulations. AI is here now, and it’s terrifying. With his feature film debut, Tommy Savas taps into the heated conversation about AI agency, temperamental (and dangerous) creators, and the ticking time bomb that is reality. When Ethan (Noel Fisher), the CEO of a tech company, moves up the release date for their new AI program (think ChatGPT but on steroids or whatever the robot equivalent is) against the wishes of his employees. Diagnostics haven’t been properly run in, a red flag that causes everyone to pay a heavy price. With a script penned by Angie Simms, CognAItive both suggests that perhaps we, as a human race, deserve what’s coming and warns us that if we don’t turn back (or at least put AI restrictions in place), we are cooked. From the ripped-from-the-headlines storyline to the blood, guts, and gore, the film feels as though we’re gazing into an office somewhere in the world right now and witnessing the fall of humanity.

The Dollmaker

The Dollmaker, directed by José María Cicala, emerges as one of the festival’s biggest surprises. Cicala, who co-wrote the script with Griselda Sanchez, knows his way around genre. While referencing The Shining and Psycho, he never gets bogged down with visual cues, homages, or easter eggs. He simply uses these creative touchpoints as launching pads into his own deranged world. Tomás (Rodrigo Noya) works hard making ends meet and taking care of his very ill mother. When several local women go missing, law enforcement turns its attention toward him. What transpires next is a disturbing glimpse into the mind of a maniac, full of twists and explosive turns. Cicala crafts something special that’s both indebted to the past and pushes horror storytelling forward. It’s perfectly unsettling, with one eerie lead performance and the right amount of gore.

The Devil Whispered My Name

Co-directors Emilia Cotella and John Mathis aim for something unhinged and unnerving but fail to get off the ground. The Devil Whispered My Name, written by Cotella, tells the story of Carla (Clara Kovacic) and her friends reuniting after the death of their friend a decade ago. The survivor’s guilt they all carry weighs them down. It might have happened in what feels like another lifetime, but the pain still throbs. A ritual gone wrong, it appears something (or someone) isn’t quite done collecting pounds of flesh. The past always comes back; it’s never finished with you. Unfortunately, the film suffers from several things, namely that the setup isn’t particularly fresh or exciting. An ultimately lifeless story stops a promising premise dead in its tracks. There’s so little meat on the bones here that it’s an unfortunate collision of all the wrong elements. Without endearing characters to ground the viewer, there’s not much to root for – other than for the end to come.