Compliance is a twisty and disturbing found footage thriller steeped in our conspiracy-fueled culture (Fantastic Fest 2026)
I'll just say this immediately. Writer/director Kyle Mangione-Smith's found footage thriller, Compliance, is a feel-bad movie. It uses a rape to kick off a larger conspiracy plot that's stepped in headlines, podcasts, and videos that have become so ingrained in our culture. Compliance is inventive in its narrative, and it has strong performances from its leads, but it's certainly not an easy watch.
The film stars Megan Wilcox as Sam. She works as a PR representative for a start-up travel/hotel company called UVisit. In the opening minutes, her boss, Harry (Charlie Wood), calls her late at night and sends her files about the rape of a young woman named Sarah (Lindsey Normington), which occurred at one of the hotels. From the get-go, it's likely that this movie won't be for everyone. Viewers hear Sarah's horrific 911 call, and then they see images of large bruises on her neck and her body. Meanwhile, Sam, who generally has a good heart, wants to do whatever she can to protect Sam and comfort her, while Harry just wants to throw money at Sarah to hush her up and save his company from a PR nightmare.
All of this happens within the film's first few minutes, but as the runtime ticks forward through video calls, security camera footage, laptop screens, and text messages, Sam begins to sense that something just isn't right. Not only does she have to deal with a boss who confronts her for defending a rape victim, but she eventually gets sucked into a much, much deeper conspiracy. To say much more about it would spoil too much of the film's many twists and surprises.
Despite the very difficult subject matter, some of which is shown on screen, the movie has two great performances by Wilcox and Normington. Their roles and what their characters endure are challenging, to say the least, and they give the emotional weight to their performances that the film deserves. Wilcox is especially good as the lead, and you really feel for everything her character goes through, while Normington's character will continue to surprise viewers.
Additionally, though this is a found footage film, how it tells the story feels fresh and inventive. It's told through so many different angles, sometimes simultaneously. For instance, security camera footage in a hotel parking lot will show on-screen, alongside Sam's text messages to Sarah. There's a lot of creative narrative techniques at play here, and Mangione-Smith deserves credit for his storytelling prowess and making a found footage film feel fresh.
Meanwhile, this is a film fueled by conspiracies that have festered online for the last decade, at least, with eventual shots of podcasters and influencers talking about one conspiracy theory after the next, including pedophilia and people in power, which certainly resonates in the context of the Epstein files. However, the film's second half gets a bit lost in the weeds. There's a heck of a lot going on, and not all of it fully makes sense. There's a web that eventually entangles Sam, but the forces behind it are murky at best. Maybe that's the point? Still, viewers deserve a little more detail to go on to make the rest of the film feel at least somewhat believable.
Compliance is a found footage film that feels original and innovative, but it's subject matter and how far it goes, even from the beginning, is tough to stomach. I'd have a hard time recommending this to the average viewer, but for those willing to sit through some brutal sequences, have at it. This is a film that responds to conspiracies and a culture that's online way, way too much. It spirals down the rabbit hole and gets a bit lost in the process, but this movie is certainly anything but tame.
Compliance recently screened at Fantastic Fest 2026.
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