PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The Dead Place follows Isaac Stecker played by Idris Veliu (Happy Hours), a troubled high school student who is haunted by spirits and increasingly violent supernatural encounters. He navigates bullying, grief, and family tension beginning to pile up onto an already fragile situation, finding himself caught between reality and something much darker. The film centers on his relationship with Katharine played by Lexi Graves (Blood Dried Hands), a friend fascinated by the paranormal who tries to help him understand what is happening, all while sinister forces in the form of “The New Kid” (David Howard Thornton – Terrifier) and “The Entity” (Bill Oberst Jr. – Circus of the Dead) push him toward violence and self-destruction. Written and directed by Michael Pickle, the film mixes ghost story elements, coming of age drama, possession horror, and psychological trauma.
I landed around a lower rating with this one because, while I could appreciate what it was trying to do, the execution never fully came together for me. The movie has a lot of ideas bouncing around at once – grief, bullying, demons, ghosts, family trauma, isolation, but the pacing was a little uneven, leaving certain emotional moments that should hit hard feeling very rushed or underdeveloped. There are stretches where the film feels more interested in atmosphere than momentum, which works occasionally but also makes the runtime drag in places.
That being said, I never got the impression that this was a cynical project. Quite the opposite. You can tell this was something Michael Pickle cared deeply about. Knowing the film originated from experiences that inspired him years ago makes a lot of the creative choices make more sense, and there is a sincerity here that kept me from outright disliking it. It feels like a movie made by people who genuinely love horror. Even when certain scenes don’t quite work, the passion behind them is obvious.
David Howard Thornton is probably going to be the main draw for a lot of viewers, and understandably so. Horror fans are going to show up out of curiosity alone because they’ve spent years watching him communicate through facial expressions and physical performance as Art the Clown. Seeing him actually get dialogue and a more traditionally theatrical role is interesting. He brings a sarcastic, unsettling energy that fits the film’s tone well. Whether or not the movie works for you overall, it’s easy to see why his involvement has generated so much attention.
The strongest aspects for me were the score, practical makeup work, and some of the creature and ghost designs. There are definitely some moments where the atmosphere clicks into place and you can see the movie that The Dead Place was striving to be. Some of the supernatural imagery is memorable. Never thought I’d see a ghost with gauges; that was not on my 2026 bingo card.
The Dead Place is a heartfelt indie horror project with admirable ambition, some genuinely cool visuals, and a lot of love behind it. Unfortunately, the storytelling didn’t quite land for me. The film struggles to balance all of its ideas into a cohesive whole. Still, I’ve seen far less passionate horror films with much larger budgets. I think super fans of David Howard Thornton or independent supernatural horror will probably find more to appreciate here than I did.
The Dead Place is now available exclusively streaming on BloodStream TV!
