★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Casey Walker
Supernatural mayhem in 19th century Canada ensues in Hammer’s latest chiller.
Official Tubi FrightFest synopsis
Hammer returns with a gripping survival horror. Canada, the 1800s. American mercenary Cole Franklin is recruited as a hired gun at the remote outpost of Fort William, struggling to survive the decline of the fur trade. With dwindling supplies, the keepers of the Fort blackmail Cole into leading a trading party to a nearby Indigenous village, where they discover a massacre and encounter the remaining half-crazed inhabitants for the bloodshed. Though the trading party survives with minimal losses and returns to the Fort with a bonanza of food and furs, the supernatural force responsible for the carnage follows them back.
Review
In Hammer Films’ Ithaqua (Canada, 2026), Cole Franklin (Luke Hemsworth) has led a rough adult life, including for reasons that would put this review squarely into spoiler territory, which I will avoid. He’s hoping to make a better life now, married to indigenous woman Ahnung (Leena Robinson) and serving as a scout for a remote fur trade outpost in Canada.
Fate has other ideas in store for Franklin, his family, and the other residents of the outpost, though. As if the bitter winter weather itself was not harsh enough, no animals for food are to be found, and the local indigenous tribes have been mysteriously and sometimes gruesomely wiped out. Suffice it to say that supernatural events are at play, along with monsters of the human kind.
Director Casey Walker (The Void, In a Violent Nature), who cowrote the screenplay with Pascal Trottier and Peter Scott Vicaire, has crafted an outstanding entry in the subgenre of wild frontier fear fare. The main characters are wonderfully fleshed out, with many having backstories that can sway viewers’ levels of sympathy. The several dramatic subplots have true heft, and the dialogue is splendidly written.
Franklin’s success or failure at finding food for the outpost residents directly concerns the safety of his wife and her mother Nokomis (Pamela Matthews), and his allies are few and those putting pressure on him many. Hemsworth is terrific in the role, with plenty of opportunity to show his acting range. He heads up an excellent cast, with Robinson doing fine work as a strong character and Kevin Durand as confrontational British soldier Lieutenant Walker leading the sizable troupe of supporting players.
Walker’s work at the helm is strong throughout. Besides the aforementioned dramatic weight, the suspense builds nicely, and the action sequences are choreographed in an exciting manner. There’s gore galore, with great-looking practical effects work including makeup on display. Cinematographer Bryn McCashin captures the majestic outdoor scenery, the claustrophobia within the fort, and the bloody mayhem splendidly. Composer trio Blitz//Berlin provides a score that fits the proceedings to a tee.
Conclusion
With marvelous production values and top-notch work on both sides of the camera, Ithaqua is a fright-fare fanatic’s delight. Strongly recommended, the film is certain to nail a spot on my list of best horror movies of 2026.
Ithaqua screened as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026, which ran August 27–31 in London, U.K.