They meet. They fall hard. Then reality kicks in.

In Spite of Ourselves, a new indie romantic comedy from writer-director Josh Loeb, follows Hannah, a baker in Portland, and Archie, a comedian based in LA, as they navigate what happens after an intense two-week romance ends and distance forces them back to their separate lives. The film opens Friday at New York’s Quad Cinema, with Portland and LA dates rolling out in the following weeks.

The story leans into the messy, relatable side of modern relationships. Chemistry is easy. Commitment, not so much. According to festival reviews, the film delivers both laughs and heart, with Unseen Films calling it “an absolute gem” and Film Snob Reviews praising the leads’ chemistry and gorgeous direction.

Brett Dier and Conor Leslie star, supported by Mo Mandel, Alyssa Limperis, and Glenn Morshower. Loeb produced alongside Michelle Lewitt, Gabe Mayhan, and Tim Harms, with cinematography also by Mayhan.

*In Spite of Ourselves* premiered earlier this year at Cinequest and made the rounds at Heartland, Portland, and Mystic film festivals. It’s the kind of small-scale romantic comedy that used to fill theaters before studios mostly abandoned the genre. For indie filmmakers still making them, that’s exactly the point.

The zombie outbreak continues. Prime Video is releasing Apocalypse Z: Part II (original title: Apocalipsis Z: Nuevo Mundo), the second installment in the Spanish post-apocalyptic franchise, on October 30. The film will premiere in the U.S. at Screamfest Horror Festival LA on October 13.

Director Carles Torrens returns to the franchise, working from a script by Ángel Agudo, adapted from novels by Manel Loureiro. The sequel picks up in the Canary Islands, now Europe’s last safe zone after the TSJ virus ravages the mainland. When a team ventures back to the continent for supplies, Roberto tags along with his own agenda. The mission quickly spirals into chaos, trapped between infected hordes and fractured loyalties.

The cast includes Carlos Alcaide (Killer Book Club), Julia Martínez (Subsuelo), Jose María Yazpik (Narcos), Berta Vázquez (Vis a Vis), and Mónica López (Rapa). Núria Valls and Adrián Guerra produce.

At its core, the film asks a timeless question: do you save yourself, or risk everything to hold onto what’s left of your humanity? For genre fans looking for fresh international horror, this one’s landing just in time for Halloween.

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.

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*.