Slamdance 2026 Review: Santa Zeta Is the Most Urgent Thriller of the Year

Nekane Otxoa delivers a fierce, emotionally layered performance in Antonio Muñoz de Mesa’s socially charged thriller Santa Zeta.

Slamdance 2026 Review: Santa Zeta Is the Real Horror of Our World

My first true gem of 2026 didn’t come from a billion-dollar franchise. It wasn’t a studio reboot. It wasn’t a nostalgia grab or a video game adaptation.

It came from Slamdance.

Antonio Muñoz de Mesa’s Santa Zeta is, without question, the most powerful film I’ve seen so far this year — and one of the most urgent thrillers in recent memory.

Starring Nekane Otxoa as Zoe, Arlette Torres as Laura, and Iván Villanueva as Igor, Santa Zeta follows a famous social media travel influencer whose curated, glamorous life masks something far darker. Zoe isn’t just posting sunsets and five-star resorts — she’s hunting the predator responsible for the rape and murder of her younger sister, who was taken on Halloween night.

And what unfolds is not traditional horror.

It’s worse.

It’s real.

In a world where social media has become an aquarium for predators — a place where monsters hide in plain sight — Santa Zeta weaponizes modern digital culture as both camouflage and battlefield. The film doesn’t rely on zombies, masked slashers, or supernatural gimmicks. It relies on the terrifying truth that the most dangerous monsters are human.

And too often, they are protected.

Muñoz de Mesa approaches this story with artistic precision. The narrative unfolds in fragments — intimate conversations between Zoe and the imagined presence of her sister, philosophical debates about how monsters are made, reflections on untreated trauma and inherited violence. The direction is bold without being indulgent. The camera lingers where it needs to. The tension builds organically. The film trusts its audience.

Nekane Otxoa delivers a layered performance — vulnerable, witty, broken, and relentless. There are moments of dark humor in Zoe’s mission, flashes of humanity that remind you she is not just an avenger, but a grieving sister. Arlette Torres brings emotional gravity to Laura, grounding the film in maternal anguish. And Villanueva’s presence as Igor adds weight to a story rooted in fractured family bonds.

What makes Santa Zeta extraordinary is not just its subject matter — it’s its clarity.

The film does not sensationalize trauma. It contextualizes it. It forces us to confront the cultural systems that allow predators to operate. It asks uncomfortable questions about power, silence, and complicity. And in doing so, it becomes more frightening than any supernatural horror could ever hope to be.

As a father, as someone who trains women daily, as someone who has listened to countless stories of harassment, abuse, and survival — this film hits differently. It’s impossible not to feel it. It’s impossible not to reflect.

We live in a world where women are forced to navigate constant threat — online, offline, everywhere in between. When society fails to protect them, what options remain? What does justice look like? What does healing look like?

Santa Zeta doesn’t offer easy answers. But it offers something equally important: awareness.

And awareness is the first step toward change.

The ending is deeply satisfying — not in a fantasy fulfillment way, but in a way that restores some sense of balance. It leaves you unsettled yet hopeful. Angry yet reassured that resistance matters.

This isn’t a film for everyone. It’s heavy. It’s personal. It’s political without preaching. It’s a thriller grounded in lived realities.

But it’s necessary viewing.

Slamdance deserves credit for grabbing this film before it disappeared into the festival void. Independent cinema is still where the boldest, most socially relevant stories are being told.

Santa Zeta is not just one of the best films at Slamdance 2026.

It’s one of the most important.

4.5 out of 5.

And so far? My favorite film of 2026.