Anna Borchert, Ashley Terpstra, Austin Rhodes, Barbara Zagrodnik, Brandon A. Smith, Briyan Easley, Bronsonn Taylor, Darby Cappillino, Donte Muse, Georgia, horror, Justin Nguyen, Kate Dailey, movies, Olivia Hallan, Patrick Harney, reviews, Robert Hollocks, Ted Raimi, The Observance
February 17, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Robert Hollocks
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in the U.S. state of Georgia, the horror film “The Observance” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A woman wakes up from a five-year coma to find out that her husband and their daughter have been brainwashed into joining a religious cult of secret serial killers.
Culture Audience: “The Observance” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in horror movies about cults, but this low-quality flick will either make viewers bored or annoyed that they wasted their time watching it.
“The Observance” is a terribly made horror movie about a woman fighting to save her brainwashed husband and teenage daughter from a cult of serial killers. All the bad acting is ghastlier than the movie’s weak scares. The last third of the movie is particularly atrocious and disjointed, with choppy plot developments and a showdown that is nothing but a pile-on of moronic ideas.
Directed by Robert Hollocks, “The Observance” was co-written by Amy Rhinehart Bailey and Hollocks. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in the U.S. state of Georgia “The Observance” was filmed on location in Augusta, Georgia. “The Observance” is the type of movie that looks like the movie’s filmmakers couldn’t think creatively past the generic concept of the movie and just decided to fill in the blanks with boring and repetitive scenarios, with a very sloppy and rushed conclusion.
“The Observance” begins by showing an elderly man named Rucker Colton (played by Briyan Easley) being chased through a wooded area at night by five people wearing sinister-looking white cat masks. Rucker is cornered near a cliff or a ravine. And what does he do? He jumps over in a desperate act of suicide.
The movie then abruptly cuts to a scene taking place at a casual eatery named Rhinehart’s Oyster Bar. A woman named Madison Neubauer (played by Kate Dailey) is doing a video chat with her husband Gabriel Neubauer (played by Patrick Harney) while he is at their farmhouse. That evening, Madison and Gabriel (who are both in their late 30s or early 40s) have plans to attend some type of business event where Madison is getting an award.
“The Observance” is so badly written, it’s never explained in the movie what Madison actually does that would get her a business award. The only thing business-related that is revealed about Madison is that she inherited her farm property from her father, and she has been refusing aggressive offers to sell the farm. The house ownership is in Madison’s and Gabriel’s names, but the surrounding farm land (which has been barren for years) belongs to Madison. She also has a higher income than Gabriel, who is currently unemployed.
Gabriel is at home and is supposed to be getting ready for this important awards event. But, as he tells Madison in their phone conversation, he just found out that he has a big job interview the next day, and he wants to spend some time preparing for it on his computer. He says he has to do some research that he’ll need for the interview. Gabriel tells Madison the worst-case scenario is they would have to go to the event separately, and he would arrive after she gets there.
While at Rhinehart’s Oyster Bar, Madison gets approached by someone who has been hounding her to sell her farm property. His name is Billy Gilroy (played by Justin Nguyen) and he once again says he wants her to sell her farm property. Madison tells him that she will never sell the farm.
Billy smirks and says that he knows that Madison listed the farm that morning for property development. Madison leaves in a huff. As she heads out the door, a scruffy bearded man sitting at the bar, who apparently overheard this conversation, calls Madison a “greedy bitch” for putting her farm land on a property development list.
When Madison goes home to get ready for the event, she is dismayed to see that Gabriel is still using his computer. Gabriel and Madison have a daughter named Nia Neubauer (played by Olivia Hallan), who’s about 11 years old at this point in the story. In the background, the TV is on, and the local news is doing a report about a controversial religious group that’s in the area.
Gabriel tells Madison to go to the event and he’ll catch up with her later. It’s nighttime and pouring rain when Madison starts driving by herself to the event. Madison thinks Gabriel is being inattentive and inconsiderate. Madison and Gabriel argue over the phone while she’s driving to the event. (She’s using a hands-free phone set.) Madison never makes it to the event because a large freight truck crashes into her car.
The movie then fast-forwards to five years later. The car accident has put Madison in a coma for the past five years, but now she has regained consciousness. She has large scars on her face and on her back. The attending physician Dr. Rothwell (played by Donte Muse) tells her that the scars may never fully heal. Madison also has a permanent limp as a result of the accident.
Dr. Rothwell prescribes medication called Delphatrex. He tells Madison that she must take Delphatrex every four hours. She is given a body patch to administer Delphatrex and some backup injector pens. Dr. Rothwell warns that if she’s fails to take Delphatrex every four hours, she could slip back into a coma. He adds that because Delphatrex is considered sleep medication, Madison can no longer drive.
When Madison goes home, she’s in a for a shock. A bearded man she’s never seen before is doing yard work on the front lawn. He introduces himself as Jonah (played by Alec James) and asks Madison in a creepy voice: “Do you believe God has given you a second chance?” Madison is taken aback by this question.
A black-haired woman, who is clad in all-black clothes, appears beside Jonah and appears to be his wife or partner. Her name is Athaliah (played by Anna Borchert), who immediately looks like she’s up to no good. As Madison goes inside the house, she notices that Jonah and Athaliah look very comfortable in these surroundings, as if they own the house. And that’s when Athaliah tells Madison that Jonah and Athaliah now own the house.
Madison is shocked and outraged and goes to find Gabriel, who apparently didn’t bother to pick her up from the hospital. Gabriel is emotionally detached from Madison and explains that Jonah and Athaliah don’t technically own the house, but he’s let them live there as if they own it. Jonah and Athaliah now live in the master bedroom, while Gabriel and Madison have to stay in a guest bedroom.
Gabriel calmly tells Madison that Jonah is the leader of The Observance, a church that Gabriel and Nia joined while Madison was in a coma. Nia (played by Darby Cappillino), who is now about 16 years old, is also enrolled in The Observance School, which opened three years before. Madison erupts in fury when Gabriel tells her all this information and says that Nia is attending the school on a financial-need scholarship.
Madison knows that before her car accident, the family’s finances were stable enough for them not to need financial assistance for any school tuition. She demands that Gabriel tell her where their money went if they can’t afford Nia’s school tuition. Gabriel is vague and evasive.
Madison also notices that a big ugly barn was built near the house. This barn was built while she was in a coma. When Madison asks Gabriel why the barn was built, he tells her that the barn is for gatherings of Observance members. Needless to say, all these changes have a negative effect on the marriage of Gabriel and Madison.
Meanwhile, Nia is standoffish and outwardly resentful of Madison being back in the household. Nia treats Madison like an unwelcome stranger. Later, Madison finds out that Nia was not allowed to visit Madison in the hospital while Madison was in a coma. Nia was also told that Madison had abandoned Nia when Madison got into the car accident.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who is behind these lies and manipulations. And it’s also very easy to know that The Observance cult members are the same people chasing after their victims at night in those creepy cat masks. The problem is that “The Observance” moves at a sluggish pace in the first two-thirds of the movie and repeats scenarios that just drag to the inevitable section of the movie when there’s a violent power struggle between the “believers” and the “non-believers.”
The only thing that the movie reveals about the Observance religious doctrine is that the Observance cult members believe Jesus was only a high prophet, not the true Messiah. The Observance cult is just a checklist of clichés about cults in scripted movies. They have a leader who uses religion to control his followers, who are convinced that he is some type of messiah. They have gatherings where they drink blood. And they kill anyone who defies the cult or tries to expose the cult.
In “The Observance,” the cult members also kill people for their farm land and burn down farmhouses. And sometimes, the cult members kill each other for apparently no reason at all. This happens when a cult member named Frank Kelly (played by Bronsonn Taylor) goes into a trance-like state and kills his teenage son Ezra Kelly (played by Brandon A. Smith) by drowning him.
Madison investigates more about the cult to try to get the cult out of her family’s lives. She enlists the help of her attorney Richard Abernathy (played by Ted Raimi), who tells Madison that the cult has infiltrated many parts of this city. Another supporting character is Dr. Teresa O’Sullivan (played by Barbara Zagrodnik), who works in a medical lab, which is a job that comes in handy when someone wants to do a scientific test to find out exactly what the Observance members are drinking during their cult gatherings.
A cranky old U.S. Army veteran named Rhodes (played by Austin Rhodes) has some information that might or might not be helpful to Madison. However, the real purpose of the Rhodes character is for the movie to show what happens to him, not who he is as a person. What happens to Rhodes is the only part of the movie that’s not completely predictable, but it’s not completely surprising either.
If this cult is so dangerous and has been under suspicion, where is law enforcement? Apparently, the FBI only bothered to send two agents to investigate in this unnamed city: Helena Townsend (played by Ashley Terpstra) is the prickly one in charge, while her sidekick Agent Callahan (played by Nico Feula) is more passive and slightly sarcastic. Helena knows and likes Richard, but Helena is hostile to Madison during their first interactions with each other.
“The Observance” not only has substandard filmmaking on a technical and creative level (the screenplay and direction are disjointed; the film editing and visual effects are tacky), but the movie is also brought down by some truly amatuerish and stilted performances by most of the cast members. Dailey isn’t the worst, but she overacts in some scenes where she doesn’t need to overact, and she’s lackluster in scenes where she needed more authentic-looking emotions. Ted Raimi (who is the brother of famous filmmaker Sam Raimi) is the only cast member who gives an adequately believable performance, but his Richard character is only in the movie for less than 15 minutes.
“The Observance” has some fleeting scenes where Madison has nightmares. None of it is scary. The movie also has a pseudo homoerotic tangent where Athaliah seems to have a thing for touching Madison’s face as if she wants to kiss Madison. At one point, Athaliah licks the side of Madison’s face. None of it looks sexy.
The movie really falls apart when certain characters suddenly go through drastic personality switches and changes in attitude that are too quick to look believable. Helena also makes some horrible decisions that no self-respecting FBI agent would make. And the fight scenes in the movie are a little pathetic at how phony they look.
“The Observance” fails to bring any originality to what’s supposed to be a horror story about a homicidal cult. The movie’s characters are so hollow, there’s hardly anything revealed about them by the end of the movie, except who lives and who dies. And the only significant thing viewers will learn is that they won’t care to see this abysmal movie again.
Beyond Casual Media released “The Observance” in select U.S. cinemas on February 13, 2026.