Premiering at the 2025 Atlanta Horror Film Festival, Ogun Oru crawls into your psyche as a somber reminder that not all ghosts come from graveyards. Directed by Christopher Rucinski (Northern Shade, Dogs in the Distance), the short film tracks Marine veteran Michaela (played with gripping intensity by Lauren E. Banks), whose sleepless nights blur the line between trauma and the supernatural. Since returning from combat tours in Afghanistan, her life’s been a slow collapse: a lost marriage, shared custody with her son Simon, and now the haunting presence of a sleep demon known as Ogun Oru, “the demon of spousal war.”
The horror doesn’t rely on jump scares or gore. The demon’s void-like presence mirrors Michaela’s mental exhaustion, making Ogun Oru as much a psychological character study as it is a traditional horror story. Lauren E. Banks carries the film’s emotional weight, emoting impending dread but unbroken. And Sam Huntington (as her ex-husband Ryan), adds the grounded frustration as the “responsible” parent trying to reach a loved one already halfway lost to the darkness.
One area I wanted to explore more of was Michaela’s combat flashbacks; glimpses of that could have deepened the link between battlefield trauma and the entity haunting her. But even without that, Ogun Oru is a beautifully grim reminder that for many veterans, the hardest battles begin after the war ends. Rucinski crafts a chilling metaphor for PTSD, depression, and the quiet wars veterans fight long after they’ve come home.
Tickets for the Atlanta Horror Film Festival are available at https://atlantahorrorfilmfest.com/home
