A new guard at a closed hospital has a terrible night. Mostly due to boredom and a jerk of a boss, but ghosts and stuff too, I guess? The Infirmary, Nicholas Pineda’s lackluster 2026 found-footage film, is now on Shudder.
Ed is the new overnight guard at a closed hospital, slated for demolition. On his first night, he meets a creepy HR lady, Ms. Downey, who seems off, and Lester, his abrasive superior (under the guise of hazing). With the men’s body cameras and hallway cameras recording everything, it may seem like a brewing haunting is coming to a head; as we’re told by the first title cards, one person is missing and two are dead. Unfortunately, The Infirmary, directed by Nicholas Pineda and written by Pineda and Kay Krauland, is lifeless, tensionless, trite, and unfocused; a poor example of the found-footage genre. Anything that could be interesting is lost in a nothing; the dull tedium
On the plus side, I’ll give it this: despite ultimately falling into clichés, Pineda doesn’t always take the easy route of dumb scares or follow expectations for where a jump scare should land, whether it’s legitimate or a Lewton Bus. When you expect a figure behind someone who just moved out of frame, or movement in the deep background, he doesn’t deliver. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do anything to replace it, giving a solid hour of “is anything going to happen that isn’t an obvious red herring?” A few choice moments that nearly work, if there was anything behind it. 
Despite running only 85 minutes, Infirmary is a very tiring movie. Not because it’s an overstimulating onslaught, but in sheer dullness. Sadly, it’s a boring slog that doesn’t even meet the basic tenets of the found-footage subgenre, wasting a great location on an underdone, bog-standard found-footage story. The issue isn’t just the lackluster story, but how it’s told. Eighty-five minutes with just about nothing happening.
Even without scares, the film wastes the setting of an empty, long-abandoned mental hospital outside a few standard beats. There’s no story build; where it should be getting more and more dangerous, The Infirmary just keeps moseying along. Literally the first two-thirds could be cut with nothing. Heck, a little editing, and perhaps Infirmary could be a V/H/S Segment. But as it is, it is blandly photographed; tension cannot rise with the choices. Found footage is limited by the nature of the material (but the most effective films find ways to make it work with framing, tight cutting, and choice cuts). The Infirmary is static, operating at the same level whether it be the guys attempting conversation (Ed gives nothing. It’s lampshaded in the film when Lester calls him out on his lack of personality. But why do that for your lead?), or a mannequin does something it shouldn’t (oh no, mannequins moving? What not overdone concept?). Some shots on their own, as seen in the pull images here, look decent, especially as stills, but in action they give nothing.
Ultimately, Infirmiaty isn’t cohesive in crafting a story to grasp onto in its dull telling. Ed, a wooden Paul Syre Lee, clearly is lying about his military service. Mark Anthony William’s Lester constantly hints at something about the hospital, which is a real abandoned hospital – that’s cool, but he’s too much of a jerk to tell Ed or the audience. There’s a moment with a tweaker that is just a diversion, refusing to tie into things. Notes about forbidden hallways, possible ghosts, and a dark history are just dressing. What’s going on with the weird HR lady, played semi-effectively by Danielle Kennedy? It’s clear something supernatural is going on in this hospital. I don’t need a lore drop, but give something other than “okay, this is happening.” But as it is, it all lands with an “oh, that’s it?” Leaving things out, leaving it to the audience works, but only if the people behind the story know the full thing and pick and choose what to give us to increase our interest and intrigue. That’s not the Infirmary. It makes little sense, even in the subgenre’s setup. Heck, the standard tissue “this is covered footage” and “X is still at large” bookending cards clash with the film’s actual text.
Nicholas Pineda’s The Infirmary is an instantly forgettable found-footage example, offering nothing we haven’t seen a dozen times before. Skip this new Shudder offering and watch Grave Encounters if you want this but better.