Film Review: Pretty Lethal (2026)
Badass ballerinas gettin' bloody
Hang On
You hit play on something like Pretty Lethal, not expecting a whole lot. It feels, from the advertisements, like a step above Tubi fodder. I love ‘bad’ horror, so this felt like the exact kind of thing I put on in the morning as background with my coffee. Hazelnut creamer, budgets, and screams in the air corn syrup blood soaks the screen, but that is not what this film delivers. It has more to say.
Synopsis:
It follows a group of ballerinas as they try to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition.
The Good:
There is a lot to love here. As much for what they didn’t do as what they did. You could feel a respect for this film from the start. Opportunities to be exploitive, to be hacky, to lean too far into one liners and tropes….missing. The story evolves. It’s not a complex narrative, but it takes its time; it doesn’t push. It’s remarkably self-aware and resists the pull to fall into a cliche. Instead, we get a reasonably empowering tale about a lesser-used protagonist group. It centers around not only great pain and endurance, but the truth of being an adolescent during that process. It deals on a subtextual level with loss while giving horror junies (myself) a steady dose of gore and action. I really feel like Kate Freund & Vicky Jewson are just getting started, but I’m going to watch for more work from them.
The cast was fun. Reasonably diverse without being patronizing. I enjoyed the lead, who was both empowered and still vulnerable as a person. I loved seeing Uma Thurman pop up and absolutely nail it, as always. She slid into character and occupied that space, exactly as she should. Impressed.
The Bad:
For an ‘Into the Woods’ style story, it could have done just a little more with the environment, but…it is what it is. There was a lot going on, and it would have been difficult to set those scenes up properly.
It’s a little fluff. Makes sense, because the angle is comedic in nature, but it stays light, a little repetitive, but not offensively so, and I would have loved a slightly more substantial climax.
Best Line:
“What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make herself throw up?”
- Self-aware, delivered with the right amount of empathy.
Verdict:
1 - 10: A score of 7.5 would be an average studio release
Technical: 7.5 - It was very clean and well done. For the budget it’s actually impressive.
Entertainment: 7.5 - I really enjoyed it. Nothing too attention grabbing but fun.
Genre: 7.75 - Slightly above average for revenge/survival horror.
IMDb Score: 5.8
Total: 7.65
Honestly, just slightly above average, but in this genre, that’s saying something. I’ll call it a pleasant surprise and one I’ll almost certainly watch again with friends.