Movies
New Casting for ‘Wither’ and ‘Puppet Master’ Directors’ ‘They Cast No Shadows’
Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, the dynamic duo behind Swedish Evil Dead inspired splatterfest Wither, as well as the forthcoming Puppet Master reboot, The Littlest Reich, have begun work on their next horror venture.
We told you last December that Laguna and Wiklund are reteaming once again for They Cast No Shadows, from a script they co-wrote with regular collaborator David Liljeblad.
“In 1963, Laura and her sister Beth is the sole heirs of an enormous estate, including a mansion, on a small remote island just off the coast. Beth has been unemployed for a long time and is a heavy drinker, a troubled soul. She wants to sell everything off as soon as possible. But her big sister Laura has a brief memory of living there as small children with her grandmother. But that on one rainy night, everybody left in a hurry, including the staff working there. The children were sent to an orphanage home without any explanation and never heard from their grandmother again. Laura decides she wants to learn more about their distant relatives and takes a trip to the island. Upon arrival, their family history is slowly revealing itself in photos and diaries. But something about the past is hidden away, so dark and menacing, it will not let Laura leave while still alive.”
Jenny Pellicer, who stars in the duo’s Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, will play Laura, while today we’ve learned that they’re also reteaming with Wither star Lisa Henni (pictured).
The filmmakers seeking more cast as they ramp up development.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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