Reality and fantasy blur into something truly horrifying in the new trailer for Family, the feature debut from writer-director Benjamin Finkel. And judging by the footage, Finkel is wasting no time proving he knows how to create a seriously unsettling nightmare.

Family arrives in limited theaters and on major rental platforms September 25, 2026, just in time for Halloween season.

The film follows 10-year-old Johanna, who becomes convinced that her parents are trying to kill her. Believing a sinister spirit is behind the terrifying events unfolding around her, Johanna retreats deeper into a nightmare world where her darkest fears begin to take shape.

Cameron Dawson Gray stars as Johanna, with Ruth Wilson (Victorian Psycho) and Ben Chaplin (Mrs. Davis, Murder By Numbers) playing her parents.

What makes Family particularly disturbing is its perspective. The story unfolds through the eyes of a frightened child as Johanna struggles with anxiety, fear, and her father’s worsening illness.

For Finkel, the material is deeply personal. He began writing the story when he was just 14 years old, following the loss of his father to cancer. That experience helped shape a horror story centered around one of the genre’s most emotionally devastating themes: grief.

But Family isn’t relying solely on its emotional weight. The trailer makes it clear that Finkel has a serious talent for visceral horror and nightmare imagery.

And then there’s Ruth Wilson.

The actress appears increasingly unnerving throughout the trailer, with the film transforming familiar family spaces and figures into something far more sinister.

Family previously premiered at SXSW in 2024, where it left audiences seriously rattled. The film was praised for its oppressive atmosphere, disturbing imagery, skin-crawling sound design, and uncanny approach to horror.

Finkel appears to have a particular talent for taking ordinary silhouettes, movements, and sounds and twisting them into something deeply wrong. The result is a film that seems determined to make the familiar feel completely unsafe.

Based on the new trailer, Family looks like one to keep firmly on your Halloween watchlist.

Watch the trailer above and prepare to meet Johanna’s nightmare.