Indie horror’s resident monster-maker is finally bringing the whole ghoulish family home. Larry Fessenden’s eerie crossover epic Trauma Or, Monsters All will creep into theaters November 4 courtesy of Dark Sky Films, opening with an exclusive engagement at New York’s IFC Center complete with cast appearances and a Q&A. A Los Angeles bow at the Lumiere Music Hall and additional markets follow, with the film arriving on VOD nationwide on November 24. Dark Sky marked the announcement by debuting the film’s trailer, which you can watch below.
Produced by Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix, Trauma Or, Monsters All is the culmination of the filmmaker’s decades-long reimagining of the classic Universal monsters, uniting the vampire from 1995’s Habit, the stitched-together creature from 2019’s Depraved and the werewolf from 2023’s Blackout in one haunted, contemporary tale. Fessenden reprises his role as Habit’s bloodsucker Sam, while Alex Breaux returns as Depraved’s patchwork man Adam. Dark Sky’s announcement also notes that the film is rumored to be Fessenden’s last – which would make this gothic monster rally a fitting, if bittersweet, curtain call.
In the film, visiting writer Cassandra (Laëtitia Hollard, The Pitt) arrives in the quiet upstate town of Talbot Falls to research a book on George Washington Carver, taking a job at the local library alongside her new friend Agnes (Aitana Doyle). When Cassandra publishes an article exposing the town’s unsettling past, buried secrets begin clawing their way to the surface – and a werewolf, a vampire and a Frankensteinian creation emerge from the shadows, forcing the community to confront generations of fear, guilt and suppressed trauma.
The ensemble also includes Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, John Speredakos, Marc Senter, Micheál Neeson, Joshua Leonard, Barbara Crampton and James Le Gros, with appearances by Emily Bennett and Toby Poser, alongside a host of returning Glass Eye Pix regulars. The 119-minute film has already haunted the festival circuit, premiering at Overlook earlier this year before stops at Fantasia and FrightFest.
“I’ve spent my career reimagining classic monsters because they reveal something deeply human about us.”
Larry FessendeN
Fessenden added that he was grateful to reunite with Dark Sky, calling the label the perfect home for the project. The two companies go back nearly two decades, with Dark Sky having released such Glass Eye Pix titles as Ti West’s The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land, plus Stake Land 2, Hypothermia, Late Phases, Bitter Feast and Blackout. Dark Sky EVP Greg Newman described the new film as another bold, uncompromising work from one of the genre’s true visionaries.
New Yorkers can get primed for the creepy reunion a week early: beginning October 28, IFC Center will present OPTIC NERVE: A Tribute to Glass Eye Pix, a seven-film retrospective celebrating the company’s 40th anniversary and spanning highlights from Fessenden’s multifaceted career.
