Nightmares Film Festival 2026 Day Two: A Curse, a Dollhouse, and a Ride

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 trilogy – followed next. If you are a fan of and , 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.