Turn It Up! Tribeca Review: A Loud and Gory Blast

The Escape From Tribeca lineup promises the loudest and nuttiest films of the festival’s programming. Plenty of gore, outrageously over-the-top performances, and an abundance of color are exactly what you can expect out of the films premiering here, and Turn It Up! fits perfectly into this specific lineup. Directed by Sam Scott in his feature debut, the film follows a struggling rock band that suddenly finds itself performing better after discovering an infectious new melody and a magical guitar pick.

Turn It Up! Tribeca Review

Of course, nothing can be as simple as it seems, with the cursed music leading to disastrous, bloody, and deadly results for everyone around them. Turn It Up! is the type of loud and energetic film that certainly has to hit you at the right time. It’s easy to fall in love with it if you’re watching with a rowdy group of friends, and it’s as easy to distance yourself from it if you’re looking for peace and quiet. But if you’re at an Escape From Tribeca screening, you’re not looking for peace and quiet. This film promises and delivers on a loud time that’s exciting, campy, and often too stupid for its own good, but a good bit of gory fun.

A still from Turn it Up!, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 4, 2026.

Justine Nelson stars as AC, the frontwoman of the band, leading a group that doesn’t seem to get along all that well. None of the characters here has any semblance of reasonability to them, which comes courtesy of the more humorous side of the script from Sam Scott and Gwenlyn Cumyn, who also stars in the film.

Cumyn plays Court, and this relationship between her and AC is about the only decent one in the film. The rest of the band is a series of obnoxious guys who fill out the scene. In some movies, it would be unforgivable and obnoxious to have characters that feel like caricatures, but in this film, it mostly works. Julian Richings also stars as a bizarre, eccentric doctor who watches as the band begins killing people with their epic tunes.

The story begins as a simple comedic bit and quickly plunges into a wild blend of horror, comedy, and special effects. As the band plays at various bars, the patrons find their heads splattered all over the walls. The band believes they’re playing good music. They’re so entranced by the amazing work they’re doing on stage that they don’t understand the damage they’re causing, or the fact that their melody is opening a portal to another dimension. Slowly, this begins to catch up to them. The stakes in Turn It Up! are simultaneously high, but also basic in execution.

Often, films like this are vessels for special effects teams, editors, and sound designers to go all out and make something as raucous as possible. The pulsing sound design of the killer riff and the vibrant visual flourishes give the movie a charming recklessness. For this particular experience, I’m fine with the plot being set mostly to the side in favor of something that’s this fun to see. It’s a technically fun and exciting film. It doesn’t feel particularly innovative in the realm of psycho-comedy horror films, but it consistently delivers the thrills and practical effects you want.

Is Turn It Up! worth watching?

When the film slows down and leans into the queer relationship between AC and Court, who secretly harbor feelings for each other, it finds earnestness. However, that earnestness is largely unable to come out amongst the rest of the mayhem. It’s a lot of fun to watch heads explode and see people lose their minds at whatever crazy sci-fi elements are happening, but it’s always important to maintain the human elements.

This doesn’t exactly feel interested in doing that. In that regard, it makes for a fun journey that’s quite aware of what it wants to achieve, but it isn’t able to step up and be much more than that because of its strict insistence on sticking with the absurd genre it tackles. Turn It Up! knows exactly what it is, even if it leaves some of its emotional potential on the table.

Turn It Up! premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from June 3 – 14, 2026.

Turn It Up! Tribeca Review: A Loud and Gory Blast