After Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession made box office history, Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky has his own collection of Gen Z-fluent horror filmmakers competing to become Hollywood’s next horror film sensations for the major studios to fight over at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.
Take debut feature director Joshua Giuliano who will open Kuplowsky’s late night thrills and spills showcase with a world premiere for River, a survival slasher that brings together modern scream queens Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe in a dark tale about three estranged siblings reuniting to scatter their late father’s ashes along a remote river, only to face a waking nightmare.
“The film begins as a domestic drama between siblings, and then ratchets into one of the most suspenseful films I’ve seen in years,” Kuplowsky told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of unveiling his 2026 Midnight Madness sidebar lineup on Thursday.
Jonah Hauer-King and Kristine Froseth in ‘The Face Of Horror’.
Courtesy of Good Chaos
