Movies
‘Dark Nature’ Review – All-Female Wilderness Thriller Gets Lost in the Woods [Fantasia]
The logline for writer/director Berkley Brady’s directorial feature debut Dark Nature describes it as “the story of a therapy group that is forced to confront the monsters of their past when an isolated weekend retreat tests their emotional resilience and ability to survive.” That’s pretty apt, albeit with one small issue: the Canadian film – with its all-female cast, wilderness setting and trauma-centric narrative – very closely resembles Neil Marshall’s The Descent, aka one of contemporary horror’s most iconic films. Like it or not, comparisons between the two films are inevitable.
The first act of Dark Nature is very strong: it opens with an incredibly disturbing incident of domestic abuse as Joy (What Keeps You Alive’s Hannah Emily Anderson) is strangled by her boyfriend, Derek (Daniel Arnold). The violence is visceral and triggering, so it makes complete sense that Joy is understandably still suffering the after-effects several months later. These are visually manifested as hallucinations of Derek and accompanied by the tell-tale audio cue of his Zippo clicking open, a recurring motif throughout the film.
Joy’s best friend Carmen (Madison Walsh) is sympathetic, but frustrated. Not only has Joy retreated into near-agoraphobia, but she’s also stopped engaging with anyone, including Carmen. The tentative conciliatory solution is an all-female wilderness weekend therapy group, led by the renowned, eccentric Dr. Dunley (Kyra Harper). This is Carmen’s attempt to help Joy regain a sense of agency and control, but it’s also a last-ditch attempt to salvage their friendship. In this sense, the relationship between the women is paramount; it is as important as the disturbing series of incidents that occur as the women trek further into the wilderness.
The film was shot in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, and the on-location shoot makes effective use of the natural geography (rocky quarries, thick woods, and threatening bodies of water). Like most forest-set horror films, the geography is simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying: Brady and cinematographer Jaryl Lim frequently use aerial shots of trees and rock as far as the eye can see to reinforce the extreme isolation. These women are truly out on their own…except for the threat that is out there with them.
The first half of the film expertly walks the line without revealing too much about just what is going on. Joy is clearly experiencing PTSD flashbacks to her trauma, which makes her something of an unreliable protagonist. In this capacity, Dark Nature is treading familiar narrative ground to recent films like Saint Maud and Knocking, in which female-identifying characters spend the film questioning their sanity.
It’s a bit of a tired trope, but thankfully Brady adopts the now-familiar slasher POV shot early on to confirm that there is something else in the woods with them. Importantly these moments don’t just feature Joy, but also Carmen, and the other patients: self-harming Tara (Helen Belay) and former soldier Shaina (Roseanne Supernault). The question isn’t whether this is all in Joy’s mind, but rather who is out there with them: Derek…or someone else?
Alas, the reveal of just what is going on is also the point where Dark Nature loses its way. The film’s small budget mutes the effectiveness of several key moments of violence and both the plausibility of certain characters’ decisions and the film’s overall pacing suffer as the danger rises.
This slip is especially frustrating because we know from The Descent that this premise is a winner. Unfortunately, Dark Nature skips over its most unique and intriguing elements – the nature of Dr. Dunley’s treatment and the relationship between the women and their respective traumas – in order to get to the only-somewhat satisfying violent bits. The make-up effects are solid, sure, but the film laid the groundwork for a deeper exploration of healing via female friendships and therapy that ultimately fails to pay off.
Is it cathartic finally getting to see Joy work out her issues in bloody fashion? Absolutely…but Dark Nature could have been so much more.
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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