When college student Ember (Aleigha Burt) road-trips for a weekend in the country with three peers, the lake house they stay at stirs discomfiting memories…that aren’t her own. Is she somehow connected to its violent history, in which racists seized land from the rightful African American owners? Her more shallow, privileged friends imagine they have nothing to do with that past—even as they sometimes lapse into treating Ember as a servant. Director/cowriter Raven Deshay Carter’s first feature probes the topics of institutionalized property theft and inherited trauma, while also shading eventually into fantastical narrative terrain. Suffice it to say, you don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of justice when the titular insects (also known as sand flies or biting midges) in this Florida-shot thriller begin to swarm. They just might deliver a supernatural vengeance no garden-variety bug repellent can protect the guilty from. —Dennis Harvey
Raven Carter
Raven Carter is a bold and unconventional storyteller from Texas. Her debut feature film, Noseeums, premiered at the highly esteemed Frightfest in London this year. Her stories often dissect elements of family, race, and womanhood. Before getting a Master of Fine Arts in film production at Florida State University’s College for Motion Picture Arts, she attended Huston-Tillotson in Austin, an HBCU. Raven currently resides in Austin where she spends time trying new food, connecting with local filmmakers, writing screenplays, and teaching second grade.