The Haunted Side of Higher Education
If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter in college and thought, “I feel like I’m being haunted by the ghosts of my bad decisions,” then Astral is the movie for you. Directed by Chris Mul in his feature debut, this sleek little British horror film combines metaphysics, academia, and demonic possession into one stylish, unnervingly intelligent ghost story — the kind that makes you question both your life choices and your sleep schedule.
Astral takes a premise that could have been pure nonsense — a university student opens a demonic portal through astral projection — and treats it with eerie sincerity. Think Flatliners meets Insidious, but with more tea, philosophy lectures, and emotional repression. And somehow, it works. It’s spooky, smart, and just self-serious enough that the dark humor hits even harder.
In short: it’s a film about a young man trying to find his dead mother and instead finding Satan. Relatable, really.
Plot: The Undergraduate Who Looked Too Far Beyond
The story opens with a tragedy — a mother’s mysterious death in the attic, witnessed by her young son. Years later, that son, Alex Harmann (Frank Dillane), has grown into a handsome, emotionally unavailable university student — the kind of guy who quotes Carl Jung unprompted and still manages to have girls interested in him.
After hearing a lecture about out-of-body experiences from a professor who looks like he’s been haunted since the Thatcher era, Alex decides to try astral projection to reconnect with his late mother. Because apparently, therapy is for people who don’t want demons.
His friends, naturally, mock him. (They’re university students; sarcasm is their religion.) But Alyssa (Vanessa Grasse) — his supportive, slightly infatuated classmate — believes in him, proving once again that women in horror movies have a type: emotionally damaged men who summon evil entities on purpose.
At first, Alex’s attempts at astral projection are harmless — a bit of twitching, a few flickering lights, maybe a whisper or two. Then the shadows start moving on their own. The spirits that follow him home go from “Did you see that?” to “That thing has horns and is trying to crawl inside my face.”
As the dark shapes grow bolder, Alex begins to unravel. He can’t sleep, his friends are terrified, and his home looks like a freshman dorm crossed with a haunted asylum. Eventually, he learns the truth: his mother wasn’t mentally ill — she was haunted by the same entity that’s now latched onto him. That entity just happens to be Asmodeus, the biblical demon of lust and destruction, known for possessing men who don’t take hints.
It all culminates in a séance, a possession, and a family reconciliation that’s both touching and traumatizing. Because nothing says bonding with your dad like realizing you both accidentally invited Satan to dinner.
Frank Dillane: The Ghost of Emotional Damage
Frank Dillane — yes, the same actor who played the perpetually high Nick Clark in Fear the Walking Dead — is a perfect choice for Alex. He’s got that haunted, jittery energy of someone who’s seen too much… or just hasn’t had enough coffee. His performance walks the fine line between skepticism and spiritual collapse, making Alex feel like a real person rather than just another horror protagonist with a death wish.
Dillane’s eyes do half the acting — wide, exhausted, and filled with the kind of cosmic dread you only get from dabbling in black magic or checking your student loan balance. When he finally cracks, it’s both terrifying and kind of hilarious: here’s a man who’s scientifically analyzing his own doom while it’s happening.
If you’ve ever thought, “What if Stephen Hawking had tried to exorcise a demon with a PowerPoint presentation?” — this is that movie.
Supporting Cast: The Calm Before the Curse
Vanessa Grasse (as Alyssa) gives the film its grounding warmth. She’s the heart to Alex’s increasingly possessed soul — brave, curious, and clearly wondering at every turn why she’s helping this guy instead of running far, far away. Their chemistry works because it’s understated; it feels like two people genuinely trying to make sense of something inexplicable.
Michael Ironside isn’t here this time, but Mark Aiken’s Dr. Lefler fills the “terrifying authority figure who definitely knows more than he’s saying” slot quite nicely. And Juliet Howland as the psychic medium delivers the kind of performance that should be studied in film schools under “When Your Side Character Outshines the Lead.” Her séance scene is a mix of tension and unintentional comedy — part exorcism, part improv night.
The Direction: Minimalism Meets Madness
Chris Mul’s direction is surprisingly restrained for a debut. Instead of jump scares and gore, Astral builds its horror through suggestion and atmosphere. There’s an icy calmness to the camera — the kind of visual stillness that makes you lean forward, knowing something awful is about to flicker in the corner.
The “shadow people” themselves are used sparingly, which makes them scarier. They’re the kind of darkness that doesn’t just fill a room — it waits for you in it. Every glimpse feels like a trick of the light until it’s too late.
The found-footage sequences — Alex recording his astral sessions — add a voyeuristic unease, like Paranormal Activitybut with an actual philosophy degree. And while the pacing occasionally drags, it gives the movie time to breathe — or, more accurately, to hold its breath in anticipation of the next metaphysical disaster.
Themes: Freud Meets Fear
What makes Astral stand out is that it’s not just about demons. It’s about grief, repression, and the unbearable weight of pretending you’re fine. Alex’s dive into the astral plane mirrors his descent into his own subconscious — the demons aren’t just literal, they’re personal.
There’s a twisted beauty in how the film ties together science, spirituality, and mental health. It asks: What if all those “shadow people” we see when we’re paralyzed by depression are real? What if sleep paralysis isn’t a neurological glitch but a supernatural side effect of living with unresolved trauma?
It’s the kind of movie that makes you question your sanity and then chuckle darkly about it. Because really, who among us hasn’t accidentally summoned Asmodeus in search of closure?
The Humor: Dry as a British Séance
For all its gloom, Astral has moments of quietly absurd humor — not intentional comedy, but the kind that sneaks up on you because life (and death) is ridiculous.
Like the scene where Alex’s friends mock his “scientific” approach to ghost hunting with the same energy as people mocking a guy who just bought crystals off Etsy. Or the moment when he calmly explains to a psychic that he’s being haunted by a demon with a ram’s head — as if he’s discussing a bad Tinder date.
Even the demon Asmodeus has comedic timing. Every time he appears, it’s less like The Exorcist and more like, “Hey, buddy, still sad about your mom? Mind if I ruin your life some more?”
The Ending: Catharsis with a Side of Cosmic Horror
When the film finally reveals that Alex’s mother wasn’t insane but tormented by Asmodeus, it lands with quiet devastation. The reconciliation between Alex and his father is tender — a moment of human warmth in a movie otherwise full of cold dread.
And yet, the final scene adds a perfect touch of unease: the realization that the haunting didn’t begin with Alex. It began long before — inherited, festering, waiting. It’s generational trauma, but make it supernatural.
You walk away both moved and mildly terrified to ever sleep again.
Final Verdict: Out-of-Body, In Its Own League
Astral is that rare indie horror film that dares to ask big, unsettling questions and mostly gets away with it. It’s cerebral but creepy, melancholic but engaging — like if Hereditary went to university and got a minor in existential philosophy.
Sure, it’s slow. Sure, it occasionally thinks it’s smarter than it is. But that’s part of its charm — it’s a film that tries, really tries, to make sense of death, grief, and cosmic darkness through the eyes of a broke college student with too much curiosity and not enough chill.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 astral projections gone horribly wrong.
Because in a world full of cheap scares, it’s refreshing to find a horror film that believes terror and tenderness can coexist — even if the devil himself is watching from the corner.
