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John Speredakos is no stranger to the world of indie horror. With a career that spans over two decades, the New York City-born actor has delivered unforgettable performances in films like Wendigo (2001), Blackout (2023), and now Crumb Catcher (2023), the darkly comedic thriller that premiered at Grimmfest 2024. Directed by Chris Skotchdopole, Crumb Catcher tells the unsettling story of a newlywed couple held hostage by a maniacally optimistic inventor, played by Speredakos, and his sour wife. The film explores themes of class, delusion, and desperation, all wrapped in a pitch-black comedic tone that keeps the audience guessing.

Will Knowles sat down with John at Grimmfest, where he opened up about the joy of playing such a twisted character, his love for improvisation, and what’s coming next in his burgeoning horror career.

Grimmfest, one of the UK’s premier horror festivals, was the perfect setting for Crumb Catcher to make its mark. The festival’s 2024 edition,...

Chris Skotchdopole makes his directorial debut with “Crumb Catcher,” a thriller starring Rigo Garay and Ella Rae Peck as the newlywed couple Shane and Leah. Their marriage is on shaky ground from the beginning, as is abundantly clear from their forced body language in wedding photos. Hoping for some alone time on their honeymoon, they instead find their retreat disrupted by John and Rose—an obnoxious caterer and his unsettled wife—who won’t leave Shane and Leah be.

John in particular relentlessly pursues the couple, desperate to get them onboard with his mysterious invention, the “Crumb Catcher.” His erratic behavior spins the situation out of control. Meanwhile, it’s obvious Shane and Leah barely know each other, and their relationship is hanging by a thread. Tensions escalate as John and Rose impose themselves, wielding dark secrets that threaten both Shane’s career and marriage.

Drawing from these volatile ingredients,...

Grimmfest, Manchester’s premier horror and genre film festival, is set to return to the Odeon Great Northern in Deansgate from 3rd to 6th October 2024. Celebrating its 16th edition, this year’s festival promises four days of intense thrills and unforgettable scares, showcasing the very best in contemporary genre cinema with a diverse line-up that includes world premieres, UK debuts, and a special focus on vehicle-based horror with the “Fear on Four Wheels” strand.

Grimmfest feature film premieres

The festival kicks off on Thursday, 3rd October, with the World Premiere of Tales from the Void, followed by the UK premiere of the claustrophobic psycho-thriller Black Cab, directed by Bruce Goodison and starring Nick Frost. As the evening unfolds, the darkly comedic horror Beezel and the eerie Strange Harvest will further set the tone for what promises to be a chilling weekend.

Friday, 4th October, offers a full day of terrifying treats,...

There are characters we hate, from Amon Gth in Schindlers List to Cal Hockley from Titanic. Then there are characters who are simply so annoying that our dislike for them ruins the movie, including, but hardly limited to, Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Mutt Williams from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To this list we can add at least one of the only four major characters in Crumb Catcher, a home invasion thriller and black comedy with too little storytelling credibility. It's the kind of film populated by those whose actions only occasionally strafe the realm of recognizable human behavior.

Such issues would be easier to ignore had writer/director Chris Skotchdopole, in his debut feature, paid more than lip service to the sociopolitical themes poking through his weighty screenplay. Theres an intriguing middle-class desperation in the way sweaty blabbermouth John...

Collider is excited to debut an exclusive sneak peek of Crumb Catcher, the darkly comedic thriller that has been making waves since its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 23. Directed by Chris Skotchdopole in his directorial debut, the film has garnered a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been praised for its unique blend of suspense and humor. Following a successful theatrical run at AMCs and Alamo Drafthouses across the country this summer, Crumb Catcher is now available on digital and on-demand platforms.

The world premiere of Bruce Goodison’s Black Cab starring Nick Frost will open this year’s Grimmfest, a UK horror and sci-fi fantasy festival held in Manchester October 3-6, 2024.

Frost stars in the Shudder title as an erratic cab driver who has no interest in taking the bickering couple he’s just picked up to their destination. Synnøve Karlsen and Luke Norris also star in the film which Sony Pictures Television and Stolen Pictures produce.

Black Cab will screen as part of the festival’s ‘Fear On Four Wheels’ strand which also includes the world premiere of Joey Palmroos...

Satranic Panic: "Dark Star Pictures is releasing renowned director Alice Maio Mackay’s Trans slasher/horror Satranic Panic On Digital and On Demand August 13, 2024.

A bloody, demon-infested road movie about the power of claiming one’s identity and the importance of chosen family, Satranic Panic exposes the hypocrisy of the status quo with biting wit, killer drag, and incredible tits.

Satranic Panic made its world premiere at SXSW’s inaugural edition in Sydney before heading to Panic Fest, Salem Horror Fest and more. Dread Central raved that the film is Maio Mackay’s “most ambitious story and style yet.”

At only twenty years old, Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay has already directed five feature films, including So Vam (2021), Bad Girl Boogey (2022), T Blockers (2023), Satranic Panic, and the upcoming Carnage for Christmas. As a transgender filmmaker, Maio Mackay uses camp and comedy to boldly queer the horror genre, crafting vibrant,...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we return to discuss a living legend with a big, new, ambitious project. Perhaps his most ambitious project yet! Our subject is Kevin Costner, the great American filmmaker whose new film Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is now available to rent or buy on VOD. Sadly, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 has been postponed to a later time in order to allow for a wider audience to discover Chapter 1.

Our B-Sides this time around include No Way Out, Revenge, The Upside of Anger, and Let Him Go. Filmmaker Chadd Harbold joins us. His new film Crumb Catcher, directed by Chris Skotchdopole and produced by Harbold, is now in theaters. We discuss Costner’s origin story, his brilliance at self-mythology,...

Independents look solid this weekend with Vertical’s Widow Clicquot nice alternative programming amid summer blockbuster season, IFC Film horror Oddity off to a fine start, and Thelma, one of the year’s biggest specialty hits, passing $8 million. New films and holdovers in limited release did business.

Thomas Napper’s Widow Clicquot is looking at an estimated 3-day box-office gross of $190k on about 100 screens. Haley Bennett stars as Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot in the true story of a 20-year-old woman who flouts convention by — after her husband dies — taking the reins of their wine business. Clicquot (1777–1866) defied her critics and ultimately revolutionized the champagne industry one of the world’s early, great businesswomen. (‘Veuve’ is French for widow.)

The R-rated drama, screenplay by Erin Dignam, is 88% with critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, a good sign for an extended run. Top five opening markets include LA, NY, San Francisco, Washington D.

It’s busy and Twister-y at the box office this weekend, but a few indies are hoping to catch a breeze with very well-reviewed Oddity looking to expand the market for high-end horror and Widow Clicquot to attract fans of good period films and bubbly.

Oddity from IFC Films, is a supernatural home-invasion horror from writer-director Damian McCarthy (Caveat). It opens on 790 screens, the widest new indie release this week. Carolyn Bracken stars as Dani, who is restoring an old castle in rural Cork County, Ireland, with her husband Ted (Gwilym Lee), a doctor at a facility for the criminally insane. When Dani is brutally murdered, her blind occultist twin sister Darcy (also Bracken) goes after those responsible using inherited haunted items as her tools of revenge. Premiered in SXSW’s Midnighter section, taking the Audience Award. At 98% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Vertical’s Indie drama Widow Cliquot is...

Even Mario Bava’s succinctly titled horror “Hatchet for the Honeymoon” 54 years ago did not imagine a more vividly unpleasant entrée to wedlock than “Crumb Catcher,” Chris Skotchdopole’s feature directorial bow. In this mix of home-invasion thriller and grotesque comedy, a just-hitched young couple already on each other’s last nerves are surprised by uninvited visitors, causing the night to go from bad to very much worse. If you can withstand spending nearly two hours in the company of these grating, argumentative characters, there are rewards to be had in a skillfully wrought, twisty suspense tale that releases to limited U.S. theaters on July 19.

Introduced posing for photos immediately after their wedding, Shane (Rigo Garay) and Leah (Ella Rae Peck) do not appear to be much of a love match. He’s clearly discomfited by the high-end surroundings, which her otherwise disapproving parents apparently bankrolled; she unthinkingly “corrects” his every spoken thought.

Judging by his director’s statement, Chris Skotchdopole had bigger ideas for the allegorical “Crumb Catcher” than his messy debut feature pulls off. That won’t matter to the right audience who, when self-selected, ought to resemble a perfect Venn diagram of Eli Roth’s “Knock Knock” fans and apologists for Michael Haneke’s American “Funny Games” remake.

This bizarre four-hander drama turned psychological thriller — about newlyweds harassed on their honeymoon by a shady couple hocking a mysterious culinary invention — doesn’t quite match the filmmaker’s lofty ambition to say something…anything…that hasn’t already been said about marital malaise and the American Dream. Still, there’s a tasteful sort of nausea contained in Skotchdopole’s sloppy blackmail plot as chunky as it is tragicomic. Set mostly inside a nondescript rental home in upstate New York, this incohesive experiment in escalating tensions and false niceties will whet the...

Chris Skotchdopole’s Crumb Catcher is a tantalizing mix of the absurd and the mundane, with each of those two poles encapsulated by John (John Speredakos), an aging waiter who describes himself as an artist and entrepreneur. With his earnest grin and thinning mane, he registers less as a threat than an annoyance when he accosts a young, just-married couple, Shane (Rigo Garay) and Leah (Ella Rae Peck), in their car, making the sort of insistent small talk that you would seem to need a crowbar to extricate yourself from.

You’ve probably seen this sort of man before. If so, you maybe tried to avoid him. And in Skotchdopole’s feature debut, he shows up in the middle of the night to the lavish home where Shane and Leah spend their honeymoon, subjecting them to the mother of all horrors: a pitch.

The film takes its time at first,...

Between Despicable Me 4 (July 3), Twisters (July 19), and Deadpool & Wolverine (July 26), there aren’t going to be too many open screens in theaters this month. So marketing becomes a huge piece of the puzzle as far as standing out and turning heads goes. This is especially true since all three of those movies stuck to the status quo of jokey, bland Photoshop work.

Give us artistry, lo-fi aesthetics, and a healthy dose of grain to counteract that gloss. Give us the below counter-punches and redistribute some of that summer box-office profit.

Playful

Yes, the MaXXXine (opens July 5) campaign is glossy and A24 is hardly “the little guy” anymore, but Mocean’s teaser is also a lot of fun. Ti West’s trilogy arrives in 1980s Hollywood the best way it can: via the iconic Hollywood sign, now reworked to present the film’s title.

It’s a roadmap. A...

Home invasion movie Crumb Catcher is heading our way later this month, and a brand new poster warns that nothing will prepare for what’s ahead.

Chris Skotchdopole wrote and directed Crumb Catcher, with story by Skotchdopole, Larry Fessenden, Rigo Garay, and Doppelgänger Releasing will unleash the film in select theaters on July 19, 2024.

In Crumb Catcher, “Newlyweds Shane and Leah have their marriage tested when two weirdos with entrepreneurial zeal and a half-baked blackmail plot crash their honeymoon — they’re looking for investors for their latest invention and won’t take no for an answer.”

Check out the new poster and the uncomfortable trailer below.

Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, Lorraine Farris, and John Speredakos star in the home invasion horror movie that premiered at last year’s Fantastic Fest.

“I started writing Crumb Catcher in 2016 as our country was being divided by the Great Hate Magnet. What emerged was...

"I want you to take a journey... a journey into the future." Music Box Films has revealed one more official trailer for a peculiar indie dark comedy called Crumb Catcher, opening in art house theaters later in July. This premiered at the Fantastic Fest 2023 last year, with stops at the Woodstock and Brooklyn Horror Film Fests as well. A newlywed couple is held captive in a remote lake house by a maniacally optimistic inventor and his sour wife who are desperate to finance his dream project with a half-baked blackmail plot. Starring Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, Lorraine Farris, and John Speredakos. "A gonzo home invasion thriller from Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix that pummels the American Dream into just desserts, Crumb Catcher is a striking directorial debut from Chris Skotchdopole." Armed with his proprietary & precious design and with his surly wife Rose by his side, John insists that the couple hear his pitch.

First-time director Chris Skotchdopole is putting a new spin on the home invasion thriller with his debut feature Crumb Catcher. Premiered at Fantastic Fest last year, and releasing in theaters courtest of Dopplegnger Releasing, the film follows a pair of uneasy newlyweds whose honeymoon is crashed by two strangers hawking their latest invention, the titular Crumb Catcher. They have no intention of leaving until they get their money and quickly overstay their welcome in an uncomfortable and deeply troubling visit. Collider is excited to share the official trailer for the film, which teases their cringe-inducing attempts at selling the invention and the deeper horror behind their arrival.

In the wake of the film’s Fantastic Fest premiere, Doppelgänger Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to the home invasion movie Crumb Catcher, Deadline reports this afternoon.

Chris Skotchdopole wrote and directed Crumb Catcher, and Doppelgänger Releasing plans on bringing the film to theaters later this year. Read on for more information.

In Crumb Catcher, “After blacking out on his wedding night, Shane (Rigo Garay) and his wife (Ella Rae Peck) head to a remote estate for their honeymoon. That night, there’s a knock at the door; a waiter and bartender from the reception, blackmailing Shane for something he can’t remember doing. But the blackmailers don’t just want money. They’re after business partners for their invention, an outlandish device called…the Crumb Catcher.”

“I started writing Crumb Catcher in 2016 as our country was being divided by the Great Hate Magnet. What emerged was a twisted tale of home invasion,...

Exclusive: Doppelgänger Releasing, the genre-focused label of Music Box Films, has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Crumb Catcher, the debut feature from Chris Skotchdopole.

Crumb Catcher debuted at Fantastic Fest, before going on to play Woodstock Film Festival and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize for Best Ensemble and the Gold Audience Award.

The film was written and directed by Skotchdople and was produced by indie vet Larry Fessenden, alongside Brian Devine, Chadd Harbold, Bonnie Timmermann, and James W. Skotchdopole. Doppelgänger Releasing will open Crumb Catcher in theaters later this year, with a home entertainment release to follow.

Pic is led by Rigo Garay and Ella Rae Peck, with Lorraine Farris and John Speredakos rounding out the cast. Synopsis reads: After blacking out on his wedding night, Shane (Garay) and his wife (Peck) head to a remote estate for their honeymoon. That night, there’s...

"I guess I don't understand why the customer would want to sweep up their own crumbs?" Good question. Glass Eye Pictures has revealed a teaser trailer for an indie dark comedy called Crumb Catcher, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Chris Skotchdopole. This is premiering at Fantastic Fest down in Austin, Texas this week, with no official release date set yet - only more festivals. A newlywed couple is held captive in a remote lake house by a maniacally optimistic inventor and his sour wife who are desperate to finance his dream project with a half-baked blackmail plot. Fantastic Fest describe it as "a chamber piece that melds extreme anxiety with the worst salesmanship imaginable. Every single character is hilariously despicable in their own way, and each motivated by selfishness and ego." Starring Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, John Speredakos, Lorraine Farris, and Rebecca Watson. Keep an eye out for this sneaky film.

Chris Skotchdopole has spent ten years working with the fine folks at Glass Eye Pix. They are all set to make their directorial debut at Fantastic Fest with their thriller Crumb Catcher. A festival teaser has been sent out, check it out below. The thriller has been picked up for worldwide sales by Submarine Entertainment. Crumb Catcher has at least two more stops on the circuit: Woodstock Film Festival and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Submarine Entertainment, the NYC-based sales and production company, has announced today picking up worldwide sales rights on Chris Skotchdopole’s Fantastic Fest-bound feature directorial debut Crumb Catcher, which will world premiere at the celebrated genre event, and has released a first-look festival teaser and poster for the film. Skotchdopole wrote,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Submarine Entertainment is picking up worldwide sales rights on Chris Skotchdopole’s feature directorial debut “Crumb Catcher.” The move comes just ahead of the darkly comic thriller’s Fantastic Fest world premiere.

Skotchdopole wrote, directed, edited, and produced the movie and Submarine Entertainment, a notable sales and production company, will launch sales out of the festival, which runs from Sept. 21 to Sept. 28 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. “Crumb Catcher” was described by Fantastic Fest programmer Anna Bogutskaya as a “chamber piece that melds extreme anxiety with the worst salesmanship imaginable.” The film follows a newlywed couple held captive by an entrepreneur desperate to finance his outlandish invention with a blackmail plot.

With ten years of experience working with Glass Eye Pix, the New York independent genre production outfit led by horror auteur Larry Fessenden, Skotchdopole has amassed numerous credits on several films, including working as the cinematographer on Fessenden’s “Depraved,...