On the remote island of Carpathia, the farm folk are forced to contended with the encroaching modernization as more and more people flock to their tranquil setting.  As houses are built, the Ochi, venomous and blood hungry creatures, are forced from their homes and cause even more strife on the islanders.  Yuri (Helena Zengel), a young girl whose mother was dragged off by an Ochi years ago, finds herself at a crossroads when she happens upon one of the young creatures in her father’s (Willem Dafoe) traps and takes pity on the youngling that just wants to return to its family.   

Isaiah Saxon writes and directs The Legend of Ochi, released by A24 after a premiere at the 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.  The 95-minute film is an imaginative one, from its loveable little creatures operated practically by a team of puppeteers among other camera tricks, to the lush, storybook quality Jason Kisvarday’s production design, Saxon is very much in conversation with the freewheeling fables of the 1980s. Ecologically minded, the film’s release was delayed due to the LA wild fires, pushing it deeper into a spring frame, but the morals of the story lie more in family values than conservation and sustainability.

Without the benefit of decades of nostalgia behind it, it may seem lofty to throw around comparisons like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The NeverEnding Story (1984), The Goonies (1985), and The Princess Bride (1987), but all of these are slightly mature themed films that captivate the imagination of the younger audiences and endear themselves so that they become something like a rite of passage as they are handed down and discovered by the next generation. While this genre has experienced a thinning as of late given the rise of live action remakes of cartoons instead of original live action works or adaptations of beloved books, Saxon’s work and his embrace of physical effects and artistry shine through as a unique beacon over the grey, computerized sea.  Though Carpathia seems like a soggy, constantly drizzling island, it is incredibly green and lush, and the lack of a sunny blue sky makes the blue masks of the Ochi all the more striking against the darker frames. 

It is almost a trait of these films where the plot topples into becoming overcomplicated and unwieldy. The exact reasoning is speculation, but perhaps it is to keep the audiences stimulated in what may be their first film that is not reels of water colored cels – or in today’s landscape, gigabytes of CGI slop – or maybe because the plot is overstuffed, it helps to smooth over the narrative gaps in favor of zany action as there is not enough time to focus in on any singular thread but appreciate the work as a whole. Whatever it may be, Saxon follows this time-tested logic in his debut feature, too.  It is a real shame that the genre has not evolved in all these years as the messy story almost requires an audiences to endear itself to the title before they have a fuller grasp on the specific patterns of storytelling.  The Legend of Ochi is covering a lot of topics, more so concerning family ties and relationships than themes of solidarity with nature as it seems a natural entry point to the story; for that, one may look towards the equally uniquely practical yet far more mature Sasquatch Sunset (2024) from David and Nathan Zellner.  Back on Carpathia, however, poor Zengel is caught in the cross hairs of this narrative choice to examine a fractured family unit and her motivations seemingly change with the scene.  It poisons her performance, through no fault of her own, but what is an otherwise simple story becomes a difficult nut to crack as we have very little idea which direction Saxon is headed in, further complicated by the loose resolution that all of these themes eventually arrive at. 

After rescuing the young Ochi in an incredibly upsetting scene, Yuri sets off on her adventure to return the creature to its mother, and in doing so, she is returned to her own mother who was thought to have been killed years earlier in an Ochi attack.  Not as deep in the woods as one would imagine to have been able to convince a small, assumingly close knit and gossipy, town that she had been dragged off by the creatures, Dasha (Emily Watson) lives in a littered cabin where she has devoted her life to the creatures that the town shares the island with, crafting a flute that allows her to mimic the calls of the creatures and slowly communicate with them.  It lends unnecessary credence to why Yuri looks on these little animals with compassion – though, that compassion is not always clearly telegraphed as with all of her motivations, they are well intentioned yet hazy throughout – and it also helps to inform why Maxim, her father, hates these creatures so much, too. Notably, it does little to help frame and contextualize the story.  The Legend of Ochi is a film about daughters, fathers, and mothers, but never truly about families and only tangentially about those individual roles within the unit. 

Hot on Yuri’s tail is Maxim and his band of boys with his adopted son, Petro (Finn Wolfhard), as the unit leader.  This facet of the story seemingly opens up the possibility of a zany adventure, but Saxon never quite allows us to join in on the fun that we only passingly see the boys engage in.  Like the themes of the film, this part too is a little broad and all encompassing as Maxim clinks and clangs around the forest in a knight’s suit of armor and the youth take on the dirty, grungy look of the Lost Boys as they follow their too-old Peter Pan into battle.  This mad-libs approach could have worked by utilizing a story within a story device, and it also would have been an incredibly engaging way to not only break into the story but to weave the more whimsical elements of the story into the fabric of the narrative in a more natural way than trying to introduce these beats of fantasy into a world that is otherwise presented in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. 

With its loose narrative, difficult characters, and a handful of what could be frightening production choices, The Legend of Ochi still scratches the imagination which, it can be said, is the ultimate goal of this and any film.  It is still a work of artistry and an incredible feat established on such a small budget.  While many in the audience may beg for something more, or even just a little more structure about what it is trying to do, Saxon is leading the charge to achieve his vision, far more effectively than Maxim is leading his ragtag band of orphans and misfits.  This opening gambit into feature filmmaking hopefully imparted the imaginative director with a little refinement and a little more focus for his sophomore feature, as he maintains a fierce commitment to creativity that splashes boldly onto screens in a time when it is needed most.