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Nightmares Film Festival 2026 launched into its second day with a screening of Benjamin Busnell’s gripping film, The Curse of Tahu’a. What is The Curse of Tahu’a? It’s a supernatural thriller. Any time a seasoned horror fan sees a phrase like “supernatural thriller” or “psychological thriller”, there tends to be a ping of frustrated that shoots through their brain. Why the insistence on the film being called a thriller? Why not just call it a horror movie? Most of the time this is a valid question. For once, it isn’t here.
The Curse of Tahu’a is very much a thriller first. It just so happens to also be one with a supernatural twist that I won’t give away here. Rest assured, this is a tense piece of genre mash-up filmmaking and one that had the Nightmares audience hooked through its running time.
Next up on the features front came John Valley’s American Dollhouse. Valley’s previous film, The Pizzagate Massacre, actually played Nightmares in 2020 during the festival’s COVID-era digital edition, Masquerade. The festival prides itself on seeing filmmakers return with their next projects, and it was a treat to see what Valley had up his sleeve again this time. Dread’s own Chad Collins reviewed the film out of the Overlook Film Festival back in April. Much like Chad, I really dug American Dollhouse and its late ‘70s psychodrama-by-way-of-Cregger vibes.
Jenn Wexler’s The Last Temptation of Becky – the third (and final?) installment in the Becky trilogy – followed next. If you are a fan of Becky and The Wrath of Becky, you should have a really good time with this one when it arrives in wide release a few weeks from now. I will have more in-depth thoughts on the film later on in a proper review, but it was certainly a pleasure to get to see Becky wrecking racists on the big screen.
The features side of the night closed out with raucous horror comedy Liv’s Last Ride. If you’ve ever asked yourself the question “What would happen if you crossed Bridesmaids with a cabin-in-the-woods horror movie?”, then Liv’s Last Ride is the answer. Thaddeus Armstrong’s kitchen-sink horror romp was a hit with the NFF crowd, and much like Tahu’a and Dollhouse, it’s one to keep an eye out for in the coming year.
Friday’s shorts blocks were no less impressive for the Nightmares crowd. The first one of the day is a mainstay theme at NFF: “Recurring Nightmares”. Each year, the festival programs a few special blocks of shorts dedicated to films from NFF alums. While all of the short blocks are expertly curated, the Recurring Nightmares ones are an extra treat for annual attendees, as one gets to watch returning filmmakers continue to hone their craft with each passing year. Of course, Friday also had additional blocks for horror shorts and thriller shorts that were just as tantalizing. I walked away at the end of the night with a list of recommendations for shorts to seek out when they hit streaming and I can’t wait to catch all of them.
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