By David Dent
Director Will Canon’s last feature, 2015’s found footage/procedural horror movie Demonic, played that year’s FrightFest. Ten years on Canon is back with a movie which shares some of the elements of his last offering.
Frustrated musician and mother Naomi (Italia Ricci) quits California with her young son Dylan (Zachary Golinger) to return to the homestead in Texas to spend time completing her latest album, something that she never manages to achieve. The family house has sad associations, being the home her father lived in prior to taking his own life by drowning.
Dylan is the first to pick up on the house’s weird vibes, but Naomi puts his concerns down to the relocation; the town’s none too friendly to her either, with the exception of childhood friend, now investigative journalist Grayson (Scott Mechlowicz) who becomes a shoulder to cry on.
When Naomi comes across a box containing various weird paraphernalia and an audio cassette, she’s astonished to hear that the tape contains the voice of her father, admitting to the murder of one Royce Cobb. Naomi digs deeper, and soon becomes entrenched both in a police investigation and her own researches, into a figure from the past called Piper, and a horrendous mass murder.
Like Demonic Canon mixes up the genres; family drama, crime procedural and, in the latter stages, time travel! Also like Demonic, and despite a smattering of jump scares, The Confession isn’t remotely scary. It’s not unenjoyable though, despite a few WTF plot turns. Ricci and Golinger are convincing as mother and son, and there are some decent support turns. It’s silly as hell of course and tries a little too hard, but it’s by no means a dud.
The Confession screened as part of Frightfest 2025.
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