You're Either The Predator...

Hey all! Happy Friday the 13th! In keeping with my 2026 mission statement, here is another installment of FFF. This one is a brand spanking new movie called The Curse of Ghost Island that I saw during my recent jaunt to the East Coast for Fogfest.

Six influnencers are dropped in middle of nowhere with the promise that treasure is located somewhere on the island. When things go south, they are left to fend for themselves against an unknown assailant hiding in the shadows.

In the spirit of The Blair Witch Project, this film was shot for almost nothing and managed to stay engaging, largely due to the strength of its cast and some pretty impressive physical gags. I definitely felt the first two acts were the strongest, as the pace slows towards the end, particularly during a sequence where a static shot is held just a bit too long. Obviously nothing wrong with a pause, but it hit a point that even In A Violent Nature's Chris Nash would have said, “okay, let's move this along.”

Curse starts with a framing device of some true crime sleuths shooting a podcast about the lore of Ghost Island and I had a chuckle due to the first person onscreen was actually the person sitting next to me in the theater, my pal & Rue Morgue boss Andrea Subissati. She plays one of the co-hosts (the skeptic) and it's a good lead-in to the location. This movie leans pretty hard into the stereotypes of influencer culture and gives us perhaps one of the most obnoxious characters ever to grace the subgenre. Drew played by Christian Sloan is dripping with so much cringey toxicity, he gives Annie Hardy from Dashcam a run for her money in terms of my body wanting to fold into itself in reaction to their onscreen behaviour.

I think what sets Curse apart is that it goes to places that I don't see very often in found footage. Director Lisa Ovies had something to get off her chest and does so unapologetically. Some might say its message is a little heavy handed, but sometimes things just need to be said. So, as far as characters-lost-in-the-woods fare goes, this is a pretty solid entry into the canon, if only to get pointers on how not to behave online. We also confirmed that nothing good ever happens at a place called Ghost Island...