“Some things don’t stay buried. They wait.”

Horror has always thrived on inherited fear.

Curses passed from parent to child. Sins revisited across generations. Ancient evils clawing their way into the present through bloodlines unable to escape the past. Yet for all the genre’s fascination with ancestry and buried trauma, relatively few Australian horror films have explored those ideas through an authentically First Nations lens.

That is where It Will Find You finds its greatest strength.

Directed by Chris Broadbent and Enzo Tedeschi, this independent supernatural horror may operate within familiar genre frameworks, but it distinguishes itself through cultural specificity, emotional sincerity and a willingness to foreground Aboriginal storytelling rather than simply use it as aesthetic dressing.

The result is a film that occasionally shows the limitations of its budget yet consistently punches above its weight through atmosphere, mythology and heart.

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The Horror of Inheritance

The story follows Emily, a young woman whose decision to move out of home inadvertently awakens a generational curse dormant for twenty-five years. As those around her begin dismissing her experiences as paranoia or psychological instability, Emily is forced to reconnect with her ancestry and confront the vengeful “giniirr” — a supernatural force demanding repayment for ancestral sins.

The premise itself is not radically new. Horror cinema has explored family curses countless times before. Yet It Will Find You succeeds because it roots those familiar ideas within cultural identity and intergenerational memory.

This is not simply a monster story.

It is a story about disconnection.

About fractured lineage.

About the danger of severing oneself from history and community.

The supernatural threat becomes inseparable from cultural trauma, giving the film emotional resonance beyond its scares.

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A Powerful First Nations Voice

Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of It Will Find You is the way it foregrounds Aboriginal mythology without reducing it to exotic spectacle.

Too often genre cinema approaches Indigenous spirituality from the outside looking in, transforming sacred traditions into mysterious background texture for predominantly non-Indigenous narratives. Here, the mythology feels integrated into the emotional fabric of the story itself.

The film understands that horror works best when the supernatural carries symbolic weight.

The “giniirr” is frightening not merely because it stalks or kills, but because it represents unresolved history returning to demand acknowledgement. The curse operates almost as a manifestation of generational pain — something inherited, suppressed and ultimately impossible to ignore.

That thematic undercurrent gives the film surprising depth.

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Kylah Day Holds the Centre

At the heart of the film is a compelling performance from Kylah Day.

Day carries much of the film’s emotional burden, grounding the supernatural chaos with vulnerability and determination. Emily’s fear feels genuine precisely because the performance never drifts into exaggerated horror theatrics. Instead, Day plays the role with an emotional realism that keeps the audience tethered to her experience even when the narrative veers into more familiar genre territory.

There is also something quietly powerful in the way the character’s journey mirrors the film’s broader thematic concerns. Emily is not merely fighting a monster; she is attempting to reclaim understanding of who she is and where she comes from.

That search for identity becomes the film’s true emotional engine.

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Atmosphere Over Excess

Working with a clearly limited budget, Broadbent and Tedeschi wisely avoid overreaching.

Rather than relying heavily on visual effects spectacle, It Will Find You leans into atmosphere, tension and suggestion. Shadows linger longer than expected. Silence carries weight. The Australian landscape itself becomes part of the unease, simultaneously beautiful and isolating.

There are moments where the film’s ambitions visibly stretch against its financial constraints, particularly in some of the larger supernatural sequences. Yet there is also a sincerity to the filmmaking that compensates for those rough edges.

The directors understand mood.

More importantly, they understand restraint.

The horror often works best not when the film explains everything, but when it allows uncertainty and folklore to bleed together.

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A Familiar Framework with a Distinct Identity

There are undeniably moments where It Will Find You falls into recognisable supernatural horror rhythms. Audiences familiar with modern possession and curse narratives may anticipate certain narrative turns before they arrive.

Yet dismissing the film on those grounds would overlook what makes it noteworthy.

Its identity.

Its perspective.

Its voice.

The film does not reinvent supernatural horror, but it does enrich it by telling a story rarely explored within mainstream Australian genre cinema. That alone gives it significance.

And when the emotional sincerity, strong central performance and cultural depth align, the film becomes genuinely affecting.

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The Prognosis:

It Will Find You may not possess the polish or scale of larger studio horror productions, but its strengths lie elsewhere. Through committed performances, effective atmosphere and a powerful engagement with First Nations storytelling, the film transforms familiar supernatural ingredients into something culturally resonant and emotionally grounded.

A horror film shaped not simply by ghosts and curses, but by ancestry, memory and the lingering scars of inherited trauma.

Even when uneven, it remains compelling.

And in a genre landscape increasingly hungry for fresh voices and perspectives, that matters.

• Saul Muerte