You can’t escape your past in the unsettling Canadian horror film Bright Hill Road [CIFF]

Bright Hill Road begins with a brutal workplace shooting and somehow manages to get even more intense from there. The latest feature from Calgary filmmaker Robert Cuffley (based on a script by Susie Moloney), Bright Hill Road is an intimate and unsettling horror film about the lingering effects of guilt and trauma, anchored by an incredible performance from lead Siobhan Williams.

After a disgruntled ex-employee goes on a shooting spree at her office job, the alcoholic Marcy (Williams) embarks on a road trip to visit her sister in California. Along the way, she stops in at the Bright Hill Road Boarding House, a historic building run by the controlling Mrs. Inman (Agam Darshi). As Marcy tries to decompress during her stay, she drinks heavily and begins experiencing strange visions, which only heighten when she meets a mysterious new guest (Michael Eklund). As Marcy descends further into madness, she comes face-to-face with terrifying truths about her past and realizes there may be no escape from the purgatory she finds herself in.

With nods to The Shining and Jacob’s Ladder, Bright Hill Road is an effective psychological horror story, one that reminds us the darkest horrors we have to face are the ones we bury the deepest within ourselves.

Bright Hill Road is screening as part of the Calgary International Film Festival through October 4. Tickets are available here.