FrightFest Debut Feature "CARA" (2024) Is Coming Home This February!
Mental health is one of the most common themes in modern horror today. With the decreased stigma around discussing mental health and addressing the impacts of people living without coping or support systems, it makes sense that the conversation has opened up over the last 10 years. The horror genre is no stranger to using mental health as a metaphor for the imagined horrors displayed on screen, or vice versa. “Cara,” the debut feature from Writer / Director Hayden Hewitt, which debuted during last year’s FrightFest UK (see our previous coverage) is bringing the horrors of mental health home on 17 February 2025!
Releasing on Digital VOD from Reel 2 Reel Films, check out the trailer and press release to learn more about what "Cara” has in store. Plus, be on the lookout for a review and interview coming soon!
From The Press Release
“Unflinching kitchen sink horror that delivers both visually and emotionally… a strong and disturbing picture of 21st-century England… The dialogue is unflinchingly believable and could see Hayden Hewitt being the Ken Loach of horror”
★★★★★
Starburst
“Brutal, raw and unflinching – exposes the darkest corners of the mind”
★★★★★
BritFlicks
“Boasts the bleakest ending to any British-based horror flick since Ben Wheatley’s Kill List… in-your-face stuff from its very start to its shocking climax, never taking a breather for any light relief… terrific performances across the board” 9/10
My Bloody Reviews
Meet Cara, if you dare, in this critically gore-filled psychological horror, following its World premiere at FrightFest 2024 the film is set for its digital release on 17 February 2025 from Reel 2 Reel Films.
In a jaw-dropping feature debut, writer-director Hayden Hewitt (Lips, Unseen) brings us this blood-curdling horror starring Elle O'Hara (Memories of Another, When Darkness Falls) as the eponymous Cara – a young woman determined to avoid being sent back to the psychiatric hospital where she suffered horrific abuse – no matter what it takes.
James Dreyfus (House of the Dragon, Notting Hill), Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede 2, Mannequin) Michaela Longden (Book of Monsters, Coronation Street), Julie Hannan (Supernova, Shetland) and Johnny Vivash (Contact, How to Kill Monsters, Walking Against the Rain) also star.
Cara's world is spiraling out of control. Haunted by her traumatic past, she lives with a mentally unstable roommate and struggles with a failed career as an online sex worker. Her father is unable to communicate, while her well-meaning mother offers little support. But above all, Cara is consumed by a terrifying belief that there’s a conspiracy to send her back to the harrowing institution.
She devises a desperate and disturbing plan to ensure that she will never be forced to return to Sunnyside Hospital. With the help of a submissive client, she sets the wheels in motion—unleashing shockingly brutal consequences.
Cara will never go back... whatever the cost.
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