[FrightFest 2026]: Dead Reset

Dead Reset is an intriguing proposition. Daniel Thrace’s Cole finds himself awake in an unknown place, with marauding monsters and a crew around that is hostile to his presence. It all proves lethal for Cole but here’s the kicker. He’s stuck in a time loop, unable to die but cursed to endure violent end after violent end. Live, die, repeat, if you will.

Stewart Sparke has proved a director to watch, thanks to the low-budget charms of the Book of Monsters (2018) and How to Kill Monsters (2023), and here he takes on his most ambitious project yet. Time loop films are always tricky ones to land, the internal logic required to hold them together have brought down more expansive works. Added to this, the crew trapped in a sci-fi environment with a big beasty hunting them, is one that has been grappled with many times before, so finding the original in it can prove hard. And this proves the undoing of Dead Reset, which can’t help but be reminiscent of many films that have come before (even if we exclude Alien as it’s a film that has influenced most sci-fi that has come since).

The ambition of vision here sadly can’t be met in the delivery. Audiences may be rooting for the creative team to land Dead Reset, but it is undone by its flaws. The locale could be interesting, but it ends up being a handful of anonymous industrial rooms. The practical effects are admirable but limit the interactions with monsters. The time loop set up is exciting but paints the script into a corner, giving less for the ensemble (outside of Thrace) to work with. The attempts to keep things grounded make sense but really you want Dead Reset to escalate to a place of true cosmic horror. All along good intentions prove to be this film’s undoing.

What makes this such a frustrating watch is that recent game adaptations have proved able to break the curse that has befallen many that have come before. Iron Lung from 2026 (which is set in a similar locale) has shown that interesting things can come from the restrictions placed on films, whilst this year’s Exit 8 proved to have a genuinely nightmarish quality. We’re also weeks away from the hope that Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil can stick the landing and waiting in the wings is Justin Lin’s Helldivers, Wes Ball’s The Legend of Zelda and Alex Garland’s Elden Ring. It’s not enough for the limitations of a game adaptation to be chalked up to cinema’s inability to adapt games. Especially with Dead Reset coming from the same creative team as the game it is based on.

Dead Reset proves a real disappointment. The ambition is admirable and what causes real sorrow here is that Sparke has proved a capable director, skilled at crafting enjoyable low-budget genre fare. Hopefully he can break free of this loop and find his way to better things.

1.5 Screams out of 5