Movies
‘Death Boom’ Documentary Trailer – Eli Roth & Leonardo DiCaprio Expose the Deathcare Industry
From Eli Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way Productions, and QC Entertainment (Get Out, Us) comes the documentary Death Boom, which aims to pull back the curtain on the deathcare industry. Watch the official trailer for the Death Boom documentary below.
Directed by Jessica Chandler, the exposé documentary is produced by Eli Roth and Leonardo DiCaprio, with Eli Roth also serving as the narrator for Death Boom.
Death Boom will premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 9.
“Compelled by the urgency of the subject and the rare opportunity to document an unfolding crisis on American soil, Death Boom pulls back the curtain on the catastrophic mental and environmental impacts of the contemporary deathcare industry.”
“The film, shown through the lens of the workers at the heart of it as they prepare for the passing of 77 million baby boomers, exposes the toll that embalming, cremation, and traditional burial have on those who’ve passed, their families, and deathcare workers, and the corruption – political, religious, and corporate – that stands in opposition to greener methods being nationally legalized and accessible. It ultimately shows what is possible if these green methods are put into wider practice, and works toward normalizing conversations around death and grief.”
“Jessica Chandler and I have wanted to make this film for over 20 years, since she first told me about the environmental horrors of the death care industry and how avoiding death as a subject makes us complicit,” said Roth. “We spent years finding brave people willing to speak on camera, revealing the poisoning of our bodies and land that contaminates our water, air, and food.”
Roth continued, “We aimed to show the issue from all sides, without blame or shame, and to present clear solutions that already exist but are blocked by those invested in maintaining the current system for profit. Made entirely in secrecy, the film will shock and inspire. This is not an attack on an industry, but an effort to understand how we got here and how we can move forward together to protect future generations.”
Variety debuted the below trailer for Death Boom this afternoon.
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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