'Ithaqua' Review: A Bloody but Uneven Blend of Horror and Survival Western - FrightFest 2026
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
By Jack Ransom - August 31, 2026
Struggling to endure the decline of the fur trade, and beset with a murderous hunger, the occupants of a remote outpost in 1800’s Canada recruit American mercenary, Cole Franklin (Luke Hemsworth), as a hired gun and guide. Tasked with leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village, any hope for salvation is soon dashed when the quest evolves into a terrifying fight for survival.
I went into this pretty much completely blind outside of a brief synopsis and an intriguing poster, which I think in a way is the ideal situation for a horror flick. Unfortunately, I feel that Ithaqua wastes some of its potential due to clashing tones and plot strands that don’t quite gel together as effectively as they could have done, which is a shame as there is some stellar imagery on display, a unique setting and bursts of effectively squelchy practical gore.
The film is very much one of two halves: the first being an occasionally bordering on sluggishly paced establishment of the location, characters and the increasing hunger, desperation and violence of the village’s inhabitants, whilst in the background a potential darkness and dabbling of local myth begins to fester. The tone is dark and the intentionally crawling pace does set a looming precedent, even if the snowy setting didn’t quite envelop me entirely. This is hindered by a screenplay that doesn’t offer up the most compelling of characters, however in the latter the sense of camaraderie and ‘brotherhood’ between the lead trio. Then at a certain point, it flips into splattery undead territory and flicks the mood switch from dour to destructive, as the latter portion descends into cannibalistic campy corpse munching, gunfights, sword clashes and native curses. It treads familiar ground, but has a gnarly charm that very much represents the “Hammer Films Presents…” atop the poster.
Easily the film’s strongest elements come from its location cinematography and prop splatter-effects. The locations are genuinely stunning at times: from atmospheric natural skylines, vast wide sheets of white snow, the flicker of campfires, and strikingly framed horror shots (from runic symbols to ghastly corpses). Aside from a few garish and floaty CGI crimson, the piles of guts, squelching mushed innards and arterial spray are gleefully excessive when the action picks up. Said action is decent, again, nothing that hasn’t been seen before, but it gets the job done in a scrappy way, even with a cartoony mini-cannon demise which brought out a chuckle.
Performance-wise there is an element of some of the cast feeling like they are sometimes in a different film or not quite gelling tonally, particularly when it comes to the dialogue choices. Hemsworth’s gruff and gritty demeanour is fitting for his character, yet never really convincingly feels like he is from the 1800’s with his f-bomb deliveries. Kevin Durand chews the scenery as the puffed up, almost comically accented and authoritative General, Craig Lauzon adds a sense of levity to the lead trading party trio and lastly Michael Pitt hams it up in a gradually insanity slipping role.
Overall, Ithaqua is a mediocre blend of mythological, undead horror and a survival Western. The lighting, location settings and practical nastiness is all strong and the performances commit to the material. However, it is held back by pacing problems, tonal clashes, weaker screenplay aspects and a lack of investment in its characters.
'Ithaqua' had its World Premiere at FrightFest London 2026 on August 29.
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