Frightfest London 2025: ‘Healing Andy’ Review
Stars: Matthew Kay, Frederick Lysegaard, Gemma Acosta, Samuel Nunes de Souza, Elliott Eason, Lucia Saavedra, Nina Dulac, Charlie Taylor | Written and Directed by Villablanca
After his friend gets his heart broken, a social media influencer takes him on a trip away to Italy with a group of friends, but to ‘heal’ him. After some partying, things soon start to go downhill and the group are worried for their lives.
I’m a big fan of found footage movies, horror or otherwise, and I’ve said that many times before, so any time I get the chance to check one out, especially from Frightfest, I will jump at it. Healing Andy could easily be classified as horror, and it is, but it’s not your typical genre found footage movie, and that’s a good thing. There’s plenty of horror found footage that looks and sounds the same as many other films in the genre. Healing Andy is part comedy, part drama, part horror and with a little bit of sci-fi, but somehow it all works.
For much of its runtime, Healing Andy feels like a ‘lads’ or ‘bro’s’ holiday film (all on iPhone obviously), the term bro’s is used A LOT, but don’t let that put you off. I’m never a fan of long scenes of people getting drunk or high on drugs, at least in part because I think it’s really hard to act that way and not many actors do it well. And also because people are generally annoying after taking drugs or getting drunk but thankfully these scenes are kept relatively short and the characters aren’t too annoying. I can see some viewers not exactly liking the main group of characters though. That young (ish) group of male friends can easily irritate, but I found them okay. At least to the point that I wanted to see them survive their ordeal to some extent.
This is not an all-out comedy, but there are a few laughs here or there. I was ready to complain about a fake beard Andy wears, but it turns out to be a bit of an ongoing joke. I also enjoyed the Home Alone (one of my very favourite movies) homage with the hand-drawn map and booby trap ideas. As for horror, it all kind of leads up to the final twenty minutes or so, and these final moments are the best of the whole film (although the actual final few minutes are a little anticlimactic).
Those final twenty minutes are scary, create plenty of tension and are unpredictable. This film doesn’t have a problem going down a slightly weird route, and that’s a positive thing. The film’s score in the last third is excellent too. Scores don’t always work with found footage, but the eerie sounds really helped with the atmosphere and ramped up the scares.
Another thing that Healing Andy and its filmmakers get right is the use of the camera/phone. We change between camera footage and social media footage, with likes and comments on screen included. And most importantly, this gives us a reason for the camera to always be on. It’s made clear at the start of the movie that one of the lead characters is moderately famous on social media, so he always wants the camera on. That footage will benefit him. And when it doesn’t, the script at least gives a reason for the camera to keep rolling.
Of the main cast, Gemma Acosta as Ginger gives a suitably crazy performance that could have leaned too much into the comedy side of things, but the inexperienced actress does well to stay away from that and help keep the character a little more grounded.
Found footage fans will no doubt enjoy Healing Andy as it offers up something different from the norm. The talented cast helps make this feel as real as possible and the script keeps things going at a good pace. Be sure to check it out when it’s available.
*** 3/5
Healing Andy screened as part of this year’s London Frightfest.
