Pretty (2026) Review: Ambitious, Strange & Genuinely Interesting!

Independent filmmaking is often associated with limitations, but there is something fascinating about seeing just how far one filmmaker can stretch those limitations through sheer ambition. Pretty, a 123-minute arthouse psychological horror film, is essentially the work of Metecan Duren, who serves as the film’s director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, and composer. For a micro-budget passion project, this is an enormous undertaking. More importantly, Pretty is not a small film in terms of ideas. It is packed with supernatural mythology, psychological horror, violent confrontations, unusual characters, and a surprisingly elaborate story about beauty, obsession, desire, sacrifice, and the dangerous need to be adored.

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The film revolves around Pretty, an eccentric young woman who becomes connected to the ghost of a murdered girl. Her curiosity surrounding the murder gradually turns into an obsession as she attempts to understand what happened and how a mysterious Rabbit entity is connected to the events around her. What initially appears to be a ghost story gradually expands into something far stranger, involving family secrets, jealousy, violence, and a mythology that connects Pretty herself to everything happening around her.

Before discussing the film itself, Duren deserves genuine appreciation for the sheer amount of responsibility he took upon himself. Making any feature film is difficult. Making a two-hour movie while personally handling almost every major creative and technical department requires an extraordinary amount of commitment. And Pretty is not a film that simply stretches a minimal story across two hours. There is always something happening: new pieces of information are introduced, characters are developed, the mythology continues to expand, and the film eventually moves into more violent and intense horror territory.

One of the strongest aspects of Pretty is its atmosphere. The locations have a personality of their own, particularly the contrast between the dimly lit interiors and the outdoor environments illuminated by harsh halogen and street lighting. The streets at night have a strange, isolated quality, while the house and the forest surrounding it gradually become integral to the film’s horror identity. The stories and warnings surrounding the forest, alongside the mythology introduced throughout the narrative, help create the feeling that Pretty is living beside something ancient and dangerous without fully understanding it.

The Rabbit mythology is also far more elaborate than one might initially expect. Rather than presenting an unknown supernatural entity that simply kills people, Duren attempts to build an entire mythology around it. Without revealing the film’s major discoveries, the Rabbit’s story is connected to beauty that was taken away, a corrupted desire to be seen and admired, and an ancient supernatural bargain in which nothing can ever be received without something else being sacrificed.

This gives this film a more interesting thematic foundation than a straightforward supernatural slasher. The Rabbit is not merely something hunting the protagonist. Its story eventually becomes intertwined with Pretty’s own desires, her family history, and the film’s recurring fascination with attention and adoration. The idea of becoming something distant yet visible to everyone, almost like a star that can be admired but never reached, gives the film an intriguing interpretation of beauty and fame. The horror ultimately comes from the price attached to desire: how much can someone ask for before the cost becomes greater than the wish itself?

I also loved the film’s soundtrack. Duren’s electronic and techno-influenced compositions give several sequences additional energy and personality. There are moments where the music becomes an important part of the experience, particularly when watching the film with headphones. The soundtrack contributes greatly to the film’s unusual identity and occasionally gives the imagery a hypnotic quality. The overall sound design itself has room for refinement, especially in terms of balance, texture, and creating a more immersive environment, but what has been achieved remains commendable considering the nature of the production.

Another interesting choice is the film’s explicit division into three acts. Pretty literally announces its structural transitions through text on screen, creating a clear progression from setup to escalation and eventually resolution. I liked this choice because the film itself contains a considerable amount of information, and the chapter-like divisions give the audience some structural guidance as the narrative becomes increasingly complicated. At the same time, this is also where the film has room for improvement.

There is an ambitious story here, but the storytelling does not always communicate that ambition with the necessary clarity or cinematic precision. Throughout the film, there are instances of digital immediacy and underdeveloped visual grammar, where an idea is understandable in theory but does not fully translate into the strongest possible scene.

Certain revelations could have been staged more effectively, transitions could have been smoother, and some of the horror and dramatic sequences would have benefited from greater control over rhythm and escalation. The mythology itself is interesting, but its presentation could have been considerably more refined. With a more polished screenplay structure and greater attention to how information is visually revealed rather than verbally communicated, the Rabbit mythology could have been even more compelling.

The performances are decent across the board. Melisa Kihtir does well as Pretty, carrying a demanding protagonist through several different emotional stages. Pretty begins as a relatively shy and unusual young woman before gradually becoming more involved in a world she does not fully understand. Saran Duren is also good as Emma, Pretty’s older sister. The character has her own personal struggles and gradually becomes more important as the film reveals additional layers of its story.

However, the direction of the performances is another area where future projects could improve. Some scenes require greater urgency, stronger reactions, and more precise emotional expression from the actors.

Overall, Pretty is an ambitious, strange, and genuinely interesting independent horror film. Its greatest strength is that Metecan Duren clearly had something much bigger in mind than simply creating another low-budget slasher or haunted-house movie. There is a substantial mythology behind the horror, an unusual protagonist at its center, an atmospheric world surrounding her, and deeper ideas about beauty, attention, worship, jealousy, and the consequences of receiving exactly what one desires.

Not everything works with the same level of effectiveness. The storytelling, visual grammar, editing, sound design, dramatic staging, and direction of performances all have significant room for development. However, it is equally important to consider the circumstances under which the film was made. This is a two-hour feature with an elaborate story, multiple characters, supernatural mythology, horror sequences, original music, and a distinctive visual identity, created largely through the efforts of one filmmaker.

‘Pretty (2026)’ Rating – 3.75/5

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