PLAY HOUSE

Exactly one year ago, Nic Curcio, Kirby Gladstein, and Ben Gojer stood on stage in the Highball and promised all of us that they could make a kick-ass horror film. They won the inaugural Fantastic Pitches and have returned to Fantastic Fest to world premiere PLAY HOUSE. Since accepting their crowns, the team has been on a full sprint to the finish. With no time to catch their breath, the team barreled through development, casting, and production, taking a week's break for the director and producer to get married before heading into post. Divide/Conquer (M3GAN, BLACK PHONE 2) joined Chroma as executive producers on the film. My spidey senses and my Instagram algorithm tell me that this is just the beginning of what will be very scary and successful careers for all three of these champions.

Curcio’s directorial debut follows Elliot (Will Harrison from DAISY JONES & THE SIX) as he navigates a terror where all millennial egos go to die: the real estate market, where thanks to the death of his mother, he is able to buy the most shitty of homes in LA County. With the help of his best friend Alden (Jordan Gonzalez from THE LONG WALK), Elliot plans to restore the dilapidated house to the cozy home it once was in hopes of winning back his ex-girlfriend played by Jessica Sula (MICHAEL), because nothing says emotional growth like the grand gesture of home-buying.

While cleaning out the basement of his new home, Elliot discovers some old VHS tapes crammed into the dark reaches of the broken water heater. Each musty tape contains an episode of a children’s television show that not even the darkest nerd corners of the internet can identify. The show’s host Mr. Morton (James Urbaniak from OPPENHEIMER) smiles with the kind of warmth that curdles a few seconds too late, and his monster friends feel less like puppets than something that used to be. The more he watches, the more we appreciate our rental agreements. (AHBRA PERRY)