Joe Swanberg produced a supernatural horror film. That is the strangest fact about “Yellow Eyes,” and it is not the one that matters. The film, directed by Jesse Korman from a script by Mickey Solis, runs 86 minutes and arrived digitally in the United States on August 18, 2026, through Screambox and Cineverse.
It is a possession story with a familiar shape: a couple, a house, and an old thing in the house that should have been left alone.
Trailer, via Horror Brains.
Julia and Brad Inherit a House
Nena Martins plays Julia. Michael Kunicki plays Brad. They are a young couple, and they inherit a rural New England property. What they find inside is not just furniture and debt. The house holds a cursed artifact, and the artifact hosts the spirit of a powerful demon.
That is the engine of “Yellow Eyes,” and it turns fast. The demon does not haunt the house so much as use it. Brad is the one it possesses. Julia is the one left standing.
Korman and Solis waste no time on the paperwork of grief. The inheritance is a fact, the relic is a fact, and the possession follows.
The Relic Does the Work
Horror films about objects live or die on the object. “Yellow Eyes” gives its relic a clear job: it hosts a spirit, and the spirit wants a body. That is a clean mechanic, and it keeps the plot from wandering.
The problem is that a relic is not a character. The film’s scares come from what the artifact does, not from what it is. The script treats the relic as a switch, and switches are only as frightening as the room they are thrown in.
An Exorcist, and a Short List of Names
Julia’s task is simple to state and hard to do: find an exorcist and save her husband. The film surrounds her with a small cast. Jimmy Chung plays Ronnie. William Derrick III plays The Doctor. Margo O’Donnell plays Lana. Brian Rooney plays Abbott Penrose. Joette Waters plays Gretchen.
That is a lot of names for a short film. The source lists them as character-actor pairings and little more. It does not say what any of them do beyond the roles they are assigned. The movie never builds a full world around Julia. It builds a corridor, and it walks her down it.
What the Cast Is Asked to Carry
| Character | Actor | Role as listed |
|---|---|---|
| Julia | Nena Martins | Wife; seeks an exorcist to save Brad |
| Brad | Michael Kunicki | Husband; possessed by the demon |
| Ronnie | Jimmy Chung | Supporting role |
| The Doctor | William Derrick III | Supporting role |
| Lana | Margo O’Donnell | Supporting role |
| Abbott Penrose | Brian Rooney | Supporting role |
| Gretchen | Joette Waters | Supporting role |
The table is the film’s whole architecture. Two leads, one possessed, one hunting help, and a ring of names around them. “Yellow Eyes” is not trying to be an ensemble piece. It is trying to be a two-hander with a demon in the middle, and the supporting cast exists to keep Julia moving.
Rural New England as a Closed Set
The setting is rural New England, and the film uses it the way possession stories usually do. Isolation is the point. The property is inherited, which means it is also a trap.
That choice is efficient. It also means “Yellow Eyes” has nowhere to go that the audience has not been. The house is old. The land is old. The thing in the house is older. Korman shoots the premise straight.
Screambox and Cineverse Get a Small Release
The digital release through Screambox and Cineverse fits the film’s scale. This is not a theatrical event. It is a streaming title with a clean hook and a short runtime, and it landed in August 2026.
That matters for how the film should be judged. “Yellow Eyes” is not competing with studio horror. It is competing with everything else on the service, and its best argument is that it does not waste your evening. The runtime is a promise, and the film keeps it.
The Possession Is the Point, Not the Relic
Here is where “Yellow Eyes” separates itself from the pile. The relic is a device. The possession is the story. Julia is not trying to destroy an object. She is trying to get her husband back, and the film knows that the horror is in the marriage, not the artifact.
That is the right instinct. It is also underexploited. The film gives Julia a clear goal and a short list of helpers, but it does not give her enough time with Brad before the demon takes him. Without that, the loss is stated rather than felt. The script makes Brad a vessel instead of a person, and the source gives Kunicki nothing else to work with.
The supporting players are similarly thin. Rooney’s Abbott Penrose and Derrick’s Doctor are names on a page, and the source does not say what they become on screen.
What Yellow Eyes Gets Right
The film’s discipline is its strongest asset. Korman and Solis set up a couple, a house, a relic and a possession, and they resolve that chain in 86 minutes. For a 2026 independent horror release, that restraint is worth noting.
The weakness is the same discipline turned against the film. “Yellow Eyes” is so focused on the mechanism that it forgets to make the mechanism hurt. The demon has a host. Julia has a mission. What the movie lacks is a scene that makes the audience understand what Brad was before he was taken.
“Yellow Eyes” is a competent, compact possession film with a clear premise. It is not a landmark of the genre, and it does not try to be.
The relic is the least interesting thing in it. Julia is the most. If Korman and Solis make another film in this world, they should spend less time on the artifact and more on the people it takes. The demon is powerful. The marriage should be, too.
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