Running Time: 80 Minutes
Starring: Aleigha Burt, Tabitha Getsy, Trisha Arozqueta, Jasmine Nguyen, Jessie Roddy
Across the film festival's storied history, FrightFest has been a terrific launching pad for many first-time filmmakers. Within 2025's roster is Raven Carter, the co-writer/director who makes her feature debut with Noseeums. The story opens with a foreboding scene, as college student Ember (Aleigha Burt) screams in silence while disappearing into a void. Viewers then witness a moment from the character's childhood, as young Ember has a disturbing dream involving a Black woman on the receiving end of bloody violence.
In the present day, Ember is grappling with heartbreak after breaking up with her boyfriend. In an attempt to take her mind off it, she joins her roommate and wealthy white "friends" for a weekend trip. As they arrive at a secluded lake house in the Florida backwoods, Ember is overcome with feelings that are unsettling yet oddly familiar. Her time is spent plagued by buzzing bugs and beset with strange visions, leaving the protagonist to unearth troubled spirits intent on retribution.
Key to this story is the setting rooted in a horrendous history. This location becomes the spark which ignites difficult conversations about race and entitlement, something that the white characters respond to with indifference. Rooted within this story of generational trauma and healing are good intentions, as Carter uses her debut to highlight how properties were taken from Black people and, generations later, remain denied from their ancestors. What is unfortunate is how this all unfolds, with the unsubtle and didactic ways utilised leaving the moving story to feel limp.
These messages are wrapped within horror elements, a method that has worked exceptionally since the genre's inception, yet the result is not as successful here. The attempts at scares feel disappointingly pedestrian, while the unfortunately realised visual effects hamper key aspects of the story. Credit is deserved to the cast, who do decent work with such thin material. Aleigha Burt centers the film as the lead feeling lost within a place unwelcoming to Black people, receiving hostility from the entitled white girls ready to defend their privilege before recognising the racist treatment that Ember faces.
As the story goes on, Abigail (Tabitha Getsy) grows more cartoonish to resemble a plot device whose only personality trait is "entitled." It is an accurate reflection of real-life figures who are also privileged, ready to double-down instead of attempting to understand, although it can become tiresome to watch. It is part of a story approaching violence against Black people committed by white people, bubbling up until it bursts and all-consuming vengeance takes over. While this should be the cathartic endpoint of the story, the executions leaves these events feeling glossed over and treated with little weight. Despite the execution falling short, there are interesting ideas to Noseeums which leaves one hoping for the best for Raven Carter's follow-up.
Noseeums made its World Premiere at FrightFest 2025
Comments