Thriller Picture Show 2026
October 2 – October 4
The Lindsay is once again kicking off October with a spooky season favorite!
The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival‘s Thriller Picture Show is returning here for the fourth consecutive year. Presented by Image 987 Productions and What Sleeps Beneath, this annual event offers audiences a huge selection of independently made features and short films from around the world.
The 2026 Thriller Picture Show will take place from Friday, Oct. 2 through Sunday, Oct. 4. This year’s lineup includes seven shorts blocks, four features and an awards ceremony taking place on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are currently on sale for each feature screening and short film block. Filmgoers can purchase All Festival Passes for $35, Single Day Passes—Oct. 2, Oct. 3 and Oct. 4—for $15 or individual feature/short block tickets for $11/$8.75.
Here’s everything the Thriller Picture Show has in store for Lindsay viewers this year:
OCT. 2 SHOWTIMES AND TICKETS
EnAbeling Cain
Noon | 1h 30min | Comedy
Director: Jim Menza
Stars: Katherine Bellantone, Jack Burr, Tim Knutsen
Brothers take aim at each other with the hope of being the last one alive in order to inherit the billions left by their recently deceased father. This outrageous romp comes with a fitting tagline: “Eat, drink and be merry—for tomorrow, we die.”
EnABeling Cain writer-director Jim Menza is a Thriller Picture Show veteran. His crime comedy Kick the Can played during last year’s festivities.
Enjoy the Daylight
1:45 p.m. | 2h 12min
The name of this year’s first shorts block was inspired by the closing credits of the 1980s horror anthology series Tales from the Darkside: “The dark side is always there waiting for us to enter, waiting to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.”
• Wasting Time (13min): Charlie, a man stuck in a cycle, meets a girl who shows him a different type of love. Directed by Ciana Y. Bergey.
• Until We Meet Again (21min): August struggles to move on after the tragic loss of his best friend. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Darrel Pullie. Until We Meet Again premiered at The Lindsay in May 2025.
• Graceland (11min): Grace forgets to cancel an Elvis impersonator she had booked for the birthday party of a friend who recently passed away. Directed by Gabrielle Perera and Katie Harkins.
• Sorry, Chef (7min): After losing his mother, a boy blames his father and retreats from life. His father’s sudden death forces him to move forward. Directed by Point Park University student Atai Aituvarov.
• Echoes of a Silent Mind (12min): A lonely artist who has lived in isolation since childhood retreats into a dreamlike inner world shaped by her imagination and imaginary friend, Fred. Directed by Milena Khanoyan.
• The Border at Tolstoi (16min, Canada): A border guard at the U.S.-Canada crossing of Tolstoi, Manitoba, falls victim to the effects of a strange weapon that separates her mind from her body. Directed by Bob Kotyk.
• Wide Awake (4min, animation): As the world shifts from day to night, Whilma prepares for her treacherous journey to dreamland. Directed by Pittsburgh native Laura Jane Sutherland.
• Arrival (27min, Canada): After her father’s death, Ella bonds with a lifelike “sister” designed to heal grief—but their relationship chills when this new playmate evolves beyond its purpose. Directed by Jim Garrison.
• Tenebris (8min): Rose’s recurring nightmare is making her feel uneasy. Directed by married duo Robert Abramson and Alexandra Cappuccilli.
• The Suicide Shift (13min, U.K.): Banished to the “suicide shift” for breaking spirit call center rules, Carmilla Ferry now deals with the most tortured of souls moving from this world to the next. Directed by Paul Laight.
Bizarre Bazaar
4:30 p.m. | 2h 10min
This shorts collection contains a variety of films across multiple genres. It’s not quite as twisted or weird as this festival’s other blocks.
• The Hunt for the Sarayetti (20min): This faux documentary unveils the “lost” footage of famed (and fake) 1970s adventurer Daniel Croft. Directed by Garry Michael Price.
• The Golden Age (14min): Fictional silent film star Jack Valentine struggles to make the transition to talking pictures during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Directed by Erie native Sean Martin.
• Waistline (16min): After a botched tattoo removal, Juna is stuck with her lover’s name on her waist—until the longing tears her apart. Directed by Gica Pucca.
• I’m Not Crazy (7min): Driven by the cryptic contents of a mysterious note, Rita’s search leads her to a stranger who unravels her reality. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Darsh Panchal.
• Court Order (17min, India): Kanika fights to shield her 5-year-old daughter from her abusive ex when a court order grants him a two-day visit. Directed by Dinkar Sharma.
• The Monte Carlo (7min): Two Italian Americans have found a new way to bury the past. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Jamie Lockhart.
• Death on the Net (18min, Hungary): A young girl and her friends go to a photo shoot, find a VHS tape in a dilapidated building and decide to share its contents online. Directed by Krisztián Sárkány.
• Group Lotto (11min): A stranger rolls into a bar and recruits four people to play Group Lotto, each choosing a number to play. Suspicions arise when they pick the same number on every turn. Directed by Mikos Zavros.
• The Gilded Mirror (12min): This black-and-white psychodrama follows a once-renowned performer haunted by his wife’s death. His world is shattered during a young woman’s audition. Directed by Jack Dudley Gewant.
• Case Closed (8min): A dedicated police officer tries to close a case that has been haunting him before his retirement. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Tom Madden.
Awards Ceremony
7:30 p.m. | 30min
Free, no tickets required. Everyone is invited!
The Kill Room
8 p.m. | R | 1h 38min | Thriller, Comedy
Director: Nicol Paone
Stars: Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello
In The Kill Room, a money-laundering scheme accidentally turns an assassin into an overnight avant-garde sensation—one that forces her to play the art world against the underworld.
Director Nicol Paone’s comedic thriller stars Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Maya Hawke and Mt. Lebanon native Joe Manganiello.
OCT. 3 SHOWTIMES AND TICKETS
Weird Adventures
12:15 p.m. | 2h 2min
Do you enjoy science fiction, mysteries, thrillers or “pulpy” cinema? Then this is the block for you!
• The Box (7min): Jesse and Claire bring home an evil TV. Directed by Gabriel Hoover.
• Nice Guy (13min): After a classmate rejects his invitation to a date, Kyle devises a plan to manipulate her into falling in love with him. Directed by Joseph Deschamps.
• Look Alive (12min): A group of friends set out to win a mysterious challenge held at a remote campsite with a single, deceptively simple rule: look out for each other. Directed by Christine Jansen.
• Frozen Signal (13min): Brian grows obsessed with his late brother’s research and begins doubting the official explanation for his death. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmakers Zachary Ferguson and Ryan Callahan.
• The Monkey Claw (9min): A group of bikers infiltrate a bar in search of a magical monkey claw. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Jamie Lockhart.
• Picture Taker (11min): A private eye begins to see the same man in every photograph he has ever taken. Directed by Joe Zappa.
• The Me in the TV (7min): After moving into a new apartment, a young woman discovers an old television broadcasting a live feed of her from an impossible angle. Directed by Gordon Phillips.
• Fetch (30min, Poland): What happens when Eva’s parents notice that their daughter has been behaving strangely? Directed by Dominik Krzeszewski.
• Hell (5min, animation): The patriarch of a dying farm is methodically ground down by the machinery of despair. Directed by Parker Croft.
• The Day the World Fell Apart (15min): Danny must find his way back home after his world literally falls apart. Directed by Carnegie Mellon University graduate Damon Condon.
Twisted Treats
2:45 p.m. | 2h 1min
Twisted Treats is just what the name implies—horror films and thrillers with a bit of a twist!
• Sous Vide (9min): A woman must decide whether to honor the last wishes of her fiancé’s late mother by partaking in a time-honored family tradition. Directed by Luke Van Garza and Martha Louise Van Garza.
• The Bomb (10min): When audience members at the Improv Dungeon learn of a nuclear attack, they’re faced with an impossible choice: death by radiation or bad improv. Directed by Pittsburgh native Michael Rhoa.
• Stranger Danger (8min): A girl scout. A landscaper. A bloody old man emerging from the woods. Not everyone in this story is who they appear to be. Directed by Reilly McKay.
• Making Do (5min): An Appalachian family of four struggle to survive after nuclear fallout. Directed by Erik Marple.
• Spill (4min): A woman is alone in her apartment. But is she safe? Directed by Zack Wright and Zack Bass.
• The Birds Recall (21min, France): Nina runs into Bruno, who just tried to shoplift from the store where she works, and pulls him into a heist. Directed by Rémi Potisek and Théo De Oliveira.
• Penny for Your Soul (12min): A real estate agent learns a little too late to value what he has been given. Directed by Erica Bass.
• It’s Pumpkin Season (12min): A serial killer on the loose collides with the most awkward of first dates. Directed by Zack Wilcox.
• Simon Says No (20min, Canada): An aspiring ventriloquist begins to crack under the pressure of his first performance. Directed by Raymond Cara.
• Dogwood Pass (21min): Mary, a withdrawn ex-convict haunted by a tragic past, accepts a ride from a magnetic stranger after a chance meeting at a bar. Directed by Mitchell Qualls.
Dark Funhouse
5:10 p.m. | 2h 4min
Though not exclusively horror, this block is not for the faint of heart.
• Burnout! (4min): An animated character comes to life and takes its creator hostage for daring to even consider pulling the plug. Directed by Justin Lee Magallanes and Raph Ellazar.
• True Link (14min): Cam tries to reconnect with an ex-girlfriend in the digital age. Directed by 2025 Thriller Picture Show winner Derek Hughes.
• Babysitting the Demons on Maple Street (20min): Less than a year after her daughter died from cancer, Darcy decides she wants to try her hand at babysitting again. Directed by Amanda R. Woomer.
• Mr. Lavender (10min): A KGB spy working undercover in the U.S. State Department must decide whether to bluff or fold. Directed by Mason Leaver, produced by Pittsburgh native Jay McClain.
• The Fool (11min): An obstinate young woman discovers through a harrowing tarot reading that a malevolent presence has taken residence in her own home. Directed by Adjahni Dèsirè.
• Mad (9min): A man struggles with the reality of family life. Directed by Ana Bass.
• Hide (16min): Still reeling from an incredible loss, a father and daughter cling to a bedtime routine keeping them safe in a town where residents are visited by a terrible horror every night. Directed by Brenden Hubbard.
• Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done (18min): Best friends Aaron and Keith set out to crash the last graduation party of the summer. They end up playing a simple game with dire consequences. Directed by P.J. Germain.
• The Screaming (8min, Canada): It’s the graveyard shift at the morgue, and Mara prepares for what should be a quiet evening of autopsy alone in the building. Directed by Guillaume Boivin and Steve Villeneuve.
• Continued Existence (15min): In a world consumed by the undead, Harper journeys alone through the ruins of civilization to find her missing brother. Directed by Thiago Avilez.
The Genesis Project
7:45 p.m. | 1h 53min | Horror, Thriller
Director: Dustin Ward
Stars: Christa Wennerstrom, Ryan Hennessy, Brando White
Five psychology students decide to study serial killers to see what turns a normal person into a cold-blooded murderer. When another girl goes missing, they decide to try and capture the killer before she becomes his latest victim.
The Genesis Project was written and directed by Utah-based filmmaker Dustin “Spanky” Ward. “My No. 1 goal as a filmmaker has been, and always will be, to entertain as many people as possible,” he says.
OCT. 4 SHOWTIMES AND TICKETS
Cultivated Chills
12:30 p.m. | 2h 29min
You’ll find slightly more high-minded international and arthouse thrillers in this block.
• Friendly Fire (10min, France): A soldier is sent alone into a strange area to find two missing people. Directed by Sébastien Berna.
• The Unrehearsed (15min): An actress preparing for a career-defining audition starts to spiral as performance, identity and reality begin to blur. Directed by Alec Douglas.
• Critic (20min): Henry must cope with his ending relationship while trying to earn his restaurant a glowing review. Directed by Zachary Smolder.
• Kismet (13min, China): A modern-day woman is drawn to an old tree. The moment she touches the tree, time and space quietly overlap. Directed by Haoran Wang.
• Beware! The Lucky Monkey Paw (13min, Indonesia): Driven by fame and fortune, a movie star’s greedy wish on a talisman summons a demonic force that razes his world. Directed by Joy Marzec.
• Favela Amarela (Yellow Slum) (20min, Brazil): Raised in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Damião joins a drug trafficking gang to increase his income. Directed by Nícolas Lobato and Thiago Tuchu.
• It Drops at Midnight (9min, Czechia): A young maid trapped in servitude discovers a bizarro path to freedom. Directed by Raymond Meres.
• Your Husband’s Password (11min): When a man passes away, his widow uses the password he had given her to open his laptop, only to find a secret about him she had never known. Directed by Chris Buechner.
• The Liars of Black Mountain Road (13min): When a couple runs over a stranger’s dog, they compete for the moral high ground at any cost. Directed by Parker Croft, produced by Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin.
• The Other End of the Hallway (11min): A grieving father, shattered and isolated, suddenly hears a strange sound coming from…the other end of the hallway. Directed by Scott Lentz.
• Au Circuit (At the Circuit) (14min, Belgium): Every weekend, Anne and Jeff go to the Mettet motorcycle circuit. One day, Anne’s gaze meets that of Jacques in the café. Directed by Olivier van Malderghem.
Driver Ed
3:20 p.m. | 1h 43min | Thriller
Director: Travis Milloy
Stars: Anthony Casabianca, Fayna Sanchez, Courtney Dober
A ride-share driver’s life is turned upside down when he picks up a mysterious passenger who turns out to be a serial killer that is targeting folks in this very specific profession.
Notes the Thriller Picture Show judges: “Driver Ed is L.A. Story meets Taxi Driver. … It is a modern-day fantasy tale, and a dark one at that, but like any good fantasy, it is a lot of fun, with characters the audience can connect with even in the outlandish setting.”
Last Block on the Fest
5:30 p.m. | 2h 5min
The 2026 Thriller Picture Show will conclude with a block full of weird, offbeat, out-there, edgy and funky shorts—including a few made by members of Pittsburgh’s film community!
• Echoed Blood (19min): An anonymous user posts a video depicting a vampire-like cryptid on a random forum. This is the story of those who went searching. Directed by Bradley Alan James Whitfield.
• Xpendable (30min): Two crime organizations decide to settle a dispute by appointing a representative from each “club.” Directed by Walter Ernest Haussner.
• The Nightmare Reflection (13min): A young woman faces her deepest fears when stalked in the night by a seemingly unstoppable force of nature. Directed by Robert Fox.
• Last Cup of Coffee (12min): Amy knows her days may be numbered after her husband is killed for embezzling money from a mob boss. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Wendy Whittick.
• The Monsters Among Us (9min): Jack and Lily were enjoying a simple Halloween night before a trick-or-treater with sinister intentions came to their door. Directed by Pittsburgh-area filmmaker Jason Burke.
• Marker 187 (10min): Anyone breaking down along his stretch of the highway won’t get to their final destination. Directed by Chaz Fatur.
• Black Leather Angel (6min): This proof-of-concept short focuses on the unique psychosexual aspects of violence and social communities that we ignore in favor of traditional life. Directed by Alexander Grapes.
• Discovery (3min): Will recruits his friend Aaron to film the greatest discovery in the history of human kind. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Aaron J. Shelton.
• Take Out (6min): A serial killer is on the loose disguised as a delivery driver. Directed by Ray’Anthony Ladon Bruster.
• The Passenger (5min): A stressed-out assistant manager is confronted by the unknown while driving his father. Directed by Pittsburgh-based filmakers Jen Zivkovic, Carrie Anne Drazewski-Keller and Jonathan Ong.
• Leftovers (8min): An unexpected car breakdown leads a woman and her children to meet a peculiar chef. Directed by Western Pennsylvania-based filmmaker Matt Zilic.
• Served Cold (5min): The legend of an ancient tribe unfolds. Directed by Robert Scott.
