{"id":52079,"date":"2026-03-10T01:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=52079"},"modified":"2026-03-10T01:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:14:55","slug":"no-see-ums-aka-noseeums-2026-women-in-horror-month-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/10\/no-see-ums-aka-noseeums-2026-women-in-horror-month-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"No-See-Ums (aka Noseeums) (2026) [Women in Horror Month 2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When spring break and the past mix, something ancient is looking for vengeance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Noseeums\u00a0is an ambitious supernatural thriller that attempts to weave together personal trauma, local history, and lingering racial tensions. Fresh from a rough breakup, college student Ember reluctantly agrees to a weekend trip with her roommate and wealthy white \u201cfriends\u201d to an isolated lake house in the Florida backwoods. What should be a weekend away soon becomes terrifying as Ember becomes haunted by people she keeps seeing on the property, particularly visions of a Black woman named Tilly.<\/p>\n

For those scratching their heads, a \u201cnoseeum\u201d is a tiny biting midge common in Florida, where most of the film takes place. They move so quickly that you often don\u2019t notice the bite until after the damage is done, hence the name. That idea becomes a fitting metaphor for\u00a0Noseeums, where the things you don\u2019t see coming can still hit hard. It\u2019s a first feature for both director Raven DeShay Carter and screenwriters Jason-Michael Anthony and Hendreck Joseph, and though promising, it doesn\u2019t quite land the way it wants. That\u2019s not to say there aren\u2019t well-executed beats, and overall, the film has a lot of promise for Carter, Anthony, and Joseph. The dialogue between the four girls doesn\u2019t always feel authentic. When conversations lean too heavily on exposition, the script falters. But when the audience is allowed to experience events alongside Ember is trying to solve the mystery with local man Earl, the story unfolds much more naturally.<\/p>\n

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There are a lot of big ideas at play here, including generational trauma and the lingering effects of systemic racism. Attempting to explore themes that large within a runtime of only 85 minutes is no easy task, and the film sometimes struggles to give those ideas the space they need. When the story slows down long enough to sit with Ember\u2019s experience, however, the emotional weight of those themes becomes much clearer. Still, the film\u2019s willingness to engage with those themes gives the story an emotional layer that many supernatural thrillers never attempt. Once the story gets going, the film moves much more fluidly, though it ultimately builds toward a final act that feels rushed and somewhat muddled.<\/p>\n

Carter handles the direction well, and despite budget limitations and some mildly unfortunate CGI, there\u2019s a lot of promise to be seen. Carter builds some nice suspense in her shots, and some of the supernatural scenes absolutely pack an emotional punch. The setting is also used in a very smart way, letting the natural wilderness build atmosphere and beauty.<\/p>\n

Most of the actors do what they can with the material. The characters never fully reach the plane of being fleshed out, three-dimensional people. The \u201cMean Girl\u201d interactions aren\u2019t interesting because they remain caricatures. A fleshed-out \u201cbitch\u201d is going to be we love to hate, but a predictable one just doesn\u2019t work. Aleigha Burt as Ember is far and away the standout star of\u00a0Noseeums. She makes a character who, at times, can be quite unlikable, still compelling and sympathetic. Her screen presence is fantastic, and she is another person to watch for future projects.<\/p>\n

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The score by Justine de Saint Mars is very strong. It\u2019s light where it needs to be, and never overshadows the action happening on screen, but enhances the tone of a moment and guides the audience through the shifts in tension. Many of the technical elements that can fall through a bit in an independent film were strong overall. Even the lighting, which is a hard balance to come by in a horror film, never felt overly dark in the scenes happening at night. The weakest point on the production side is, as mentioned above, some of the CGI. It\u2019s unfortunate there was not a workaround for those moments, since they detracted from some of the scenes which could have been stronger otherwise. It\u2019s always a balance when the budget is low, but when the effects end up distracting from the story and scene, it\u2019s time to try something else.<\/p>\n

Ultimately,\u00a0Noseeums\u00a0is an ambitious idea that doesn\u2019t quite reach the realization it\u2019s aiming for. Even so, the film offers a promising glimpse of several emerging talents. They\u2019re worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n

Noseeums\u00a0is not available on Digital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When spring break and the past mix, something ancient is looking for vengeance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[477,1550],"class_list":["post-52079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-women-in-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52080,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52079\/revisions\/52080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}