Kick On Review (2026 Fantastic Fest) - Nick Kozakis' drug fuelled survival thriller is an ultra gory blast

With outrageous practical effects and precious little plot, this insane midnight movie is bursting with excruciating injury. Imagine if Lucio Fulci had directed Green Room… on crack.

Encouraged by her ailing sister, party girl Eden is determined to squeeze every gram of hedonism from an evening out. Resolving to “kick on” after a dance floor brawl, Eden and her posse embark on a cocaine side quest to score at the high-rise drug den of twitchy tweaker Ray, the offspring of a ruthless Melbourne kingpin.

Pressured into necking expensive booze and hoovering up extra sweet nose candy, the friends are soon off their tits and out of their depth. Ray loves crack pipes and shotguns, and his drug-fuelled paranoia creates a cluster fuck that leaves them fighting for survival. Under siege and over a barrel, Eden and her mates must embrace animalistic violence if they are to see another dawn.

This balls-out B-movie bloodbath is stylish, spiteful, and streamlined. Kozaki keeps tight control of tone and velocity as he slaughters his excellent young cast with a feral exuberance for the ages. While the turbo-charged carnage is consistently jaw-dropping, it is the craftsmanship, casting, and dedication to genre expectations that make this astonishingly violent flick so enjoyable.

Self-aware and sustained by shock tactics, Kick On wallows in its own deviant cineliteracy, cannibalising the legacy of the siege picture rather than canonising it. Instead of leaning into homage and lazy plagiarism, it has the confidence to present a thin premise and ramify it with unapologetic levels of grisly theatrics. As a consequence, it is as entertaining as it is egregious.

For this approach to work, the action must be compact and tactile, and the gore practical, inventive, and slickly executed. Fortunately, Kozakis’ rowdy crowd-pleaser smashes it out of the park on all fronts. The confined environment is exploited mercilessly, where everything is fair game as a weapon of material destruction and the plethora of bodily injuries, featuring the messiest head traumas since Irréversible, are next-level gruesome.

Prosthetics designer Larry Van Duynhoven follows up his work on Furiosa, Mortal Kombat and Bring Her Back with the deranged joie de vivre of vintage Tom Savini. He is definitely one to keep an eye on, unless he is holding a tin can lid.

As mentioned, the cast are exemplary across the board, turning in performances more than capable of carrying the carnage. Nikolai Nikolaeff’s petulant crack merchant Ray is pitch perfect. Desperate for paternal recognition and never more than an arse hair away from manslaughter, Nikolaeff handles the sweaty mood swings with controlled assurance, adding unexpected layers of vulnerability to his antagonism.

Kick On isn’t perfect; indeed, some of the late plot developments are too ambitious in terms of gangland influence. However, as a tense siege thriller that slakes bloodthirst with lethal efficiency, it’s bang on the money. Frenzied and fun, it’s the ideal movie to throw on late at night with friends over a few beers.

★★★★

US Premiere on Sep 19th at 2026 Fantastic Fest/Markella Kavenagh, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Jacek Koman, Ras-Samuel, Nikita Chronis, Thom Green, Eddie Baroo, Julian Weeks, Kaitlyn Boyé / Dir: Nick Kozakis / Umbrella Entertainment / Blue Finch Films