‘Dead Reset’ Turns a Video Game Into a Gory Creature Feature

Dead Reset will make its world premiere at Tubi FrightFest this August, bringing writer and director Stewart Sparke’s latest creature feature to the festival line-up. Based on the video game of the same name, the British horror film combines science fiction, body horror and time-loop thrills as a surgeon trapped inside an underwater research facility is forced to relive his own violent death while battling a mutating parasite.

Daniel Thrace stars as Cole Mason, a surgeon abducted and taken to a remote underwater facility where he is ordered to operate on an evolving parasitic organism. What begins as an impossible assignment soon becomes something even worse when Cole discovers that every brutal attempt to escape ends with his death, only for the nightmare to begin again.

To survive, Cole must embrace the endless cycle and uncover a way to destroy the creature before he becomes trapped in a perpetual loop of violence. The high-concept premise blends survival horror with science fiction while placing its central character under increasing psychological and physical pressure every time events reset.

Lyndsey Craine, Dennis Rasaq and Andrina Carroll co-star alongside Thrace, with supporting appearances from Michaela Longden, Johnny Vivash, Elle O’Hara and genre favourite Nicholas Vince, who provides a voice performance. The production also reunites Sparke with several actors from his earlier films, continuing the collaborative partnerships that have become a familiar part of his work in independent British horror.

Dead Reset is adapted from the interactive video game created by Sparke himself, giving the filmmaker the unusual opportunity to translate his own story from one medium to another. The original game allowed players to influence events by exploring different paths and outcomes, while the feature reshapes those branching ideas into a linear cinematic experience without abandoning the mystery and escalating tension that drove the source material.

Practical effects remain central to Sparke’s filmmaking. Across The Creature Below, Book of Monsters and How to Kill Monsters, he has consistently favoured physical creature work and make-up effects, and Dead Reset continues that approach with its mutating parasite and generous helping of on-screen gore. The director has described the film as a love letter to the survival horror games and creature features that inspired him, with an emphasis on tangible effects wherever possible rather than relying solely on digital imagery.

Produced by Dark Rift Horror and Wales Interactive, Dead Reset continues Sparke’s interest in blending interactive storytelling with traditional filmmaking. It is an ambitious step for a project that began life as a video game, and one that should prove a natural fit for FrightFest’s appetite for inventive independent horror.

Dead Reset receives its world premiere at Tubi FrightFest on Saturday, 29 August 2026 at 1.00pm. Get your tickers here: frightfest2026

Dead Reset trailer