Unholy Night

The warmth and complexity and hopeless entanglement of life in an Italian American family meets the chaos and tragedy of an ancient curse in Michael Gabriele’s Unholy Night, a zombie film of sorts which sets out to explore the place of the dead in extended family structures. Screened as part of the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival, it opens with a shocking scene at a family party which makes no sense to the teenage girl whom the camera follows, but most of the action takes place decades later, with comedy as well as horror coming to the fore.

In the main part of the film, we follow Gino (played by Marc Bendavid, who has no Italian roots but may relate to the extended family experience due to his Moroccan Jewish father). Gino is a good boy, dutiful and kind to his elders, even to the extent of wearing the clothes that they give him as gifts, but he is nonetheless regarded as a disappointment. He has a good job, but not a proper career. He used to have a girlfriend but he has failed to marry and produce grandchildren. And there are things that he just doesn’t get. When helping to prepare a Christmas meal, he cuts the melon into cubes. His father is appalled; his mother struggles to come to his defence.

The one family member whom Gino always got along well with was his grandmother. She has her own very particular ways of doing things, however, and during the meal that follows, as assorted siblings, uncles and aunts chatter around the table, she comes in for quite a bit of criticism. Doubtless they assume that it doesn’t matter. She can’t hear them, right? So when she turns up in the kitchen, there is some consternation – not least because she has been dead for several years.

Calming down elderly relatives who feel slighted is never easy, but here it gets trickier than usual. Try explaining to a murderous undead grandmother that you have sold her house. The horror of what follows is, unsurprisingly, mixed with other kinds of emotion as acquaintance is rekindled and things left unsaid when the old woman passed away can finally be shared. Nobody, however, knows how to get her back where she belongs, and as talk of ancient curses emerges, it becomes clear that this is the least of their problems.

In the somewhat cluttered story that follows, family hierarchies are upended and Gino finally gets a chance to prove himself. There is also a romance plotline of sorts as he tries to reconnect with his ex, Rene (Shailene Garnett) and is forced to reckon with the behaviours that screwed things up between them the first time around. Although there are violent situations which have to be contended with over the course of the film, there is a lot of focus on the importance of empathy, respect for differences and, at the same time, willingness to stand up for what matters even in the face of family pressure.

It’s not an easy process to navigate these intersecting themes at the same time as delivering on comedy and action, or at least keeping the dramatic elements of the story interesting. The film stumbles a bit, with some strong individual scenes which it struggles to knit neatly together. It remains likeable throughout, however, and people who share that kind of family background will find a lot to relate to. For a zombie film, it is remarkably sanguine. The dead. after all, remain a part of life. We just need to figure out what that means for the rest of us.

Reviewed on: 26 Jul 2026