Special Report: Never After Dark (2026)

Dave Boyle built Never After Dark (2026) around a lifelong passion for ghost stories and a desire to find something new in a "well-worn genre." He tells Mike White and co-star Moeka Hoshi about the sound design holding the film together: Japanese sound designer Natsuko Inoue (Godzilla Minus One, House of Ninjas), who handled all sound design and foley in Tokyo before flying to Los Angeles to mix at Warner Bros. with longtime American mixer Carlos, plus composer Jonathan Snipes — a deliberate pairing of Japanese and Western collaborators Boyle says rarely happens across either country's insular film industries.

Hoshi, who plays wandering medium Airi, talks about the unusual challenge of acting opposite co-star Kurumi Inagaki's dead-sister character Miku, who appears only as a reflection — meaning entire scenes were performed without ever actually making eye contact with her scene partner, down to taping marks on walls to hit precise mirror angles. Boyle also details the funnier-than-scripted performance castmate Mutsuo Yoshioka brought to the film's mysterious man, and a hint of what's next: his in-development remake of the J-horror classic Pulse, based on what he calls his favorite script he's ever been handed.


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