Grimmfest 2025 Review: Syphon — Tom Botchii’s Suburban Thriller Explores Human Horror

Jeffrey Decker as Teddy in Tom Botchii’s Syphon, a suburban thriller that premiered at Grimmfest 2025.

Tom Botchii has been carving out his corner in independent cinema since Arctic (2019) and Eleven Minutes, but with Syphon, he leans into what we’d call a suburbanized thriller. And while some distributors may want to argue semantics about genre, let’s get one thing straight—this is horror. Strip away the supernatural, the ghosts, the demons, and you’re still left with the brutality of human psychology, the feral unraveling of a man, and the violent acts that follow. That’s horror through and through.

At the center of Syphon is Teddy (Jeffrey Decker), a man living in a busted Chevy Celebrity from the mid-80s—blue collar to its bones, just like the character behind the wheel. Teddy fixates on Junune Kushida (Shuhei Kinoshita), a man who may or may not be responsible for his losses. The setup echoes Blue Ruin in its early beats—obsession, surveillance, the kind of stalking that feels both pitiful and dangerous. Teddy clings to old recordings of his wife, suggesting a backstory of grief and collapse, while Junune walks his own blurred line of affluence and guilt.

Both Decker and Kinoshita carry the film with committed performances. Their dynamic draws you in, even as the story pushes toward an inevitable spiral of violence. Supporting turns from local talent Jackie Kelly and Matt Stewart add texture, and it’s clear this group—Tom, Matt, Jackie, and producer David Christopher Pitt—form a tight-knit creative circle, cross-pollinating projects like The Demon (2024) and the upcoming Wake Not the Dead.

But Syphon isn’t without issues. Botchii and company dig into human frailty and vengeance with ambition, yet the film struggles with pacing and identity. The tension fizzles where it should ignite, and what feels suited for a short film stretches thin over a feature runtime. The conclusion leaves less of an impact than its setup promises, and while the cinematography holds its own in places, it doesn’t elevate the material into something sharper.

Still, the film’s intent resonates. Syphon is a meditation on how grief, anger, and blame can mutate into horror when empathy dries up. Teddy’s descent may not satisfy in narrative terms, but it does reflect the everyday horrors people carry—how one act of desperation can set off a chain of ruin.

At Horror Movies Uncut, we don’t buy into the notion that horror requires the paranormal. The horrors of the world, of being human, are more than enough. By that measure, Syphon lands firmly within the genre, even if it falls short of fully delivering on its premise.

2 out of 5. A flawed but earnest effort from a crew still finding their footing—one we’ll continue to watch as they grow.