FrightFest review – Compliance (2026)
In recent years, there has been a spate of horror films about Air BnB and similar rental services – along with clutches of horror films about other contemporary web-based taxi or dating apps. Obviously, not everyone’s experience of these services is positive – and not a few screenwriters have opted to take things further than a bad online rating by devising extreme scenarios. In the real world, there must be employees like Sam Cornell (Megan Wilcox), a former social worker who works for the Air BnB-like U-Visit platform. Her job is to offer help and support to people who have been the victims of crimes in their stopovers – ostensibly as a service but actually to get folks to accept settlement cash and sign an NDA before the ‘I was raped in my U-Visit’ stories hit the press.
Sam, new to Los Angeles and struggling with a drink problem and alienation, is assigned to deal with Sarah (Lindsey Normington, from Anora), who has been assaulted by masked intruders who seemingly were able to get into her short-term rented apartment without breaking in. The woman, whose throat is red with choke-marks, is unresponsive and uncooperative … while the cops note that all her ID is fake and that she’s had her fingerprints removed, suggesting something shady in her background which undermines her slightly dodgy story. When Sam’s bosses pressure her to get results, she’s also contacted by an anonymous caller who suggests that Sarah is really ‘Dahlia Black’, a missing porn star known for rough sex videos … raising the possibility that this is a sting operation. It’s early 2024 and there are also business and political deals in the offering, with a possible investment in U-Visit by big Democrat donors – though fictional characters stand in for Biden and Harris, a pixellated clip from The Apprentice signifies who’s slouching towards Bethlehem to be inaugurated.
Writer-director-producer Kyle Mangione-Smith constructs a mosaic of story in found footage style, just as Sam is bombarded by emails, texts, video clips and links which only serve to pull her deeper into a mystery. This begins were most Air BnB shockers leave off, then takes a detour into cyber-thriller and conspiracy drama – with a couple of genuine surprises. It goes on a little too long – the aural/visual assault of a climactic montage feels like something from the Lodovico Treatment or the Parallax Corporation’s assassin training program – and loses its strong character drama in back-and-forth. It even turns into an action movie of sorts as a lone gunman decides U-Visit is one of those liberal pedophile pizza parlours and launches a one-man attack on the building just as Sam is clearing her desk and a potentially huge deal is on the table.
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