Larry Fessenden is uniting his classic monsters for what may be his final film.

Dark Sky Films just announced that *Trauma, or Monsters All* hits theaters November 4th. The film opens at IFC Center in New York, followed by a Los Angeles run at Lumiere Music Hall and a nationwide VOD release on November 24th.

The new film brings together the vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, and werewolf from Fessenden’s earlier work (*Habit*, *Depraved*, *Blackout*) into a single story. French actress Laëtitia Hollard plays Cassandra, a visiting writer researching George Washington Carver in the upstate town of Talbot Falls. After she publishes an exposé on the town’s dark history, the monsters emerge and the community’s buried trauma comes flooding back.

The ensemble cast includes Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, and Fessenden himself. The 119-minute film marks another collaboration between Dark Sky and Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix, the production house behind *The House of the Devil*, *The Innkeepers*, and *Stake Land*.

“I’ve spent my career reimagining classic monsters because they reveal something deeply human about us,” Fessenden said. The film reportedly blends gothic horror with social commentary, tackling themes of memory, guilt, and identity.

IFC Center is also running a seven-film Fessenden retrospective starting October 28th in honor of Glass Eye Pix’s 40th anniversary.

This matters because Fessenden has championed independent horror for decades, both as a filmmaker and a producer who’s nurtured voices like Ti West, Jim Mickle, and Kelly Reichardt. If this is truly his last film, he’s going out swinging.

A messy millennial gets knocked up by an extraterrestrial, and nobody believes her.

MUM, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT, the feature debut from New Zealand directing duo THUNDERLIPS, drops on digital and VOD October 27th via XYZ Films. The film follows Mary, an underachieving twentysomething who accidentally becomes alien-pregnant and has to navigate skeptical doctors, a useless baby daddy, and her oversharing mother just to survive.

The film expands on THUNDERLIPS’ 2024 short HELP, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT, with Hannah Lynch (The Rule of Jenny Pen) returning to play Mary. She’s joined by Yvette Parsons (What We Do in the Shadows), Arlo Green (Shortland Street), and Jackie van Beek, co-creator of the Australian version of The Office.

MUM, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance earlier this year and earned strong reviews, currently sitting at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a wild mix of body horror and comedy that puts a millennial spin on alien invasion tropes.

For indie filmmakers working in genre, this is proof that a strong concept and fresh voice can carry a feature, even when scaling up from a short. THUNDERLIPS took a weird idea and ran with it all the way to Sundance.

An all-girl heavy metal band fights for survival against vampires, cannibals, a werewolf, and a warlock in the supernatural horror film Devour, hitting select theaters October 9 and digital platforms October 13.

The film stars Heidi Shepherd, vocalist for metal band Butcher Babies, alongside KateLynn E. Newberry, Gus Langley, and Alex Lucchesi. After a disastrous gig leaves them stranded, the band encounters a woman in danger and gets trapped in a remote town controlled by a powerful warlock. To survive until morning, they’ll have to tap into dark powers of their own.

Director Scott B. Hansen, who previously made the festival favorite Bad Candy, went heavy on practical effects. The creatures were created by Wayne Anderson, whose credits include Stranger Things, IT: Chapter One, and Avatar: The Way of Water. Anderson and the OX FX team built the film’s vampires, werewolves, and cannibals using creature suits, prosthetics, makeup, and animatronics instead of relying on digital effects.

Devour has already racked up over a dozen festival selections and won Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Vampire Feature at the Freakshow Horror Film Festival. It also got a shoutout on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast.

Hansen, who’s directed music videos for Meshuggah, Willie Nelson, and Motionless in White, brings his music roots into the film, where the band’s identity and the supernatural horror are closely intertwined. For genre fans looking for practical creature work and metal energy, this one’s a bloody ride.

A cult-like mentality spreads through a Japanese high school, turning gymnastics routines into a dance of death. That’s the premise of NEW GROUP, a body horror film from writer-director Yûta Shimotsu that streams on Shudder starting November 6th.

The film follows high school student Ai as people around her become mindless followers capable of transforming everyday exercises into something deadly. Shimotsu, who studied mechanical engineering before moving into filmmaking, co-wrote the script with Momoko Sahara. The cast includes Anna Yamada, Yuzu Aoki, and Pierre Taki.

Critics are calling it more than shock value. Rue Morgue praised its “underpinning of social commentary,” while Bloody Disgusting called it “an incredible, unpredictable body horror masterpiece that doubles as an indicting satire of Japan’s society.” MovieWeb noted its “daring and utterly confident trip into the pitfalls of societal norms.”

Shimotsu made his feature debut with BEST WISHES TO ALL in 2023 after years directing commercials and shorts. NEW GROUP screened at Fantasia International Film Festival and Sitges before landing on Shudder.

At just 82 minutes, it’s a lean slice of social horror for anyone tired of conformity.

A woman home alone. A dating app mishap. And a whole lot of blood.

Dark Sky Films brings HUMAN to select theaters and VOD on October 23, following a West Coast premiere the night before at Laemmle Glendale. Director Matt Stuertz (Tonight She Comes, RWD) takes audiences through a claustrophobic nightmare that unfolds over one terrible evening.

The film follows Dani Ferris (Jackie Kelly), exhausted and alone, who just wanted a little late-night distraction before bed. Instead, she gets dragged into a supernatural horror show packed with bodily fluids and emotional chaos. Every relationship becomes a gamble. Every hour brings a new threat.

Stuertz keeps the tension cranked as Dani rides out a night of friends, lovers, enemies, guns, and things far beyond natural. The single-night structure keeps things tight. The practical effects keep things gross. Critics at Fright Fest and Obscura Film Fest have already called it relentless, vibrant, and stomach-turning in the best way.

The cast includes Brock Russell, Cecily Dowd, Jeffrey Decker, and Mia Sydney. David Neiss wrote the script.

For indie horror fans craving something unstable and hallucinatory, this one’s landing just in time for Halloween season.