They Wait In Shadows Movie Review by Matt Boiselle
They Wait In Shadows – written and directed by Sam Mason-Bell, and starring Charllie Bentley, Helen Oakleigh and Meghan Adara
Synopsis: Two sisters return to their home after the death of their mother, and manage to conjure up malevolent spirits via the use of a Ouija board.
The thing about grief is that it can drum up many images, feelings and repressions all at the same time, even presenting themselves as tactile in essence – it just depends on how powerful those manifested emotions can become. In Director Sam Mason-Bell’s creepy feature, “They Wait In Shadows”, the imagery is present and the mood is heavy – with that combination, something evil will soon be brewing for us all.
The story centers on two estranged sisters (Oakleigh & Adara) and their return to their former home after the passing of their mother, and the paranormal shenanigans they partook in back in the old days has a tendency to remember, and that’s where the spooky vibes begin to kick in. You see, the sisters when they were younger liked to mess around with a Ouija board, tempting the entities from the other side, and after all this time they’ve come back for a little check-up now that the ladies have (supposedly) moved on in their lives. What remains is a truly painful choice for the sisters themselves – come to grips with their crushing guilt or be doomed to endure it again until its finality.
Both Oakleigh and Adara work extremely well together as the sisters-at-odds, coming off as legit siblings and conveying the storyline of unresolved trauma and the attempt to regain one’s youth and what some people knew as normality. There are more than a few slowed-down moments in this presentation but it merely adds fuel to the engine one this starts to ramp up, providing some decent chills along the way. I can definitely recommend “They Wait In Shadows” to those looking to add a little temperature dip as the warmer months begin to swell.
The film will be available on digital streaming services on May 12th, 2026.