ScreamFest 2025: ‘Theatre is Dead,’ ‘Damned If You Do,’ ‘Pitfall,’ ‘Love is the Monster,’ & ‘A Fishermen’s Tale’

All films played at ScreamFest 2025

Theatre is Dead

Writer/director Katherine Dudas navigates the tumultuous waters of live theatre. Theatre is Dead, which she co-wrote with Olivia Blue, Madison Lawlor, and Decker Sadowski, mixes demons and possession into a campy little elixir. When young student Willow (Decker Sadowski) lands her first-ever acting role in a local production, she believes she’s following in her father’s footsteps. The director, a charming man named Matthew (Shane West), hired her specifically because she’s so green. He saw some sparkle in her, and it’s that naivety that he thinks the play needs. While it takes a while for the horror to kick in, once it does, it’s worth the wait. Dudas walks the fine line between keeping your audience laughing while satisfying their thirst for blood. It’s a delicate balance, but the creative team knocks it out of the park.

Damned If You Do

Damned If You Do is an absolute blast. Co-directors Evan Metzold and Jake Rubin take a gleefully irreverent script (penned by Ellen Adair and Eric Gilde) and stylize it with a bit of polish and bite. When you have Kate Siegel, Beth Dover, and Harvey Guillén in your cast, you better work. 25 years after a group of teens sells their souls to Satan to get whatever they desire, they reunite at their high school reunion and face a ticking clock before their doom. If we’re being honest, it’s really Guillén’s world, and we’re all just living in it. His performance is legendary. Playing Satan, he brings a joyous flamboyancy to his role that’ll knock your socks off. The film operates as a campy ensemble piece, with everyone holding their own. It’s a downright hoot!

Love is the Monster

Behind 2021’s criminally underrated banger, Sound of Violence (starring a pre-Scream Jasmin Savoy Brown), Alex Noyer returns with the folk horror piece, Love is the Monster. The immaculate Midsommar vibes (there’s really no denying the obvious influence here) give the story a familiarity that’s warm like a fleece blanket (complementary). The story follows a young, troubled couple on a weekend retreat as they attempt to fix their relationship. They are greeted with the usual pleasantries from the other guests, and all seems well. When Tiina (Milla Puolakanaho) emerges from a nearby lake, she gives off an intoxicating aura that instantly comforts you while putting you in a trance. Something always feels off-kilter, and little by little, Tiina’s unconventional approach unlocks unholy terror. While the script, which Noyer co-wrote with Hannu Aukia and Blair Bathory, delivers solid character dynamics and tension, the film ultimately crashes into a ditch as it lurches into the third act. The over-reliance on CGI (birds, fire, etc.) depletes all the goodwill Noyer builds up over the course of 90 minutes. There’s good stuff here; it’s just buried six feet deep.

Pitfall

James Kondelik’s Pitfall is a decent survivalist horror/thriller. With a script co-written by Victor Rose, the film plunges the audience into a story about shared trauma, death and overwhelming grief, and recovery. When Scott (Marshall Williams) and Ashley (Alexandra Essoe) are involved in a car accident that kills their parents, they are finally forced to confront their pain during a hike into the woods. It’s been five years since that fateful day, and their misery still throbs in their chests. With three friends, Ashley and Scott hope this time in the wilderness helps them find closure. What they don’t expect is a days-long cat-and-mouse game with an unknown woodsman, whose many traps are worthy of The Collector. A tedious script pulls the viewer away from strong lead performances, and it all becomes quite forgettable. But if you’re looking for a way to kill 110 minutes on a Friday night, why not give it a chance? It might make a solid triple feature with Alone and Hunter Hunter.

A Fisherman’s Tale

A Fisherman’s Tale commits the greatest crime a film can commit: it’s boring. Edgar Nito, who co-wrote the script with Alfredo Mendoza, possesses a knack for hypnotic visual storytelling that’s simply wasted with a story that needed several more passes. Pulling on folklore of the indigenous Purépecha people from Central Mexico, the film contains fascinating world-building and a deep, rich cultural history. However, even the characters, painted in broad strokes, feel out of their element and meander from one beat to the next. The story is needlessly tangled, and only an endurance test can produce the pay-off in the finale. But at what cost? The audience may feel a sense of absolute exhaustion by the end and wonder only one thing: why?