FROM DREAD CENTRAL by Matt Konopka

The world is full of trauma…and monsters. 

Dark Sky Films has unveiled the trailer for Larry Fessenden‘s (Habit) creature feature, Trauma Or, Monsters All. It’s packed full of monsters, and looks like everything fans have come to expect from the singular filmmaker’s work. 

Produced by Glass Eye Pix, the film serves as the culmination of Fessenden’s decades-long reinterpretation of the classic Universal monsters, bringing together the vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, and the werewolf from his acclaimed films Habit, Depraved, and Blackout into one haunting contemporary story.

In the film, visiting writer Cassandra (Laëtitia Hollard, currently appearing in NBC’s acclaimed medical drama The Pitt) arrives in the quiet upstate town of Talbot Falls to research a book on George Washington Carver while working at the local library alongside her new friend Agnes (Aitana Doyle). After Cassandra publishes an article exposing the town’s unsettling past, buried secrets begin to surface as a werewolf, vampire, and Frankenstein creation emerge from the shadows, forcing the community to confront generations of fear, guilt, and suppressed trauma. 

Vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster, and loads of creature feature mayhem? Fessenden appears to have created the dream monster mashup that Universal has struggled to get together for years. And my monster-loving heart is filled with antici…pation. 

The ensemble cast features Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos, Marc Senter, Micheál Neeson, Joshua Leonard, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, with appearances by Emily Bennett and Toby Poser, alongside a host of returning Glass Eye Pix collaborators.

Said Fessenden, “I’ve spent my career reimagining classic monsters because they reveal something deeply human about us. Trauma Or, Monsters All brings those stories together into one film about memory, identity, and the wounds we carry. I’m grateful to reunite with Dark Sky Films, whose support of independent horror has made them the perfect home for this project.” 

Added Greg Newman, EVP of Dark Sky Films, “Our partnership with Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix spans many years and some of the most influential independent horror films of their era. Trauma Or, Monsters All is another bold, uncompromising work from one of the genre’s true visionaries, and we’re proud to bring it to audiences.”

Experience Trauma Or, Monsters All when the film releases in theaters on November 4th with an opening at the IFC Center in New York, followed by a Los Angeles opening at Lumiere Music Hall and additional markets.

Read the article at DREAD CENTRAL

trailer edit by Garo Setian at Hungry Monster Entertainment

I wrote “The Podwatchers” in early 2023, and that first version centered around some of the (then) new developments in AI.  Joke was on me: I had to completely re-think and re-write it every few months for three more years as invasive AI tech and its fanatical pushers keep evolving faster than future-projecting sci-fi satire could keep up.  Anything specific became immediately dated; anything vague felt generic and toothless.  But the effect of pervasive, invasive AI is now clear: an alarming amount of our shared reality has been devalued to the point where little can be trusted.  

I’m writing this in October 2026 after a family game night at my kid’s school – and all the taped up game flyers around the schoolyard were made with AI.  At an open classroom event, I was shocked to learn that the school was pushing generative AI on the students in order for them to make presentations.  

This indoctrination is not a path to a future that values creativity, reality, or humanity.  This is a path to mental, financial and cultural enslavement – but to whom?  Or to what? Tech oligarchs? Corrupt dictatorships? Something worse we can’t even imagine?  If this sounds pessimistic, fatalistic, nihilistic – it’s because it is.  This is end-of-existence stuff, and we’re collectively running straight toward it, whether we want to or not.  There are only two things that give me optimism against this rotten tide: art and empathy.  Two things both AI and AI evangelists will never comprehend.  Will it be enough? Let’s all find out together. 

Graham Reznick
October 9th 2026
Earth

THE PODWATCHERS
Written and Directed by Graham Reznick

Fessenden’s Monsterverse Mashup flick
TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
lands an official Staff Pick at the Woodstock Film Festival 2026

get your tix!

OPTIC NERVE: A TRIBUTE TO GLASS EYE PIX

Wednesday, October 28 – Tuesday, November 3, 2026

A bona fide indie original and New York City filmmaking hero, Larry Fessenden is a legend in genre and independent film. Through his production company Glass Eye Pix (“One of the indie scene’s most productive and longest-running companies” —Filmmaker Magazine), Fessenden has directed, written and acted in horror favorites like HABIT, THE LAST WINTER and DEPRAVED, and provided early support to filmmakers ranging from Ti West to Kelly Reichardt.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Glass Eye Pix and the upcoming release of his latest TRAUMA, OR MONSTERS ALL, opening at IFC Center on Wed, Nov 4, join us for a seven-film retrospective spanning highlights from Fessenden’s remarkable, multifaceted career.

24 Hour screening of GEP Pal JT Petty’s Short BLOOD RED EARTH,
Glass Eye Pix produced prequel to his feature film THE BURROWERS.
BLOOD RED EARTH was shot in the Hudson Valley and
produced by Peter Phok and Brent Kunkle in collaboration with Lionsgate and FearNet in 2008.  

From the Rue Morgue article by Michael Gingold

… Getting back to TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, are there more of those coming up?

Well, we’re on season six right now, and I just wrote and directed the last episode, “Three Raps on the Buoy,” which stars Ron Perlman, Ashley Bell and Declan Reynolds, who plays Lee in GRAYSON MANOR [see details here]. And we have Graham Reznick’s piece coming up next week as well. I’m very excited and thankful for TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE; it’s a great platform for us to be able to get work out quickly. And I have a story by myself and Declan Reynolds called “Stay Out!” that I’m going to be doing live in New York in November [details to come—MG]. That’s very much based on a feature film script that I believe will be next for me.

TALES has been a launching pad for a few movies now. Do you foresee more features being developed out of those stories?

I’d love to. I mean, we have almost 60 at this point. When we first started TALES, it was part of the concept that myself and Larry and everyone else we invited had feature scripts lying around, and it might be a nice platform to get the content out there, give it some legs and move it on up to a feature film. The first person to do that was Larry with BLACKOUT, and I know April Snellings has a great TALE called “Food Chain” and has been working on a feature script version of that. Likewise, with “Stay Out!”, I really believe it’s important to get that story out, give it some legs and move forward with it.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR?

Just that it’s been such a wild, long journey, and I’m so thankful for the kindness and support I’ve being shown by all the people who have seen the movie, and those who are excited to see it as well.

Read about THE RESTORATION OF GRAYSON MANOR at Rue Morgue

Fessenden to attend.
Meanwhile, joined by many pals, old and new:
Glenn McQuaid and the Adams Family
also screening films.
Check out the lineup!

CHRIS COLFER STARS IN YOUR NEW FAVORITE CAMP HORROR JAM.

Boyd Grayson is an Irish playboy who delights in bringing men home to his sprawling family estate for sex, just to spite his legacy-obsessed mother, reminding her she’ll never get the grandchildren she craves. When an accident leaves him incapacitated, Boyd finds himself handless, helpless, and at the mercy of her care.

Luckily for Boyd, his mother’s familial wealth has given him the opportunity to be the first person in the history of the world to pilot an experimental technology: mechanical hands controlled entirely by his subconscious. Soon, however, the hands begin to move on their own… even when they’re not attached to Boyd’s body.

Chris Colfer playing Irish, Alice Krige playing a matriarch trying to rebuild her son at any cost. Add to the mix disembodied hands that come to life, a crumbling estate full of barbed arguments, and a gallery of characters as despicable as they are magnetic. Colfer and Krige are delicious as cinema’s most twisted mother-son duo you can’t help but adore, and Declan Reynolds as Lee will become the new horror heartthrob of your gay dreams.

Director Glenn McQuaid embraces the melodrama with a sharp eye and fearless sincerity, grounding the film’s outrageous premise in real emotion.

While always funny, the film feels authentic and sincere, expressing pain around queer acceptance and the need for familial bonds even when those relationships can be painful. THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR is fun, it’s sexy, it has some astounding grounded camerawork, and we’ll all learn the importance of a satisfying helping hand. (AUSTIN KING)

Starts Friday Oct 9! Buy Tickets Now!!