Sheri (Sara Thompson) has been having a rough time since moving to a new town with her dad Hank (Scott Major) and grandma (Kerry Armstrong) but finds solace in hanging out at work with her friend Poppy (Annapurna Sriram) and her mates Finn (Jess McLeod) and Ash (Karis Oka). When her grandma dies and she dumps her loser boyfriend Harry (Jordan Dulieu), she goes over to apologise for handling the breakup so badly only to find him missing. Her dad is also on edge due to an unusual meteor that landed in the area that reminds him too much of an incident in Russia many years before.

As the director said this is more like a Scooby Doo or Dr Who episode than the usual horror and it is perfectly acceptable to have a shorter feature if you still have a good story and resolution. I did like that someone in the audience knew exactly which Dr Who episode they were talking about when they said it was a Tom Baker era episode with a puppet scratching his face.

This really feels more like a coming-of-age type story than the usual horror if Pia Miranda was just starting acting today, she would no doubt be in a horror movie instead of that role! The director feels like it is more of a family story than a scary horror film even with all the violence and swearing. Having my parents love Born in East LA and other comedy I would agree with them.

Q&A with director Alice Maio Mackay & cast member Scott Major

Great cast all round with some of the more established actors providing a good grounding to their roles and I also cheered when Alexi Topolopolous was on the screen as “Video Store Man”, it was the role he was born to play!

Nice special effects and settings including the last active video store in Adelaide which actually does have a basement. It is set in a “small town” but not really meant to be Australia as such with someone pointing out all the young women speak with an American accent and all the men have Australian accents.

What next for the director? Well, they did shadow the director of Camp Miasma while it was being made and they would like to make another movie with an actual budget next time. Not really that much they are asking for comparatively, but still a lot for an independent producer. They should go well.

Film details:

Director: Alice Maio Mackay

Producer: Mike Repsch, Jane Schoenbrun, Alice Maio Mackay

Screenwriter: Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson

Cinematographer: Aaron Schuppan

Composer: Freya Berkhout

Editor: Siobhan McCarthy, William Geare

Key Cast: Scott Major, Brandon Flynn, Jess McLeod, Annapurna Sriram, Sam Thompson, Tommy Dorfman, Alexi Topolopolous

Year: 2026

Length: 67 mins

Country: Australia

Language: English

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZbTh_RXLw4