Movies
Aliens Invade for Electricity in Second ‘Darkest Hour’ Trailer, Stupid Billboards Litter City
I’m highly concerned about Summit Entertainment’s The Darkest Hour (set report part 1, part 2), which invades theaters this Christmas. While both the first trailer and the new one embedded inside are pretty impressive, other aspects of the campaign are downright shocking. There are billboards all over the Los Angeles area that exclaim “Survive the Holidays” in giant font, while below it you’ll be lucky to catch the title while driving 25+MPH. Even worse is that the imagery behind the text is absolutely impossible to see. It literally looks like the city is plastered with billboards for a movie called Survive the Holidays. Is it like this across the country?
Directed by Chris Gorak, and starring Olivia Thirlby, Emile Hirsch, Rachael Taylor, Joel Kinnaman and Max Minghella, the 28 Days-like thriller follows five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.
I’m going to see it because I love Gorak’s Right at Your Door, and am a fan of both Thirlby and Hirsch. But what does the rest of American think? I’d be incredibly concerned if I were Summit.
There’s no slowing down Alice Maio Mackay. The filmmaker behind So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey, and this year’s The Serpent’s Skin is already back with sci-fi horror Our Effed Up World.
Starring Annapurna Sriram (Fucktoys), Sara Thompson (“One of Us is Lying”) and Jess McLeod (It’s a Wonderful Knife) and produced by Dark Star Pictures, the film will receive its International Premiere at Fantasia Film Festival on July 18, 2026.
The first teaser has arrived ahead of its fest screening, which sees a group of friends contend with terror from outer space when it crash lands nearby.
The synopsis reads: “Sheri thought her biggest problem in life was dealing with the recent loss of her beloved grandma. But when a mysterious entity crash lands in the woods, only she and her group of shitkicker friends are what stands in the way of an insatiable, intergalactic hunger.”
Scott Major, Brandon Flynn, Jordan Dulieu, JackHaven, Leela Varghese, Tommy Dorfman, and Chris Gun also star.
I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun produces.
Mackay directs from a script co-written with Ben Pahl Robinson.
Mackay shares of her latest, “Our Effed Up World is my latest no budget queer film. I wanted to delve into a completely new sub-genre—sci-fi. But still through my signature lens and blend of campiness and melodrama. This project allowed me to take a step back from all the horrors that are happening around us and to really reflect on what makes us who we are and what we need to do to hang on to what is important in our lives. Whilst also being a rumination on grief and how we cope with living in an ‘effed” up world.'”
The 30th edition of Fantasia begins today; stay tuned for more from our coverage of the fest.
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