Cameron Lewis, Daniel Alexander, Dara Abasute, Gale: The Yellow Brick Road, Hariet Isidor, horror, Karen Swan, Laura Kay Bailey, movies, Rachel Hassett, reviews, Sarah Feltham, Vivien Weigand
February 12, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Daniel Alexander
Culture Representation: Taking place in Kansas and in a twisted version of the fictional land of Oz, the horror film “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” (based on the short film “Gale: Stay Away From Oz”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one black person) representing the working-class and middle-class, in addition to characters that are mythical creatures.
Culture Clash: The granddaughter of “The Wizard of Oz’s” Dorothy Gale experiences terror after the granddaughter finds an occult-like book and visits Dorothy at a psychiatric facility.
Culture Audience: “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in seeing a horror interpretation of “The Wizard of Oz,” but “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” is just a bunch of derivative and boring horror clichés strung together in a nonsensical story.
“Gale: Yellow Brick Road” fails to bring any creativity or genuine scares in this extremely dull horror movie about “The Wizard of Oz’s” Dorothy Gale having a generational curse passed down to her granddaughter. The story is lifeless and incoherent. And the last 20 minutes of this 106-minute movie drag on in ways that seem like the filmmakers had several bad ideas on how to end the film and decided to include all of these bad ideas.
Directed by Daniel Alexander and written by Matthew R. Ford, “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” is based on the 2018 short film “Gale: Stay Away From Oz,” which was directed by Alexander and written by Alexander and Ford. Both movies are loosely inspired by “The Wizard of Oz,” so viewers have to be familiar with “The Wizard of Oz” to understand much of the jumbled symbolism and subpar dialogue in the “Gale” movies. “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” takes place in rural Kansas and in a twisted version of the land of Oz. “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” was actually filmed in Shropshire, England.
In “Gale: Yellow Brick Road,” young Emily Laughlin (played by Vivien Weigand) is about 10 or 11 years old when her mother Elizabeth (played by Sarah Feltham) dies. Emily’s father is not in her life. About 20 years later, Emily (played by Chloë Crump, who also starred in “Gale: Stay Away From Oz”) is living in Kansas and is a book author who is struggling to complete her latest book. Her best friend George (played by Cameron Lewis) is also her book agent. George is only seen talking to Emily over the phone.
George’s only purpose in the movie seems to be to try to cheer up Emily when she’s feeling insecure or sad. In a phone conversation that Emily and George have early on in the movie, Emily is feeling anxious over her writer’s block and is feeling despondent over the death of her mother. It’s later revealed that Emily’s mother committed suicide. George tells her to move on from her grief. “Don’t wait until you disappear,” George says to Emily.
Emily is in therapy and is being treated for spectrophobia, which is an intense fear of mirrors/reflections. Throughout the movie, there are images of mirrors being covered by red cloaks that resemble cloaks with riding hoods. Is this a horror story inspired by “Wizard of Oz” or “Little Red Riding Hood”?
Emily’s therapist Linda (played by Dara Abasuté) puts Emily under hypnosis. Emily sees herself in a wooded area with a mirror. It’s one of many scenes in the movie where Emily imagines herself in the woods, as she’s shrouded in fog and wearing a long white dress, as if she’s at a photo shoot for the cover of a Victorian romance novel.
When Emily is out of her hypnotic state, Linda tells Emily to remove a cloak from a full-length mirror in the room. Emily replies, “I can’t.” Emily then sees a ghoulish version of herself behind Linda. Emily screams. You might yawn with boredom at this weak attempt at a jump scare.
Emily has a box of her mother’s possessions that she finally opens after all these years. Inside the box is a journal-styled book that includes many occult illustrations. The book also has the inscriptions “Stay away from Oz” and “Begin at the beginning.” When Emily says, “Begin at the beginning” out loud, a turntable in the room suddenly plays, “There’s no place like home,” which is Dorothy’s most famous sentence from “The Wizard of Oz.” Is this supposed to be scary? It’s not.
It isn’t long before Emily notices the book has the name of her grandmother Dorothy Gale and a phone number. Emily calls the phone number, which is for the Wamego Home for the Differently Minded, a psychiatric facility in Wamego, Kansas. Emily gets voice mail and doesn’t leave a message. Emily looks up the home on the Internet and decides to see Dorothy in an unannounced visit.
When Emily arrives at the Wamego Home for the Differently Minded, she introduces herself to the chief administrator Dr. Appleton (played by Laura Kay Bailey) and tells her that she’s there to visit her grandmother Dorothy. Emily admits that she doesn’t know Dorothy and can’t describe what Dorothy looks like. Dr. Appleton sternly tells Emily that that there is no one by the name of Dorothy Laughlin at the facility.
Dr. Appleton also says that only family members are allowed to see patients by appointment only. When Emily shows Dr. Appleton the book with the phone number, Dr. Appleton insists that the phone number that Emily has is the facility’s old phone number that was disconnected years ago. It won’t be the last time that Emily’s perception of reality will be questioned.
When Emily tells Dr. Appleton that the maiden name of Emily’s mother was Gale, Dr. Appleton looks tense but allows Emily to visit with Dorothy (played by Karen Swan). Dr. Appleton says that she has been personally treating Dorothy, who is “all but mute” and who has a habit of clicking her heels together. (People familiar with “The Wizard of Oz” know that Dorothy in the movie has to click her heels together while wearing magical shoes, in order to go back home.) Dr. Appleton also mentions that Dorothy constantly draws but stopped two days ago.
Emily’s visit with Dorothy is bizarre and tedious. Dorothy doesn’t say anything at first to Emily. Dorothy clicks her heels together repeatedly. There are awkward silences. And the room has a full-length mirror with the same type of red cloak over it. Before Emily leaves, Dorothy suddenly speaks when she grabs Emily’s hand and warns, “Stay away from Oz.”
Emily feels unnerved by this visit and is about to leave in her car, which won’t start. Suddenly, a very creepy-looking employee named Eric (played by Hariet Isidor), who speaks slowly and has a vacant stare, appears at her car window and tells her, “A storm is beginning. Mrs. Appleton says you can come back inside. We have guest rooms for visitors who are traveling from far away.”
You can easily predict what happens next: Emily has more nightmares during her stay. She discovers something that Mrs. Appleton didn’t want her to find out. And when Mrs. Appleton tries to inject Emily with an unknown substance, Dorothy runs away and takes a rowboat to a wooded area that turns out to be a twisted version of Oz.
The rest of “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” is an irritating horror scam that goes back and forth in trying to fool viewers on what is “real” and what might be in Emily’s imagination. While in the woods, Emily encounters and befriends a strange-looking, non-verbal creature named Patches (played by Rachel Hassett and Feltham), which has multicolored updo braids, a mouth that is sewn shut, and is outfitted like some sort of voodoo doll. There’s also an attacking munchkin whose fate can easily be predicted.
People looking for other “Wizard of Oz” references in this terrible horror movie will be disappointed. There are more scenes in the woods than any scenes on a yellow brick road. There is no wizard in the movie. The only scarecrow in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” is a pathetic-looking scarecrow outside of the Wamego Home for the Differently Minded. This scarecrow doesn’t talk or move.
The appearance of a Tin Man character comes much later in the movie. And there is no Cowardly Lion character in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road,” but there is a monster in the film that looks like a combination of a giant black horse and a wildcat. There’s also a witch named Mombi whose alter ego is exactly who you think it is. These creatures have no origin stories and do not appear until the last third of the film, when it turns into a pile-on of stupid plot twists and fake-out endings.
The performances in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” are mediocre-to-awful. Crump (who is British in real life) is supposed to be portraying an American, but Crump’s British accent can occasionally be heard when she’s saying the movie’s drab and uninteresting dialogue. Her acting is not the worst in the movie, but Crump’s performance is very bland for someone depicting the protagonist in a horror movie.
Because it’s so easy to spot the story’s villain(s) in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road,” there is no suspense. The costumes for the movie’s creatures portrayed by actors aren’t very scary and just look cluttered. The movie’s visual effects are satisfactory for a low-budget film, but they aren’t as terrifying as they’re intended to be.
The low-quality film editing in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” makes the movie’s disjointed story even worse. About the only thing that’s adequate about “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” is the movie’s musical score, even though much of it sounds like generic horror music that’s in the public domain. Unfortunately, it’s been announced that director Alexander is making a “Gale” trilogy of feature films. There’s nothing in “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” that indicates any sequels are worth watching. You have been warned.
Fathom Entertainment released “Gale: Yellow Brick Road” for a one-night-only limited engagement in U.S. cinemas on February 11, 2026.