Category: Horror

A hook-up goes wildly off the rails in the mind-bending thriller ‘The Skin of the Teeth’

The Skin of the Teeth, a sinister drama-thriller from writer-director Matthew Wollin, evokes the feel of a contemporary film noir.

When Josef (Pascal Arquimedes) arrives for a date at the apartment of John (Donal Brophy), their prickly energy slowly gives way to an unusual and genuine chemistry. But after Josef swallows a pill with unclear effects, the night starts to take a shocking turn.

Josef is suddenly plunged into a surreal world where he encounters two mysterious detectives. He’s soon forced into a literal and figurative interrogation of just who – or what – he is.

While evoking the surreal work of David Lynch, this wild film examines race, sex, love and identity in a mind-bending way.

The Skin of the Teeth aims to keep you guessing – and the lead performance from talented up-and-coming actor Pascal Arquimedes will have you holding your breath from beginning to end.

Watch a short trailer for The Skin of the Teeth below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

The controversial horror-comedy ‘Ticked Off Trannies with Knives’ comes to Dekkoo

Controversial even before it first screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, where GLAAD condemned the film for what it perceived as a negative portrayal of transgender people, director Israel Luna’s Ticked Off Trannies with Knives has garnered a wild reputation befitting of its exploitation roots.

Fashioned in the style of a sleazy 1970s pulp film, this uproarious slasher/revenge saga features some seriously not-to-be-fucked with characters, finger-snapping one-liners, vicious straight male villains and enough beatings, stabbings and kung-fu style ass-kicking to satisfy even the sickest of viewers.

It all begins in a small Dallas nightclub where a group of performers and friends are assaulted and left for dead. Following these traumatic events, a trio of surviving trans women come together to exact revenge on the men who brutally attacked them.

Inspired by the exploitation genre as a whole, particularly I Spit on Your Grave and the 1984 Linda Blair vehicle Savage Streets, Ticked Off Trannies with Knives is not for the faint of heart and certainly not without its shocks and provocations, but we invite you to judge the film on its own merits.

Ticked Off Trannies with Knives is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A hustler falls prey to a sinister psycho in the tense Dekkoo-original thriller ‘The Prodigy’

From the producers behind House of the Devil and The Innkeepers comes a bone-chilling new descent into queer psychosexual horror.

Beau Swartz stars in The Prodigy as Adam, a street hustler who has just about given up on life. At the start of the film, he’s picked up by a mysterious trick whose seemingly sinister intentions go largely unnoticed. Adam can’t even muster up the energy to care about his own fate. He accompanies this man to his isolated home in the desert and soon finds himself held captive – stuck at the mercy of a psychopath whose dark history prevents him from understanding the difference between reality and his own murderous fantasies.

As Adam sits locked away in confinement, he finally begins searching his soul… and finds himself faced with an important decision. Should he give up on life completely… or fight like hell to keep it?

Directed by prolific filmmaker Omar Salas Zamora and co-written by frequent collaborator Calvin Picou (who delivers a truly menacing performance), The Prodigy is an unexpected, genre-bending follow-up to their gritty 2020 drama Adam in Fragments. While that film followed Adam during his earlier days on the streets, you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy or understand this one. Both movies function as stand-alone pieces of work that happen to follow the same character.

The Prodigy finds the versatile filmmaking duo sharpening their horror skills – and ‘sharp’ is the right word. This film is not for the squeamish. If you’re looking for lighter fare, we highly recommend the Dekkoo-originals Here Comes Your Man and Nothing But Flowers, two projects from Zamora and Picou that feature far less bloodshed and a whole lot more gay romance! For those who aren’t afraid to get a little twisted, we can’t recommend The Prodigy more highly.

Watch the trailer for The Prodigy below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Rift’ is a haunting relationship thriller from Icelandic director Erlingur Thoroddsen

Months after they broke up, Gunnar (Björn Stefánsson) receives a strange phone call from his distraught ex-boyfriend, Einar (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson). He drives up to the secluded cabin where Einar is holed up and soon discovers that there’s more going on than he imagined.

As the two former lovers begin coming to terms with their broken relationship, some other person seems to be lurking outside the cabin, wanting to get in. In the most marvelous of Icelandic landscapes, the stage is set for a dense psychological thriller, where something strange and possibly sinister is growing from the ashes of a failed romance.

Packed with eerie atmosphere and captured with stunningly beautiful cinematography, Rift, a taut mystery from Icelandic writer-director Erlingur Thoroddsen, walks a fine line between thriller and relationship drama.

Chilling, thought-provoking, and deeply evocative, this is the kind of film that lingers with you long after the credits roll.

Watch the trailer for Rift below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A gay filmmaker is stalked by the undead in the clever horror-comedy ‘There’s a Zombie Outside’

A clever meta blend of queer horror and comedy, There’s a Zombie Outside follows Adam (Ben Baur), a budding young gay filmmaker whose identity is intertwined with cult cinema.

During a camping trip with his hunky boyfriend Ollie (Ty Chen) and his best friends Louis and Zeke (Francisco Chacin and William Lott), Adam finds his imagination bleeding into his mundane reality.

Spotting what appears to be a decomposing zombie lurking near their cabin, he’s sent into a panic. His friends dismiss his claims as stress-induced paranoia, but when Adam returns to Los Angeles, the zombie continues to stalk him, causing chaos in every aspect of his life.

A sharp horror from writer-director Michael Varrati, one of the most compelling queer voices in contemporary genre cinema, There’s a Zombie Outside tells a clever, meta tale about one man’s struggle to stay in control of his own story… no matter how terrifying it gets.

Watch the trailer for There’s a Zombie Outside below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo – just in time for Halloween!

Short Film Spotlight: The Repetition

Mexican writer-director Tania Karenni examines addiction and sobriety with the intense 15-minute short The Repetition.

Unfolding almost like a horror film, the story follows Daniel, a vulnerable single man played by Ernesto Siller. With only a few days sober, he’s at a turning point in his life. He must now choose between letting go of the addictions that torment him or continuing to escape his loneliness through them.

Daniel has tried again and again to rebuild himself, but the shadow of alcohol and toxic relationships always end up catching him. With a party raging next door to his apartment and a knock at the door from an alluring, but unwanted visitor, he turns to a text chain for support, but their encouragement may not be enough to keep him on the right path.

When he finally opens the front door and gives into temptation, he’s given a stark reminder of the demons that he’s been trying to keep at bay.

Skillfully acted and directed, The Repetition is a hard-hitting study of one man’s hard-fought effort to improve his life and learn to start taking things one day at a time.

Watch the trailer for The Repetition below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Sacrament

Set in the 1950s, Sacrament stars Abel Benitez and Rin Iverson as Belford and Winston, two young men on a camping trip outside their rural, religious hometown.

As the story begins to unfold it becomes abundantly clear that two men are attracted to one another, something which is forbidden by their conservative community.

What soon follows is a dark night of the soul for Belford, as he enters into a terrifying, anxiety-induced nightmare and tries to reconcile his religious faith with what his heart truly desires.

Gorgeously shot in black and white, this provocative 9-minute short from writer-director Jack Hessler uses horror imagery and religious allegory to convey complicated feelings about sacrifice, religious intolerance and repressed desires.

Watch the trailer for Sacrament below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘Ganymede’ is a clever and skillfully-crafted coming-out fable for queer horror fans

A metaphorical queer horror fable, Ganymede follows a high school athlete whose burgeoning sexual desires arrive with unexpectedly terrifying side-effects.

Jordan Doww stars in the film as Lee Fletcher. A wrestling star and third generation heir to the county commissioners seat, he’s a big deal in his small town.

When Lee develops a crush on an openly gay classmate named Kyle (Pablo Castelblanco), he finds himself stalked by a grotesque creature that emerges from the waters of his family’s lake – and literally inhabits his closet.

As the creature begins to infect Lee’s thoughts, he seeks Kyle’s advice. His parents catch them in an intimate moment that puts their relationship on the rocks and lands Lee in the office of the family’s extreme pastor, who blames Kyle and administers a dangerous treatment.

Tensions rise as the boys’ families butt heads over how to approach their children’s growing desires. Lee struggles with his attraction to Kyle and suffers escalating torment from the grotesque creature… until he is finally forced to confront an essential truth about himself.

Robin Lively, David Koechner and ‘Stranger Things’ alum Joe Chrest co-star in this clever and skillfully mounted parable from co-directors Sam Probst and Colby Holt, which uses classic horror tropes to illustrate some essential truths about coming out in a conservative environment.

Watch the trailer for Ganymede below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: The Black Widow

While cycling through the streets of Marseille, Alfredo (Siro Pedrozzi), a young Italian student, crashes his bike. Seeking help, he stumbles upon a strange porno theater – seemingly imported from another time – during the screening of a mysterious film called La Vedova Nera (The Black Widow).

Once inside, reality begins to morph with the images on the screen, creating one single terrifying dimension. Consumed with thoughts of sadomasochism, murder and graphic gay sex, our protagonist finds himself trapped somewhere between fear and arousal as he looks to make his escape from this disorienting dream space.

A colorful homage to giallo films – and the work of Dario Argento in particular – this provocative, mind-bending 21-minute queer horror short from co-directors Fiume and Julian McKinnon is backed with bold and incredibly creepy cinematic imagery you won’t soon forget.

Watch a short teaser trailer for The Black Widow below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.