Horror · Review ·
Hallowarrior
A small, scrappy Halloween horror that works best before the monsters arrive. Ben Sottak's debut gives Milly Shapiro a lonely, tender lead as a post-plague survivor, and critics largely agree she carries it.
The home-invasion half is bloodier but thinner, and the budget shows. At 80 minutes it doesn't overstay, which is most of its charm: a modest October pick, not a new classic.
Dir. Ben Sottak · 2026 · 80 min · Shudder
The setup
Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro) believes she is the last person alive. A plague has emptied the world, and she spends her days scavenging and sending out signals that nobody answers. It is Halloween, so she decorates the house and plans a Halloween on her own. Then a gang of raiders led by a seemingly friendly woman called Thalia (Shannyn Sossamon) turns up at the door. Ajani Russell and AJ Bowen complete the main cast. Sottak, who wrote the script too, is making his feature debut; the film premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June before Shudder released it in October.
What works
The first stretch is the best one. Critics keep coming back to Shapiro, who carries a lot of the film alone and balances survivor toughness with childlike innocence. The autumn look gets the same praise: reviewers single out the real fall foliage and the haunted-house dressing, and the film feels like a Halloween movie from its first frames. Once the raiders arrive it turns into a bloody home-invasion thriller with practical effects, and a couple of reviewers enjoyed that as a messy, playful ride.
a wonderfully bizarre combination of childlike aesthetics and brutal violence
Radek Velicka, Frame Dispatch
What doesn't
The second half is thinner than the first. Several critics note that the supporting characters are barely sketched, that the story leans on familiar ideas (I Am Legend, The Purge and Home Alone all come up in reviews), and that the budget keeps almost everything in one house. The tone shift from lonely character study to straight home invasion is the point where opinion splits: some find it fun, others feel the film loses momentum and rushes what it set up. The published scores we found cluster around six or seven out of ten, and our score sits in the same place.
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Where to watch
Shudder released Hallowarrior on 16 October 2026. Shudder acquired rights for the UK, Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand, but availability varies by country, so check which services carry it where you live.