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Hayden Hewitt’s Cara unfolds over a tight 96 minutes, first screening to a sold‑out house at London’s Pigeon Shine FrightFest on August 25, 2024, before arriving digitally on February 3, 2025. Set against the grime‑tinged cityscape of contemporary England, the film positions itself at the intersection of kitchen‑sink social drama and relentlessly physical horror.

At its center is Cara, portrayed by Elle O’Hara, a young flatmate earning a precarious living via webcam shows on the sleazy “RedRoomFans” platform. Haunted by childhood abuse and terrified of returning to Sunnyside Hospital, she crafts a brutal plan of revenge that propels the narrative from muted realism into shock‑driven sequences.

The tonal shift—from cramped living‑room conversations to extended practical‑effects violence—echoes both British social‑realist traditions and global genre currents, whether in the stark naturalism of Scandinavian crime cinema or the visceral spectacle of East Asian shock horror.

Within this modern setting,...

Elle O’Hara is fast becoming a rising force in horror. The Glaswegian actress, who has steadily built a reputation for her intense, emotionally raw performances, takes on her most challenging role yet in Cara, a harrowing psychological horror that delves into trauma, addiction, and the unraveling of the human mind.

The film, directed by Hayden Hewitt and produced by Black Octopus, follows O’Hara as the titular character, a deeply broken woman spiraling further into madness. Now streaming, Cara has already made waves in the horror community, with O’Hara’s chilling performance earning her a Best Actress nomination at the Unrestricted View Film Festival in London.

In this interview, we talk to Elle about the processes behind her performances, dealing with heavy subject matter and her future projects.

Elle O’Hara Interview

Love Horror: Hello Elle, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. First off, can...

Receiving 4.5 out of 5 from our reviewer Erica Vilkus Cara set Pigeon Shine FrightFest on fire last year at its sold out performance. Directed by Hayden Hewitt this gore-filled psychological horror is now avalible for everyone to enjoy so we caught up with the man behind the amazing movie.

Starring Elle O’Hara as the eponymous Cara – a young woman whose world is spiralling out of control. Haunted by her traumatic past, she lives with a mentally unstable roommate and struggles with a failed career as an online sex worker. Her father is unable to communicate, while her well-meaning mother offers little support. But above all, Cara is consumed by a terrifying belief that there’s a conspiracy to send her back to the harrowing institution.

With James Dreyfus, Laurence R. Harvey Michaela Longden, Julie Hannan and Johnny Vivash this jaw-dropping feature debut by writer-director Hewitt demands to be seen.

Below Hayden...

Stars: Elle O’Hara, Michaela Longden, Sarah Jane Duncan, Jacob Roberts, Johnny Vivash, Julie Hannan, David Howell | Written and Directed by Hayden Hewitt

Credits rolling over, a montage of images that include dildos and men’s faces leering from computer monitors give way to a nightmarish hallucination sequence. Cara, a new psychological horror film from writer/director Hayden Hewitt, starts as it intends to continue, unrelentingly dark and grim.

Cara has recently been released from the grossly misnamed “Sunnyside”, a mental institution where she spent the past several years. Now, she shares an apartment with Ashley who, like her, works as a cam girl. Not a great life, but better than being institutionalized, something she swears she won’t let happen to her again.

Unfortunately, Cara’s mental state seems to already be deteriorating, as evidenced by the post-credits hallucination, and her imagining her therapist Gemma repeatedly calling her a whore during one of their sessions.

Hayden Hewitt’s harrowing psychological horror Cara will arrive on UK digital platforms on 17 February 2025, courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films. Following its world premiere at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024, this raw and unrelenting debut feature has garnered critical attention for its intense portrayal of trauma, mental health, and survival.

Elle O’Hara delivers a standout performance as the titular Cara, a woman haunted by the abuse she endured in a psychiatric hospital. Determined never to return to the institution, Cara devises a desperate plan to escape the grasp of her past and the sinister forces she believes are conspiring against her. As she spirals deeper into paranoia and despair, Cara’s actions lead to shocking and violent consequences, challenging audiences to grapple with the murky moral complexities of her journey.

The film’s cast includes notable talent such as James Dreyfus (House of the Dragon), Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede 2...

2024 was a standout year for horror and genre films, offering a lineup that pushed boundaries, challenged expectations, and delivered seemingly unending frights, thrills, and unforgettable storytelling. From intense psychological horror to cosmic terrors and everything in between, 2024 was a year has gave us films that will have an impact on us well into 2025. The future of the horror genre is looking brighter than ever.

We’ve put together a roundup of our favourite films from 2024 (and a few late 2023/2024 overlapped entries that deserve the spotlight). With our highest-rated picks leading the pack, let’s dive into the must-watch titles of 2024.

Our Favourite Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked 5-Star Favorites: The Absolute Best of the Year The Substance (2024) – 5/5

Dir. Coralie Fargeat

In this mind-bending horror, Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) crafts a tale about a biotech experiment gone horribly wrong. The Substance explores themes of addiction, identity, and power through a chilling body-horror lens.

The Black Sunday Film Festival is set to return with a thrilling one-day Halloween event on 26th October at its home base, the Everyman Chelmsford. Known for celebrating the best in independent genre cinema, the festival will showcase a dynamic line-up of feature films, shorts, and a mystery cult classic, making it a must-attend event for horror fans.

This year’s Halloween mini-fest will see the Essex premieres of three highly anticipated feature films. The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine, directed by genre favourite Graham Skipper, will lead the charge. Skipper, known for his dark and inventive storytelling, brings another unique horror tale to the screen. Next, All This Time, a gothic time-loop horror by writer/director Rob Worsey, will captivate audiences with its eerie atmosphere and clever twists, featuring performances from Emily Rose Holt, Daniel De Bourg, and Emma Pallant. Rounding off the feature presentations is Hayden Hewitt’s Cara,...

Sudbury, Suffolk is set to get a lot scarier this Halloween season as the Dead And SudBuried horror festival returns for its eighth instalment, running from 4th to 6th October 2024. What started as a small celebration of horror films has now evolved into a three-day horror extravaganza, featuring nine new feature films, classic horror screenings, 18 short films, director and cast Q&As, and plenty of other terrifying surprises.

The festival’s origins date back to 2016 when organiser Andy Piper decided to host a one-day event as a birthday present to himself. What began as a humble affair screening horror classics has since grown into a full-fledged horror film festival, attracting horror fans from across the UK. Now, Dead And SudBuried is a staple on the horror festival circuit, with its mix of world premieres, UK premieres, and classic films from the genre.

The 2024 line-up boasts an impressive array of new horror films,...

As Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 draws to a close, the horror and fantasy film fans in attendance are still reeling from the intense lineup that has graced the screens over the past few days. On Sunday, August 25th, one film in particular left audiences shaken and stirred – Cara, a pitch-black psychological horror that delves deep into unsettling themes with unflinching honesty.

Directed by Hayden Hewitt, Cara is not your typical horror movie. It’s a bold exploration of trauma, mental health, and the dark corners of the human psyche. We caught up with Hayden to discuss the making of this provocative film, his journey into filmmaking, and his thoughts on the FrightFest experience.

Hayden Hewitt, writer and director 1. Tell us about your film

Hayden Hewitt: Cara is a pitch-black psychological horror film which was fully intended to make audiences uncomfortable and even flinch. I wanted to tackle certain topics head-on, without compromise,...

Cara (2024) premiered on Sunday, August 25th at Pigeon Shine FrightFest in a sold-out screening. Directed by Hayden Hewitt, a co-founder of the infamous shock site LiveLeak, the 96-minute film is bleak to the point of unease. It is a harrowing exploration of the painful depths of the human experience.

Elle O’Hara portrays Cara, a woman attempting to recover from a history of childhood sexual abuse and the resulting scars left on her psyche. She is a sex worker who streams on a red-room fetish site to a small group of fans. The sexual content in the film weaves from reluctant sex work to abuse in a matter of seconds and it’s enough to make one queasy without veering into full exploitation. Here is a woman who is deeply struggling to function despite her trauma on top of the normal experience of womanhood which is already trodden with its own hardships.

As was announced yesterday, The Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, celebrating its 25th anniversary, has announced its scream-inducing lineup for 2024. Taking place from Thursday, 22 August to Monday, 26 August, the festival will be hosted at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, utilising all seven screens for this year’s horror extravaganza. We have already detailed what will be on offer in Discovery Screen 1 across the long weekend.

Now we have yet more horror for you, below is the detailed programme for the Odeon Luxe West End Screen 2 (75 capacity).

Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 – Discovery Screen 2 Thursday, 22 August 2024

8:10 Pm – I Will Never Leave You Alone (International Premiere) Directed by Dw Medoff and starring Ken Trujillo, Katerina Eichenberger, Emma Anne Wedemeyer, and Chris Genovese, this film explores the psychological horrors faced by a man recently released from prison who must stay in a haunted house or return to jail. Medoff aims to address mental health themes,...

BBC's Newsnight sparked a debate last night on media coverage of the shooting of two journalists in Virginia during a live TV report.

Author Michael Wolff and LiveLeak.com founder Hayden Hewitt discussed the issue of media outlets deciding whether or not to post the controversial video taken by the shooter, as well as a clip of the original WDBJ7 footage.

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were shot dead while Parker interviewed local Chamber of Commerce head Vicki Gardner, who was injured in the incident and is now in a stable condition.

Suspect Vester Lee Flanagan II, who went by the name Bryce Williams on air, later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was located by authorities.

When asked by Newsnight host James O'Brien why his website decided to post the video of the shooting, Hewitt responded by saying: "Originally it was uploaded to a different...