“Keep your head on a swivel, keep your eyes open.”
Story: On his first night as a security guard, Edward Yoon encounters all the usual first day kinda stuff. Weird, asshole boss. Strangely unfocused HR lady. A spooky, soon-to-be demolished mental asylum full of creepy medical mannequins. Mondays, am I right?
Scares: Lots of dark room shenanigans. A few jump scares, as is the wont of the found footage genre.
Splat Factor: A dead body viewed in night vision.
Subgenre: Found Footage Frights
Year Released: 2026
Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Original
Trick or Treat?: I picked this film because it’s a new release, and had no expectations. I mean, I’ve been burned too many times with this year’s 31in31 choices. But Infirmary is a solid horror story with lots of chills and suspense.
The sickly yellow Backrooms-ass lighting sets the tone immediately. The empty corridors and dusty medical equipment are shown with little to no musical score to help us understand how we should feel. That builds an uneasy feeling throughout the majority of the film. Music builds towards the climax, but the hollow start of the film is excellent.
The cast is bare bones; Ed, his boss Lester, the HR lady, and a strange “tweaker” roaming the halls. And gotta hand it to Mark Anthony Williams; his Lester is such a perfect jerk of a boss. The movie had barely started, and I couldn’t wait to see him killed off. As Ed, Paul Syre Lee has a newbie shine to him that is at odds with his Afghanistan vet history. It’s an added off-kilter touch that gives an extra bit of disquiet to the story.
Director Nicholas Pineda does a great job building suspense here, showing a talent that’s sure to grow past this first feature length film. Donald Nam’s cinematography blends well with the editing choices, giving the fast cuts a dreamlike feel as the images shudder and shake like camera footage breaking down.
The climax is exactly what you’ve come to expect from found footage horror, but it’s the way we got there that sets it apart from most run of the mill films in this genre. There’s a final scene that seems added to the film to pad the run time; Infirmary clocks in just shy of an hour and a half. But I liked the way the film bookends with red “warning” messages that serve to address the found footage trope (the film was “cobbled together” from body cam and CCTV footage), and gives us a “whereabouts unknown” send off that makes that final scene doubly irrelevant.
Still? Infirmary would make a great double feature with films like Gojiam Haunted Asylum or Grave Encounters. Watch this one with the lights out.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 pumpkins.
