FRIGHTFEST24 REVIEW: Scared Shitless [2025]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 76 minutes
Release Date: October 3rd, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Blue Fox Entertainment
Director(s): Vivieno Caldinelli
Writer(s): Brandon Cohen

Sometimes … shit happens.

Whatever it was that killed Sonny’s (Daniel Doheny) mother has rendered him incapable of living without a bottle of Bismuth to ease his stomach. He didn’t used to be a germophobe, but now he can’t even eat dinner without first scrubbing a layer of skin off his hands. So, it doesn’t help matters that his father (Steven Ogg’s Don) is a plumber who more or less swims in germs all day. Unless they can use that fact to their advantage. Maybe taking Sonny on Don’s latest job to unplug Mrs. Applebaum’s (Marcia Bennett) toilet can serve as exposure therapy and snap him out of it. If only they knew what was actually hiding inside those pipes.

We the viewers do thanks to an opening prologue where director Vivieno Caldinelli and screenwriter Brandon Cohen set the tone via Canadian icons Mark McKinney and Julian Richings. Not only do their Dr. Robert and Professor Cummings introduce us to the monster at the heart of Scared Shitless, but they do also so in a broadly comedic way that ensures we’re in the right mindset from the start. How? By letting the former try and hide his research from the latter by saying “Project X” doesn’t exist … despite literally everything in his lab being labeled with those exact words.

The result is an organic killing machine the likes of which Earth has never seen. Think a Facehugger from Alien but with the four-cornered mandible-laden mouth of a Predator. The creature latches onto its victim, tearing it to shreds en route to consuming the entire body when possible. So, while it’s a good thing that it’s trapped inside Dr. Robert’s building’s septic system as far as keeping it quarantined from the rest of civilization, it’s a horror show for those few tenants still inside for the long weekend. And regardless of whether they are the heroes these people want to save them, Don and Sonny—with help from the landlord’s daughter Patricia (Chelsea Clark)—are the only heroes they can hope to get.

What follows is a fast-paced seventy-minute romp full of gruesome kills and Dad jokes. The effects work (courtesy of cult favorite Steven Kostanski) is impeccable and the filmmaking a ton of fun thanks to meticulously planned blocking for added suspense and humor as well as some unforgettable cuts (“You gotta do something about that finger.”). And since the bathroom is the one place we cannot live without, this monster has plenty of potential meals to dismember, eviscerate, or drag right down through each porcelain throne. Add ready-to-hatch eggs, a justifiably doubting police force, and the best work gloves on the market, though, and maybe Sonny is exactly where he needs to be.

Scared Shitless lives up to its promise. It’s funny, gross, and extremely Canadian. There’s even a healthy dose of horror-fueled sexuality—just not always the sort you might expect. It’s a love letter to 1980s creature features with a game cast who’s ready to get their hands (and faces) dirty to save the day and characters tough enough (or numb enough) to get through some harrowing events without so much as batting an eye. So, allow that initial store of vomit to be expelled early on like Sonny does and enjoy a viscous ride through bodily fluids and snaked pipes. You never know what might be lodged in the flange.