Play Dead (2025) Review

Play Dead (2025) Review

From director Carlos Goitia (The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession), comes a grisly tale of life or death, that draws inspiration from horror classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Collector. Following its successful run on the festival circuit, Play Dead arrives on UK digital 9 March 2026 courtesy of Seven Tales.

Trapped in a basement and surrounded by corpses, one woman must feign death to outwit her torturous kidnapper in a terrifyingly tense survival horror. The only way to survive is to Play Dead! At the time of writing, Play Dead sits at a miserable 3.8/10 on IMDb. Going in with a score like that attached to it, expectations are naturally low. But Carlos Giotia’s lean, low-budget horror proves that ratings don’t always tell the full story.

This high-concept shocker wastes no time. With a brisk runtime and a minimalist approach, Play Dead squeezes tension out of every scene. Early on, it seems like the film might trap viewers in a basement alongside the bodies stacked there by its hulking masked killer, played by Damian Castillo. Fortunately, the film has more on its mind than simply watching a brute haul victims up and down the stairs.

Instead, Giotia leans into atmosphere. Sparse dialogue and carefully chosen camera angles do much of the storytelling, while frequent close-ups of Alison, played by Paula Brasca, pull us directly into her nightmare. Her silent reactions carry much of the tension, turning the film into a nerve-wracking cat-and-mouse game.

Just when things threaten to become too confined, Play Dead expands beyond its corpse-filled basement setting. Once upstairs, the film escalates into something far stranger: a grotesque dinner party arranged by the masked son for his ailing mother. It’s a baroque slice of horror that pushes the film into far more twisted territory.

Genre fans may spot shades of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre lurking in the background, but Play Dead still manages to carve out its own identity. Another surprise is its origin. Despite being in English, the film is a co-production between Argentina and New Zealand rather than the United States, with Catalina Motton providing an English dub.

Watching Play Dead feels a bit like the old video-store days—taking a gamble on a random horror title and discovering a hidden gem tucked away on the shelf. For viewers willing to dig beyond the algorithm-fed mainstream, this strange little shocker is worth seeking out.

Play Dead is on UK digital 9 March from Seven Tales

Trailer