Panic Fest: Demonetize is a spooky satire of influencer culture
Panic Fest 2026 just wrapped up at Screenland Armour in KC. The yearly homegrown genre festival is a delightful cavalcade of feature films hitting theaters soon, and some with releases further down the road. Read all of our coverage of these debuts.
As the audience settled into their seats in Screenland’s main theater for the world premiere of Demonetize, the second feature from director and co-writer Alexander Boyd Watson, none of us were quite sure what to expect. A biting take on influencer culture? A deep dive into the legitimacy of ghost hunt television? Demonetize is both, with some genuine scares thrown into the mix.
The premise is simple: Out-of-work “Ghost Pros” Martin (Sean Carrigan) and Terrence (Matty Cardarople) offer a challenge to the YouTubers of the world: Survive a night in a haunted house, and you’ll win $100,000.
Five answer the call, checking off every major Youtuber trope in the process: Brie (Alice Wen), creator of “the most viral song ever”; Paul Cory (Cherdleys), an obvious stand-in for The Worst Youtuber-Turned-Boxer You Can Think Of; Tara (Lexi Collins), a ditzy blonde known for storytime and makeup content; Spencer (Juliano Hodges), a tech reviewer; and Jane (co-writer Janine Hogan), a retired Youtuber who spends most of her time making pottery and staying out of the public eye. Rounding out the cast are horror icon Doug Jones and Dropout favorite Kimia Behpoornia.
After a bit of necessary exposition (the haunted house belonged to a family of kidnappers/cannibals whose angry spirits still haunt the home), the YouTubers get locked in, and the Ghost Pros retreat to the safety of their van to observe.
At points, the movie feels like watching a group of randomly-selected coworkers attempting to solve an escape room, tipping the tone decidedly into the “comedy” end of the horror-comedy spectrum. That chemistry really shines in the initial moments of the night. The YouTubers’ shift in tone when their camcorders are turned on and recording content, versus their unfilmed interpersonal interactions, feels genuine- after all, even regular folks sometimes have to paste on a smile for the sake of professional networking.
As the scares (and deaths) escalate, that shift is magnified when Spencer has to flip between reacting to a grisly wound and turning the camera—and the fabricated “Don’t forget to like and subscribe” YouTuber voice—back on to fulfill content-creation demands.
The script and story are timely, which may be Demonetize’s weakest point. Will the movie still feel as funny and engaging a year from now? Three years from now? Was watching the movie in a full theater, packed with horror fans as well as the movie’s cast and crew, a key part of the magic? Only time will tell, but I hope to see more from writers Hogan and Watson soon.
Of note from the end credits: “No AI was used to make this film. This film may not be used to train AI. FUCK AI.” That’s a filmmaking philosophy we should all be able to get behind.
