‘Never After Dark’ Revives Classic J-Horror With a Twisted New Threat

A psychic trained to guide the dead out of the living world discovers that ghosts may be the least dangerous thing waiting inside an isolated house in Never After Dark, Dave Boyle’s Japanese supernatural thriller, which will receive its UK premiere at Grimmfest on Thursday.

The feature screens at Odeon Great Northern in Manchester on Thursday 8 October, bringing a new spin on the haunted-house formula from the filmmaker behind Netflix hit House of Ninjas.

Moeka Hoshi stars as Airi, a travelling medium whose work involves helping restless spirits cross over. When she is summoned to a remote country house, however, she encounters an apparition unlike anything she has faced before. As Airi begins investigating the property and its history, she uncovers secrets that shift the danger away from the supernatural and towards something far less predictable.

Boyle, who both wrote and directed the film, has described Never After Dark as an attempt to combine two of his favourite forms of horror, the ghost story and the home-invasion thriller. The result builds around a protagonist who understands the rules of dealing with the dead, only to find those skills tested by threats that fall outside her experience.

The project developed after Boyle and actor-producer Kento Kaku completed House of Ninjas. The pair wanted their next collaboration to be smaller in scale while retaining the same technical ambition, leading to a production built largely around a single former hotel converted into a private residence.

Kaku produces and also appears in the film alongside Hoshi, Kurumi Inagaki, Tae Kimura, Mutsuo Yoshioka and Bokuzo Masana.

The production placed considerable emphasis on practical effects. Day-to-night transitions were achieved through lighting rather than digital replacement, multiple-character effects relied on body doubles, and several mirror and poltergeist sequences were created in camera. Production designer Yuji Hayashida also developed a custom spinning mirror used during Airi’s rituals as she crosses into the spirit world.

Grimmfest has praised the film’s combination of classic J-horror atmosphere, temporal disruption and emotional weight, while highlighting its gradual shift from ghost story into something stranger and more dangerous.

The film made its festival debut at SXSW, where it won the Midnight Audience Award, before continuing through Fantasia, Overlook, Scary Movies and Popcorn Frights. It later received a wide theatrical release in Japan.

Never After Dark receives its UK premiere at Grimmfest 2026 at Odeon Great Northern, Manchester, on Thursday 8 October at 10.25pm. Get your tickets now from: grimmfest.com/

Never After Dark trailer