[FrightFest 2026]: Dead Eyes

Ana Thu Nguyen as Grace

Dead Eyes is an audacious watch – a completely first-person horror that bounces around subgenres (part ghost story, part drug-fuelled descent, part sci-fi tinged curio) – as it takes a wander round a slice of the Australian outback, marking director Richard Williams as a talent to watch, even as his technical prowess outstrips narrative cohesion. 

We view the world from Sean’s perspective who has ventured out to the locale of the passing of his younger sister, with his fiancée (a standout Ana Thu Nguyen) and a pair of friends in tow. All while Sean’s missing father, an abandoned cabin, and visions of a monstrous version of Sean’s sister spell potential doom for the central quartet. 

The film moves at a terrific pace that doesn't really give you time to dwell in the ridiculousness of it all. There’s not much nuance here but there are plot twists a-plenty and by the time It reaches its finale you won’t quite be sure how Dead Eyes got there. 

There’s perhaps too much going on here, too many twists and turns that overwhelm the grief that could make Dead Eyes an even more compelling watch. Stylistically the film is closer to something like late night gem Deadstream (2022) than Australian ghost story Lake Mungo (2008). The film moves at a terrific pace, but you occasionally want it to stop, take in the history behind its characters, and give the actors moments to show more than the physical prowess they have. But this could very well play against the style that Williams, partnering with cinematographer Julian Panetta, embraces. The experience ends up feeling surprisingly hollow – a giddy thrill ride that ends up signifying nothing. But sometimes all you want is that thrill ride.

The highest praise one can give Dead Eyes is that it has much of the energy of recent additions of the Resident Evil game series, an immersive experience that is technically more interesting than it is thematically, but it is absolutely worth a ride on this rollercoaster Williams has concocted.

3.5 Screams out of 5