'Old Wounds' Offers Up Surprising Found Footage Horror [CFF 2025 Review]

(Note: While I believe it's best to go into every film blind, that is especially the case with 'Old Wounds', a twisty tale better experienced without any expectations. I haven't included anything here that I would deem a spoiler--I would never--but that being said, continue reading at your own peril)

People like to say that the past is the past, as if it’s this long dead thing that lived and breathed once but can no longer hurt us. That isn’t true though, is it? Because while time moves forward, the aches and pains of what we experience stay with us. Sure, they dull over time, becoming less sharp, less agonizing, yet like a scab over a cut, these old wounds can be torn open at any time, reveal themselves to the people we love in ways we don’t intend, and that scares the hell out of us. Director Steven Hugh Nelson’s found footage feature debut, Old Wounds, wraps audiences in the familiar anxiety of that fear, at times suffocating in the way it squeezes out tense drops of sweat, while also managing to be a warm embrace that highlights the irony that opening past scars can sometimes be the most healing of all.

Budding filmmaker Steve (Nelson) and his girlfriend, Ashley (Chelsey Grant), are on the way to her parent’s house for the weekend, where she will be introducing her boyfriend to the family. Head over heels for one another, the two share a nervous excitement of bringing Steve into the fold. When they arrive at Ashley’s childhood home in the middle of nowhere, Steve learns that mom and dad won’t arrive until the morning. No matter. More time for the two of them to spend alone. That is, until an old friend of Steve’s, Graham (Brian Villalobos), shows up in the middle of the night, uninvited and wanting to reconnect, leading to a tense triangle of secrets and old wounds sliced back open.

​Co-written by Nelson, Grant and Villalobos, there’s a natural chemistry between the three that emanates from the screen like a soft glow. Though we get the sense that Steve and Ashley have only been dating for a little while, it feels like they’ve been together for a lifetime, their inside jokes and adoring smiles flush with sincerity. Most of us would probably call the cops if a childhood friend showed up unannounced at a weekend getaway—in the middle of the night, no less—but Steve’s invitation to Graham to stay also comes off as genuine, as does the pair’s immediate fall back into their friendship, despite Graham’s exceedingly odd behavior. Both wanted to be filmmakers when they grew up, and each has a camera attached to their hands, recording anything and everything they do. The connection the cast all share in real life raises a powerful spirit of indie filmmaking that goes beyond the film itself, laying out for viewers why professionals say to make movies with your friends. The payoff of a team that knows and supports each other is up there on the screen, elevating Old Wounds to something a little more special than your average found footage horror movie.

As for the horror, Old Wounds is light on scares, instead emphasizing the tension created by secrets between the characters and Ashley’s understandable anger at Graham’s presence…a frustration that constantly puts Steve in the middle of a situation no one would envy him for. Moments like a guy who looks like sack head Jason seen in the woods during a hike and strange objects left on the porch of Ashley’s home remind the audience that a separate terror is creeping in, but these things are mostly pushed to the side as the trio contends with their own insecurities. Nelson intends to keep you guessing and make you sweat as the friction of Graham’s presence creates a static threatening to evolve into a full-blown electrical storm. From the moment he arrives at the isolated house, we begin to understand that nothing is quite as it seems, asking questions like where is Ashley’s family? What really brought Graham back into Steve’s life? And does Steve have his own secrets that he’s hiding? Bubbling enquiries that grow hotter throughout the film’s almost two-hour runtime, a gradual pace that may seem slow to some, but uses that time to develop these characters in such a way that we’re able to forgive some of their more head-scratching choices.

Looked at as purely a horror film, Old Wounds will perhaps underwhelm most fans expecting the scares and shocks that the premise teases. But the goal of the filmmakers isn’t to leave you with nightmares showing up at your door like Graham in the middle of the night. The fear here is the terror of worrying we will destroy the relationships with people we love. That we’ll screw it up somehow. That the wounds of our past make us broken and irreparable. Anyone who has ever felt like that will see themselves in these characters. You’ll recognize the anxiety, the terror, the overwhelming heartache in the (false) belief that you deserve to be alone. But you’ll also feel something else you might not expect from this found footage horror film. Understanding. Comfort. An emotional hug. Because Old Wounds isn’t just the horror of meeting a significant other’s family times eleven…at certain moments, it’s like hanging out with good friends. It’s laughter. It’s connection, and all the love, joy, fear and nervousness that comes with that.

​Every film is, in a way, more for the artists that make them than the audience, Old Wounds more so than others. This is a passion project that plays a little like a home movie that the filmmakers have invited us into to share with them. I mean that as a compliment. There’s a homeliness to this film, a certain intimacy that allows for a coziness despite the lingering tension throughout. Sure, it’s light on scares, but Nelson’s debut offers what any good horror film does…a healing experience through the fears we all share.

By Matt Konopka