Death of a Yellow Bird, 2026
Directed by Cody Calahan.
Starring Ari Millen, Peter Outerbridge, Kassandra Santos, Benjamin Sivcevic and Chance Orion Wood.
SYNOPSIS
A ghostly voice speaks to a man through a VHS tape found buried beneath his childhood home.
Director Cody Calahan brings a more personal touch to his latest film Death of a Yellow Bird, a psychological horror rooted in past and present regrets with Ice Cream Man‘s Ari Millen giving a terrific one-man performance.
Death of a Yellow Bird follows a father suffering from cancer who returns to his remote childhood home to clear his head before going back to his family. While there he discovers his old video camera and a collection of VHS tapes full of old movies he made as a child, but a supernatural entity starts communicating with him through the tapes, putting pressure on his sanity and a past he’s long buried.
Millen is undoubtedly the star of the show as he is largely the only actor present onscreen throughout Death of a Yellow Bird. It is a testament to him that even without other actors around he displays an impressive range of emotions his unnamed character experiences in his isolation. The vulnerability he conveys is quite strong and relatable, especially in the second half as his mortality and relationship with his son start to really hit him amid the supernatural events he’s witnessing.
Unlike Calahan’s previous films, the horror elements are much more subdued, targeting your feelings and creating a huge sense on unease rather than going for outright scares. By examining the character’s mental state, it puts you in the same position by questioning whether what he’s seeing is real as well as feeling his own terror. The creep factor is well executed, particularly during some of the night scenes, and the use of the old camera with its VHS quality adds to the eeriness. It also allows the horror to be much more personal to Millen’s character as it is rooted in his family trauma and how it effects the relationships he has with his wife and son.
The supporting cast do well with their limited roles. Peter Outerbridge is one of the few who also appears physically onscreen as Millen’s deceased father and he lends a gravitas and creepiness to his scenes while Kassandra Santos provides a vocal performance as the man’s wife through their phone calls. The emotion she showcases is quite well done given the difficulty in not appearing alongside Millen and having to rely just on her voice to convey their history and her concern for his wellbeing.
Death of a Yellow Bird is quite an introspective and unsettling film that succeeds in creating a uneasy environment and sense of foreboding throughout. Calahan’s script and direction really emphasize the insular nature of Millen’s character, whose performance is the film’s highlight as it is surely relatable to many who have undergone cancer diagnoses or family affected by it. It is a very well done piece of psychological horror with a great catharsis at its conclusion.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ricky Church
