Issue:
May 2026 | Film Committee
Medium Cool
Join the Film Committee at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 14 for a sneak preview of the award-winning supernatural chiller Never After Dark, from the creative duo behind the global Netflix sensation House of Ninjas. The film, which marks the second collaboration between American writer-director Dave Boyle and Japanese actor-producer Kento Kaku under their new genre label, Signal 181, is currently sweeping up audience awards and other honors at film festivals around the globe. Elevating what could have been just a conventional tale of a haunted-house exorcism into something that is both terrifying and droll, Boyle and Kaku set their story largely on a single rural property, and blend ghost story conventions with elements of home-invasion suspense. The film begins with Airi (Shogun breakout Moeka Hoshi), a pragmatic medium who specializes in guiding spirits back to the “other side” during daylight hours, and her assistant, Miku (Kurumi Inagaki) in a car on a forested road. Summoned to a secluded country estate by its new owner, Teiko (Tae Kimura), Airi soon discovers that Teiko’s protective son Gunji (Kaku) remains skeptical of her abilities. As her investigation deepens, she finds her equilibrium shattered by a powerful apparition and buried secrets that suggest her greatest adversary may not be the supernatural at all. Boyle and Kaku will be on hand for the Q&A following the screening. (Never After Dark, Japan, 2026, 104 minutes, Japanese with English subtitles)
Karen Severns is chair of the FCCJ Film Committee
