Late on her birthday, a troubled young woman shows up at her father’s house, seeking a place to crash after a fight with her boyfriend. Dad’s asleep, so she settles on the couch for an annual tradition: watching an old VHS tape filled with well-wishes from her mother, who recorded them after a devastating cancer diagnosis meant she wouldn’t get to see her daughter grow up.

That could be the start of a melodrama, and there’s an element of that in the Australian release Posthumous, from director Josh Tanner, who co-wrote with Jade van der Lei. But horror is the main draw here, something made clear by the jarring, tracking-addled tape snippets sprinkled in from the very beginning, letting you know something spooky is afoot even before the story gets there.

The only memories Zoe (Sophie Lowe) has of her mother, Joanne (Kira-Che Heelan), come from that precious slice of vintage media, and it’s becoming clear that Zoe’s inability to embrace responsibility and adulthood stems from unresolved feelings about losing her mom so young. Her dad, Neil (David Roberts), is an emotional zombie; her boyfriend, Alex (Remy Hii), means well but is too pushy in his efforts to help.

So you can’t blame Zoe for getting extremely excited when she discovers her father’s been hiding a stack of pictures of her mother. At last, she’s got some glimpses of Joanne’s life beyond the familiar frames of that VHS tape.

One image shows Joanne and Neil smiling with their next-door neighbors, but when Zoe wanders over to connect with Brenda (Doris Younane), curious to learn more about Joanne—who died when she was 30, exactly the age Zoe just turned—the woman slams the door in her face.

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