Unnamed Footage Festival 2026: 'The Killing Cell' is a good time

James Bessey and Karsen Schovajsa’s The Killing Cell emerges as one of the biggest surprises out of this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival. Breaking into a dilapidated building isn’t anything new in found footage—Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and Grave Encounters among the genre’s best. The writing and directing duo proves there’s plenty of territory left to mine with the premise. Bessey and Schovajsa capture the recklessness of youth and the throat-gripping fear that comes with the unknown. Disregard any preconceived notions you have about the paranormal and clutch your seat, as you descend into eerie hallways of strange noises, gurgling screams, and a darkness that seems to have no end.

Set in 2006, the film follows aspiring YouTuber Dan (Bessey) and his friends Sadie (Erin Caitlin Collins), Jeremy (Jordan Whitley), Zack (Schovajsa), and Shawn (Luc Sabatier) when they break into an abandoned prison to uncover the location of a supposedly hidden (and quite haunted) cell block. As they drive to the location, Dan reveals the deep, dark, and tragic past of the prison, where a warden used and abused inmates for his own sick pleasure. Located in the middle of nowhere, it now stands as a hollow reminder of the depravity of human nature.

On their way in, the group comes across several run-down cars, deserted and forgotten over time. They then meet a boarded-up entrance and must crawl on their bellies to get in. These red flags won’t stop Dan from getting to the truth of the place. Making their way through winding rooms, clogged with dusty furniture and broken glass, they come across a cryptic journal that very well could hold the answers they need. While Sadie pores over the book, deciphering a strange series of numbers, the others venture deeper into the prison. Dan and Zack head in the direction of the infamous cell block, and it quickly becomes clear that an evil presence is watching them from the shadows.

The Killing Cell pushes the darkness down upon the viewer’s shoulders, suffocatingly so. The group feels eyes searching for them in the pitch blackness. What could be there is even scarier than what actually is. Bessey and Schovajsa toy with you as a cat does with a mouse in its sharp claws. Between effective uses of the cameras and the shadow man following them, the film works because it’s not trying to be anything but a damn good time. Eventually, the group stumbles upon a shocking surprise that’ll leave them even more terrified than they already were. It’s Schovajsa and Bessey’s compelling script and the actors’ performances (ala The Blair Witch Project) that drag you kicking and screaming into the dark.

James Bessey and Karsen Schovajsa have hit the jackpot with The Killing Cell. It’s a gripping and altogether gooey slaughter-fest that rattles you down to the core. When you have filmmakers who know exactly what they’re doing, found footage is the most horrifying genre there is. And here, we’ve got a classic on our hands.

The Killing Cell screens at the Unnamed Footage Festival tonight (March 27) at 9:10 p.m. in the Balboa Theater in San Francisco.