A slasher film shot inside a real Alabama haunted attraction is now playing in select theaters nationwide.

“Hellbilly Hollow” opened Friday in eight cities after a packed premiere on LA’s Sunset Strip. The film is the first ever shot at the actual Hellbilly Hollow haunt in Vincent, Alabama, a venue that’s been scaring visitors for years with its haunted barn and backwoods hayride.

Director Kevin Wayne got the idea while shooting a commercial at the attraction. Instead of rebuilding it on a soundstage, they filmed on location. Every corner fans recognize from the real haunt made it into the movie.

The story follows paranormal YouTubers who show up to film the night before Halloween. They quickly learn the scares aren’t staged. Killer siblings Tickles, a disfigured clown, and Bull, his manipulative brother, are real, and they’re hunting.

The film stars Kurt Deimer and Kevin Wayne, with an original score by metal drummer Roy Mayorga. Deimer’s Bald Man Films produced alongside Todd Slater of Convoke Media. Atlas Distribution is handling the U.S. release, with Jinga Films covering international sales.

“Hellbilly Hollow” is playing in Birmingham, Cincinnati, Columbus, Jacksonville, LA, Omaha and Orlando. Regal Edwards Long Beach is hosting a public Q&A after the 7:40 p.m. screening Friday.

For indie horror filmmakers, it’s proof you can turn a regional attraction into a theatrical release.

An all-girl heavy metal band’s worst gig just got a lot worse.

Epic Pictures and Dread are releasing *Devour* in select theaters and on digital October 13th. The supernatural horror film throws its musicians into a nightmare town controlled by a warlock and crawling with every monster imaginable.

Director Scott B. Hansen (*Bad Candy*) wrote the film with Desiree Hansen, starring KateLynn E. Newberry, Gus Langley, Alex Lucchesi, Chelsea LeSage, Gaven Wilde, and Butcher Babies vocalist Heidi Shepherd. When the band’s van breaks down and they try to help a woman in danger, they quickly realize they’re trapped. The only way out is to fight back using dark powers of their own.

What sets *Devour* apart is its commitment to practical effects. Creature designer Wayne Anderson (*Stranger Things*, *IT: Chapter One*, *Avatar: The Way of Water*) led the OX FX team in creating handcrafted creature suits, prosthetics, and animatronics. No digital shortcuts here, just old-school monster mayhem.

The film has racked up festival wins including Best Feature and Best Director at Freakshow Horror Film Festival, plus selections at Atlanta Horror Film Festival and Days of the Dead. Chris Jericho endorsed it on his *Talk Is Jericho* podcast.

For indie horror fans craving practical effects and genre chaos, *Devour* delivers exactly what Dread promised when they launched the original *Terrifier*.

A birthday gift from Cameo turned into a feature film. Lance Oppenheim’s narrative debut, Primetime, is now in theaters, and the director says it all started with a forty-dollar video from To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen.

In March 2024, Oppenheim’s wife bought him a Cameo as a gag. Hansen congratulated him on his documentary SPERMWORLD, asked him to “have a seat,” then pitched his own streaming network. Oppenheim was hooked. He spent hours watching Hansen’s Cameo page, fascinated by how a crusading journalist had become a self-aware meme. “A man had become a meme. A person had become a persona,” Oppenheim says.

Two weeks later, he showed the video to Robert Pattinson during a meeting. Turns out Pattinson was also a Hansen fan. A month after that, Pattinson’s producing partner Brighton McCloskey showed Oppenheim a script titled TO CATCH A PREDATOR. He read it in his car. “Everything I’d felt watching those Cameos was there,” he says.

Primetime isn’t a biopic. Oppenheim calls it a fever dream and media collage, inspired by Ace in the Hole and Natural Born Killers. It follows Hansen, a TV producer, and a Hollywood dreamer during the show’s peak, exploring what happens when ambition consumes you.

For documentary filmmakers crossing into narrative, this one’s proof that inspiration lives in the strangest places.

Before Election and Sideways made him an indie darling, Alexander Payne kicked off his career with Citizen Ruth, a dark comedy that ripped into the culture wars with zero mercy. Now Film Forum is bringing back his 1996 debut in a new 4K restoration, running October 30 through November 5.

Laura Dern stars as Ruth Stoops, a drug-addicted woman with four kids already taken away by the state. When she gets pregnant again while locked up, a judge gives her an ultimatum: get an abortion or face a felony charge. What follows is a brutal tug-of-war between pro-life and pro-choice activists, both desperate to use her as a poster child for their cause. Ruth doesn’t care about either side. She just wants to survive.

The film premiered at Sundance in 1996 and introduced Payne’s signature style, sharp satire with uncomfortable truths baked in. Critics at the time loved Dern’s performance, calling her “a revelation” and “weirdly lovable” despite playing someone you probably shouldn’t root for.

Payne went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Election three years later, but Citizen Ruth remains a boldly irreverent first swing. The restoration was handled by IndieCollect, working with Criterion and Paramount. If you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance.

Paweł Pawlikowski is back with another black-and-white stunner. His new film “Fatherland” premieres October 23 at Film Forum in New York, and it’s already racking up serious attention.

The film stars Sandra Hüller (fresh off “Anatomy of a Fall”) as Erika Mann, daughter of legendary author Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler. Set in 1949, they’re driving through a bombed-out Germany after years of exile in the U.S. Mann’s returned as a Nobel Prize winner with celebrity status, but the country he knew is gone. Erika’s coordinating his trip while dealing with her own family trauma, trying to break through her father’s distant facade.

Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes for this one. It’s also Poland’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature. If you know his work, the pedigree checks out. “Ida” won the Oscar in 2014, and “Cold War” scored three nominations including Best Director.

The reviews are glowing. Critics are calling it “a perfectly cut jewel” and praising cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s gorgeous monochrome work. At just 82 minutes, Pawlikowski keeps it lean and devastating.

For indie cinema lovers, this is the kind of restrained, visually striking filmmaking that reminds you why arthouse matters. Film Forum’s the place to see it first.

Jordan Firstman is bringing his feature directorial debut to San Francisco before it hits theaters nationwide. SFFILM just announced a special 35mm screening of Club Kid at the Castro Theatre on November 2, with Firstman sticking around for a post-screening Q&A.

The film made waves at Cannes before A24 scooped it up. Firstman wrote, directed, and stars as Peter, a New York City club promoter whose party-heavy lifestyle gets flipped upside down when a 10-year-old son he didn’t know existed shows up at his door. The ensemble includes Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Reggie Absolom, and Colleen Camp.

“The anarchic humor, incredible ensemble, and unexpected tenderness make this a distinctive film,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. She called out the needle drops as “thrillingly precise” to the characters and story.

SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai pointed out the fitting venue. “For decades, gathering to see movies at The Castro has been at the heart of San Francisco’s queer culture and history.”

Tickets go on sale to SFFILM members September 22 at 10 am, with general public access starting September 24. General admission is $35, members pay $30. Club Kid opens in select cities November 6.

The zombie apocalypse is back, and this time it’s going bigger.

Prime Video just dropped the teaser for Apocalypse Z: New World, the sequel to last year’s surprise international hit. The film hits the platform October 30, right in time for Halloween scares.

Director Carles Torrens returns to expand the post-apocalyptic universe, this time shifting the action to the Canary Islands, Europe’s last refuge after the TSJ virus outbreak. When a supply mission heads to the mainland, things go sideways fast. The crew gets caught between hordes of infected and their own conflicting loyalties.

The ensemble cast includes Carlos Alcaide, Julia Martínez, and Mónica López. Jose María Yazpik reprises his role as Pritchenko, and Berta Vázquez returns as Lucía. Even Pedrito the cat is back, playing fan-favorite Lúculo.

The first film became Prime Video’s most-watched international original movie, second only to Your Fault. That kind of response gave the sequel room to scale up the action and widen the scope.

Before streaming, New World gets its world premiere at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival on October 10, then screens at Screamfest in LA on October 13.

For genre filmmakers grinding away at zombie stories, this franchise proves there’s still appetite for fresh takes on the undead, especially when you lean into character-driven survival drama.

Serve Films and Tinygiant

Serville Poblete’s feature debut Sunburn has been acquired by MoreThan Films following its world premiere in TIFF’s Centrepiece Program this week. The boutique sales agency will handle international distribution, while Gersh is repping domestic.

The film follows a group of kids in St. James Town, a high-rise Toronto neighborhood, as they wander through the city’s hottest day while phone networks crash and the power stays off. It’s a hangout movie about youth slipping away in real time.

Poblete, a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker, has been racking up festival wins lately. His short In the Morning Sun took the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2026 and is currently in Oscar consideration. His doc King’s Court earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination earlier this year.

“Making a movie about my neighbourhood with so many amazing collaborators felt like summer camp,” Poblete says. “I’m so excited to partner with MoreThan Films and Gersh to share this project with the world.”

The cast includes Joshua Obra, Dashawn Blackwood, Arianna Shannon, and Milan Deng. Nicole Dane produces, with Christian Bielz on cinematography and Juno-winning composer Aaron Paris scoring.

For indie filmmakers working hyper-local stories with universal themes, Sunburn is exactly the kind of breakout that still happens at festivals when the work connects.

A house fire in 1989 set Andrew Carroll on a 30-year mission to save war letters from attics and basements across America. Now his story is getting the documentary treatment, and it’s loaded with A-list talent.

“Behind the Lines” drops October 22nd on Amazon, Apple+, and YouTube. The 88-minute film is narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening, with letter readings from Laura Dern, Michael C. Hall, Gary Cole, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Paul Walter Hauser, DeWanda Wise, and Common.

Director John B. Benitz, a Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize recipient, follows Carroll’s journey through all 50 states and 40 countries, including war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Carroll’s collected over 250,000 war-related letters and emails spanning every U.S. conflict.

The letters themselves are the real stars. A Black Union soldier threatening his former master. A Pearl Harbor sailor describing the attack from inside a sinking ship. A Vietnam vet confessing he’d killed someone. A 9/11 survivor’s handwritten account from Ground Zero.

The release coincides with Carroll’s new campaign, Operation Post War, focused on preserving correspondence from post-9/11 troops and veterans.

For indie docs tackling big subjects, this is how you do it: find the human story, then get out of the way and let the voices speak.