Imprint (2026)

Ran Jing’s near-future body horror drama fuses parental ambition and unsettling technological control into a brilliantly chilling affair.

Imprint tells the story of Flora (Wrenn Schmidt) and her daughter Ariel, a budding gymnast. Set in the near future, the story follows Flora as she decides that Ariel should undergo an experimental knowledge-transfer process to enhance her chances of success in a competitive world. This entails purchasing expertise from Han, an immigrant navigating a dangerous system in which she sells her hard-earned skills in exchange for legal stability.

We're immediately reminded of the work of Brandon Cronenberg, whose films Antiviral (2012) and Possessor (2020) feel like obvious touchpoints, as well as Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror (2011-present). Ran Jing takes a simple yet effective idea and fuses it with horror elements, ultimately making it genuinely unsettling through striking imagery. Things don't go to plan with the transfer process, and Ariel is implanted not just with the intended knowledge but with additional memories.

Imprint also touches upon the lengths we will go to for our children, bringing to mind Michael Pearce's impressive Echo Valley (2025), sharing some visual DNA, while also engaging with ethical dilemmas. This is arguably the crux of Imprint, embedding the heavy physical and mental burden that many immigrants have to face into the brain of a young girl, ensuring the benefits are outweighed by some truly horrifying side effects.

Ariel's condition causes her to lose weight, and the pressures already placed on her, however unintentionally, by her mother are brought to the fore as Jing fleetingly toys with body positivity and body horror, and with its ballet backdrop, it's impossible not to think of Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) or Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010).

But these are touchpoints that Jing earns in what is a truly unsettling piece of work, one that amplifies to an extent the migrant experience whilst splicing in body horror elements to devastating effect. This is a film where the real terror lies in the mind, and while its imagery generates a palpable sense of unease, the lasting impact of Imprint comes from the psychological scars it leaves behind. ★★★★ 7.9/10