Panic Fest 2026 Coverage
Grind review
A horror anthology with a real standout segment.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Grind
Directed by Ed Dougherty, Brea Grant and Chelsea Stardust
Written by Ed Dougherty and Brea Grant
Starring Mercedes Mason, Rob Huebel, Barbara Crampton, James Urbaniak, Christopher Rodriguez Marquette and James Paxton
Grind Review
It’s been a while since we’ve looked at a horror anthology. They seemed to be fairly prevalent just a couple of years ago…but now they seem few and far between. Sure, we’ve been getting our yearly V/H/S installment the last few years…but the genre has dried up a bit. Grind sets its focus on late stage capitalism for its four somewhat connected tales of varying quality. That sounds more negative than it is intended to. Three of the four segments are of roughly the same, perfectly fine, quality. But one stands head and shoulders above the others as one of the more entertaining anthology shorts we’ve seen in some time.
The overall quality of Grind is pretty high. Three decent segments and one great one adds up to a recommendation, at least. The three parts I’m grouping together tend to suffer from the same problem. They just feel a bit too extended for what they’re offering up. In one case…it’s too long of a buildup to a fun ending. The other two just don’t have enough ideas to fill out their full length. The vibe of the four segments remains consistently strong throughout Grind, however…and that’s one of the most important parts.
There isn’t a framing story in Grind…though there is a beginning and ending to bookend the four stories contained within the film. Each segment kind of bleeds into the next one…though some transitions are better than others. The stories are all connected in that they all exist in the same world. What happens in one might not directly impact the others…but the characters are dealing with issues involving the same overlord corporation.
As we do with all anthologies…we’ll be counting down the four segments in Grind from worst to best. It’s all subjective…so don’t take it too seriously. Except for the #1. That’s clearly the best. The other three are close enough in quality to have their order argued any way you want.
Without any further ado…let’s rank these things.
4. Union Meeting (segment 4)
I mentioned that one of the segments in Grind features a fun ending with a build up that takes far too long. Well…it’s Union Meeting…and it sits in last place. That’s a shame because it does feature a fun conclusion. But boy does it feel like it takes forever to get to it. The story involves a coffee shop whose employees lock themselves in the store overnight so that they can open the next morning operating under their newly voted union. Leaving risks being locked out by the company…and being shut down before the union can be recognized.
It’s a solid premise…and, again, the ending (which turns into an unexpected creature feature) is strong. The problem is that most of the time in Union Meeting is spent listening to its gallery of unlikable characters bicker with each other. It’s a shame since the underdog employees trying to outlast the evil corporation had a lot of promise as a horror segment. If you don’t care about most of the characters by the time the fun starts…you just feel like you wasted your time.
3. Delivery (segment 2)
Delivery probably has the best concept of the four segments. Which makes its position near the bottom of this ranking a bit of a disappointment. It suffers from the same issue the numbers 4 and 2 do…pacing issues. While the idea is good…and the execution is mostly fine…it overstays its welcome.
A delivery guy is tasked with picking up…something…and following a series of increasingly difficult or painful directions. If he fails…he starts back at the beginning and has to try again. As someone who spent many years delivering food…I enjoyed how effortlessly the loop aspect of Delivery commented on the repetitiveness of the experience. It has some fun sci-fi ideas too. But it begins to sag after a while and never fully recovers. It’s good…but it probably needed to be tighter to work to its full potential.
2. Content Moderation (segment 3)
The penultimate segment of Grind finds its way near the top of the list because it has some very positive qualities to work with. Namely, Rob Huebel’s disingenuous boss character is very entertaining. Entertaining enough to outrank half the segments on its own. Almost literally. Because Content Moderation doesn’t have a ton to say…but intercutting it with Huebel’s character commenting on it gives it a lot of mileage.
A content moderator has to power through a number of videos to try and earn a promotion. Either he will succeed in doing so…or prove to his colleagues that the company is lying to them. Unfortunately, he’s more likely to be driven mad than complete his task. We get a montage of clips and some backstory…but it’s the almost surely evil but so nice boss played by Huebel that makes the segment hum.
1. MLM (segment 1)
And here we are. The excellent segment I promised at the beginning of this review. MLM opens Grind with style. A woman signs up to sell Lala Leggings…and discovers the terrible consequences of failing to meet her quota. MLM is as weird as it is full of pointed commentary. It’s easily the best segment in the movie because of both. Plus, Barbara Crampton pops up as the founder of Lala Leggings. She’ll return for the closing bookend of Grind alongside Rob Huebel…but here she is a pragmatically evil boss. There are rules…and breaking them has consequences.
Those consequences range from things like your husband’s penis turning into a bird, everything you eat tasting like glitter, or an axe wielding maniac hunting you down. Like I said…its weird. And delightful. And perfectly paced over its exactly correct length of time. MLM is the easy call for the top of the list. It’s crazy, it’s pointed…and it’s original.
Scare Value
Come for the standout segment that kicks off Grind…stay for the uneven but ultimately entertaining segments that follow. This is a worthwhile anthology film with a strong focus and some fun ideas. It lags in a few spots…perhaps cutting the final three segments down and adding a fifth story would have helped it flow better…but, at its worst, it’s still pretty good. It just can’t reach the high of its opening segment. Then again, a lot of horror anthologies can’t either.
