Horror Highlights: DEAD EYES, POV, AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE, MIDSUMMER SCREAM

Watch the Teaser Trailer for DEAD EYES: "DEAD EYES, the gripping new POV horror film  is written and directed by Australian filmmaker Richard E. Williams and will have its World Premiere on March 12th at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. The film will screen in the Visions section of the festival, which is known to showcase bold, distinctive feature films with strong directorial voices. Anthony Buckner, Head of Sales and Acquisitions for AMP is representing worldwide sales.

DEAD EYES is a visceral, first-person horror experience that follows Sean and his friends as they venture into a remote forest searching for his missing father, only to uncover dark secrets where grief has blurred the line between the living and the dead. The film stars Mischa Heywood, Ana Thu Nguyen (starring in the upcoming Mortal Kombat II), Stephen Phillips, Charles Cottier (The Demon Disorder), and Alea O’Shea, with additional performances by Rijen Laine (In Our Blood, Tidelands). Blending psychological terror with an intense POV style, DEAD EYES delivers a relentless descent into grief, obsession, and body-horror nightmare.

Film Synopsis:

Sean and his fiancée, Grace, enter a remote forest to search for Sean’s missing father, Paul, who vanished following the tragic death of his youngest daughter, Lilly. Returning to the site of Lilly’s death forces Sean to confront his inner demons — which soon begin to manifest in terrifying physical ways. Their search takes a horrifying turn when they uncover Paul’s dark secret: cloning experiments designed to resurrect Lilly.

The forest is now inhabited by cannibalistic mutant girls, each a clone of Lilly, violently battling to prove she is the “real” one. As Sean and Grace uncover the grim truth, they must survive grotesque creatures while grappling with disturbing questions about identity, loss, and the boundaries between life and death.

Captured using a custom head-mounted Sony VENICE Rialto system, the film delivers a fully immersive, first-person cinematic experience.

DEAD EYES marks the latest feature from writer-director Richard E. Williams, an Australian filmmaker. Williams is known for his work on the feature White Blood and has produced numerous television commercials for Australian broadcast. A recognized screenwriter, he has been a finalist at the Slamdance Film Festival and QLD Screenwriting Awards. With DEAD EYES, Williams delivers a bold and unsettling horror vision that places audiences directly inside the nightmare."

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Watch the Short Film POV: "An ideologically opposed couple attempt to survive a home invasion by a masked assailant on the single most dangerous night of the year... Halloween."

A Dead Pixel Production

Starring
Katie Mackey - Aubrey
Chris Frank - Frank
David VonHippchen - Anchor 1
Joshua Borcyk - Anchor 2
Lilli Rose Rittner - Kylee

Produced by David Griffin and Brian K. Rosenthal
Written/Directed/Edited/Shot by Brian K. Rosenthal
Original Score by Joshua M. Benash
Stunts/Stunt Coordinator - Justin Ortiz

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Watch the Teaser Trailer for AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE: "Already one of the buzziest titles at this year’s SXSW, AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE will have its World Premiere on Saturday, March 14 in the celebrated Midnighters section of the SXSW 2026 Film Festival.

Written and directed by John Valley, the Austin-set thriller marks the filmmaker’s highly anticipated sophomore feature and a continued evolution into elevated genre storytelling. The film stars Hailley Lauren (1923), Kelsey Pribilski (Man Finds Tape), Tinus Seaux (The Pizzagate Massacre), Danielle Evon Ploeger (RATS!), and Richard C. Jones (HBO Max’s Love & Death).

A true homegrown production, the cast and crew of AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE are based entirely in Austin, where the film was also shot and produced. The project underscores the strength of Austin’s independent film community.

Synopsis:

A woman inherits her childhood home, seeking solace from a chaotic city life marked by addiction and debt. Unbeknownst to her, a psychotic neighbor becomes disturbingly obsessed with her due to a haunting resemblance to the neighbor’s deceased mother. As the fixation turns violent, her friends begin disappearing one by one, drawing her into a perverted, blood-soaked Christmas nightmare she may not survive.

On premiering the film at SXSW in his hometown, Valley said, “Premiering at SXSW is a real dream come true for me. This film was made by real artists and technicians for the love of the craft, so debuting it here, in front of this audience, is incredibly meaningful.”

AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE was produced by David Axe, Samuel Butler, Shane Greb along with Jon Wroblewski, and Christian Sosa of Austin-based production company Roosevelt Film Lab. Cinematographer is Taylor Camarot. Executive producers are Amado DeHoyos, Richard C. Jones, Shane Greb, Stephan Jensen, Elizabeth Spear, Hector Acosta, Dan Lenker, Zebulon "Ziggy" Griggs and Melissa Sellers Drake.

John Valley first gained attention with his debut feature, The Pizzagate Massacre, which earned a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was described by Vice as “a grindhouse Pizzagate satire that perfectly captures a moment in time.” With AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE, he leans into psychological horror, delivering a modern riff on proto-slasher touchstones like Psycho and Black Christmas while exploring themes of grief, obsession, and fractured identity."

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MIDSUMMER SCREAM RETURNS TO LONG BEACH AUGUST 7-9, 2026: "Midsummer Scream announces its return to the Long Beach Convention Center August 7-9, 2026. The three-day event will bring Halloween and horror fans from around the world together for a weekend of thrilling delights! Passes available now at midsummerscream.com.

Midsummer Scream's 2026 theme will be “Horror Musicals.” As seen in this year’s hand painted event poster by pop-culture artist Stephen Andrade, the event will take inspiration from Broadway classics including “Phantom of the Opera,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the music video “Thriller,” among others!

Highlighting this year’s theme, Lionsgate will bring Repo: The Genetic Opera to Midsummer Scream to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Darren Lynn Bousman’s venerable cult classic starring Anthony Head, Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, and Bill Moseley. Both Darren Lynn Bousman and Bill Moseley are confirmed as special guests at Midsummer Scream, with more cast and crew to be announced.

"The year’s theme is for all of the theatre kids that are a huge part of the haunt and horror community,” said David Markland, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Midsummer Scream. “We will be honoring horror musicals of all kinds with a variety of panels, presentations, and performances all weekend.”

Markland continued, “But if musicals aren’t your thing, we won’t have any less for horror fans looking to satisfy their thirst for slashers, scares, and gore.”

Additional special celebrity guests coming to Midsummer Scream includeMatthew Lillard (Scream, Five Nights at Freddy’s), Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Scream 5, 6, and 7, Yellowjackets), and many more to be announced.

The Hall of Shadows will be open all three days, featuring more than a dozen haunted attractions and displays set within a massive, darkened area of the convention center. This fog-filled “scream park” is included with all passes to Midsummer Scream, with many of the attractions featuring priority queues for VIP/Gold Bat passholders. Haunters this year include Eulogy Collective, Fear Farm, Straite to Hale Productions, H&L’s Realm of Horror, The Dreich Society, CalHauntS, The Haunt With No Name… Yet, Decayed Brigade, and many more. Additional details will be revealed soon!

Throughout the weekend, Midsummer Scream will present a robust schedule of world-class panel presentations featuring Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, Knott’s Scary Farm, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group (Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, Delusion, Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns, and Festival Fright Nights at Winchester Mystery House), Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest, and more Halloween events.

Programming partners include Paramount Scares, Fangoria, Bloody Disgusting, Horror Movies & Beyond, and HorrorBuzz. An eclectic lineup of entertainment and additional programming will be announced in the weeks ahead.

Featuring more than 350 vendors and artists, Midsummer Scream’s show floor will feature an amazing variety of apparel, masks, posters and prints, unique artwork, toys, oddities, and spooky decorations from vendors including The Halloween Shirt Company, Trick or Treat Studios, Backstitch Bruja, Sin City Props, Terror Films, Small Town Weirdo, and Froggy’s Fog.

More beloved components of Midsummer Scream will return, includingParanormal Pixie’s Pumpkin Patch children’s zone, the family-friendly black light exhibit Casa Calavaras, the Black Cat Lounge kitten adoption center,and the Screaming Room Film Festival presented by HorrorBuzz."