I had the pleasure of sitting down with director Glenn McQuaid and legendary actor Alice Krige to talk about their new film, The Restoration at Grayson Manor. The film is a gothic, darkly funny, and unsettling story of a queer son and his domineering mother, locked in a twisted battle over legacy, identity, and control. For McQuaid, whose past credits include I Sell the Dead and Tales from Beyond the Pale, the film is both a love letter to melodrama and a deeply personal reflection on queer repression.

Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari, best known for his breakout debut Zinzana, returns with The Vile, a haunting blend of psychological drama and supernatural horror. Premiering under Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Spooky Pictures’ multi-picture slate, the film marks the first Arabic-language Emirati feature in their lineup and further cements Al Ansari’s role as a trailblazer in regional genre cinema. At its core, The Vile examines the ripple effects of polygamy, greed, and betrayal through the story of Amani, a wife blindsided when her husband brings home a second wife

Spanish filmmaker Eduardo Casanova has never shied away from provocation. From his striking debut Skins to the unsettling La Piedad, his films pulse with pastel colors, grotesque beauty, and characters who embody rebellion against rigid social norms. With his latest project, Silencio, Casanova takes his singular vision to new ground, blending vampire horror and queer cinema into a tragicomic meditation on stigma, love, and survival. Told across centuries, Silencio begins during the Black Death, when vampire sisters struggle with dwindling supplies of “clean blood.”

Chris Marrs Piliero may be best known for his award-winning music videos with artists like Ariana Grande, The Black Keys, and Britney Spears, but with his feature debut Appofeniacs, he’s proven he’s just as bold behind a narrative camera. Premiering at FrightFest 2025, the film is a darkly satirical horror anthology that explores paranoia, technology, and the unnerving ease with which people can be manipulated through deepfakes. The seeds of the project were planted back in 2018 when Piliero first encountered a deepfake.

Rod Blackhurst is no stranger to shifting genres. From his Emmy and Critics Choice–nominated Netflix documentary Amanda Knox to the Tribeca Audience Award–winning Here Alone and last year’s gritty crime thriller Blood for Dust, his filmography defies easy categorization. His latest feature, Dolly, which just premiered at Fantastic Fest, may be his most audacious leap yet: a lo-fi, grimy, and oddly tragic horror tale that feels at once familiar and entirely new.

Jeremy Ray Taylor is done being the “fat, funny kid” from It. With his latest role as Julian in Allan Ungar’s London Calling, the 22-year-old actor is stepping firmly into adulthood—and into the action-comedy spotlight. The film pairs Taylor with Josh Duhamel in a buddy-style story about a hitman forced to toughen up a crime boss’s timid son.

Jon Heder, forever etched into pop culture as the awkwardly lovable Napoleon Dynamite, takes an unexpected turn in Waltzing with Brando, Bill Fishman’s biographical drama about Marlon Brando’s little-known ecological dream. The film, based on Bernard Judge’s memoir, follows the unlikely friendship between Brando and Judge, a young Los Angeles architect enlisted to design a sustainable paradise on Brando’s private Tahitian atoll. Speaking with me, Heder admitted that stepping into Judge’s shoes was a balancing act.

Sean Whalen’s role in Pierre Tsigaridis’ Traumatika may be brief, but as the saying goes, “there are no small roles, only small actors” — and Whalen proves it. In the film, he plays Steve, the friend who understands the danger of the cursed African artifact at the center of the story. Steve’s role is to warn John, a middle-aged man going through a rough divorce, not to open the relic.