Pyewacket

After her father's death, teenage Leah moves with her emotionally strained mother to an isolated house in the woods, far from her school and friends. Grieving and angry at the upheaval, Leah turns to the occult, and after a heated argument with her mother she performs a ritual in the forest, calling on a dark spirit named Pyewacket to kill her. She quickly regrets it, but the ritual cannot simply be undone, and something from the woods makes its way into the house, threatening both mother and daughter.

Adam MacDonald wrote and directed the film, his second feature after Backcountry and the second of four features he has directed, followed by Out Come the Wolves and This Is Not a Test. Laurie Holden plays Mrs. Reyes and Nicole Muñoz plays Leah, with supporting turns from Chloe Rose, Eric Osborne, James McGowan and Victoria Sanchez, who also produced. The Canadian production runs 88 minutes and blends drama, horror and thriller elements.

Released in December 2017, the film holds a 6.8 out of 10 from 36 critics' reviews, while audiences rate it lower: 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 12,000 votes and 5.9 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 360 votes. The gap suggests critics responded more favorably than general viewers did.