Some ghosts refuse to leave, but in Never After Dark, the living may prove far more dangerous. Written and directed by Dave Boyle, the Japanese supernatural horror film follows a medium who spends her life helping restless spirits cross over.
Moeka Hoshi (Shogun) stars in the film, along with Kento Kaku (House of Ninjas), Kurumi Inagaki (House of Ninjas), Mutsuo Yoshioka (Chime), Bokuzo Masana (Tokyo Vice) and Tae Kimura (All Around Us).
Never After Dark made its world premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival in the Midnighter section, where it went on to win the Midnighter Audience Award. The film subsequently continued its festival run at the Overlook Film Festival, where Boyle’s film won the Grand Jury Prize for Feature Film, as well as the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Fantasia, and Film at Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies XIV, where it received its New York premiere.
Following its festival run, Never After Dark will open in U.S. theaters on September 25, 2026, through Magnolia Pictures.
Never After Dark stars Moeka Hoshi as Airi, a wandering medium who spends her life guiding restless spirits out of the world of the living. Summoned to an isolated country house, she comes face to face with a grotesque apparition with powers that defy Airi’s experience. As she digs deeper into the house’s past, a secret comes to light — and Airi finds herself hunted by a far more unpredictable force. For the first time, her greatest adversary is not the supernatural, but the living.
“I’ve always been fascinated by mediums, seers, and spiritualists. I love the moment in any ghost story when things get rough, and it’s time to call in an expert. The seed of Never After Dark began with a desire to tell a story about a professional, following step-by-step in procedural detail how they get rid of a pesky spirit,” said director Dave Boyle.
He added, “Only to have the rug pulled out from under them.”
Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico called Never After Dark the best of the three films in his genre-focused SXSW dispatch and praised it as an effective nod to Japanese and South Korean horror. Tallerico highlighted Moeka Hoshi’s performance, writing, “Hoshi’s deeply present, engaged performance is one of the main reasons “Never After Dark” works so well, but it’s also an undeniably well-made piece of horror filmmaking in terms of craft.”
Watch the official trailer for Never After Dark above.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.