Showing your art to the world can be daunting. Especially when your film is being shown in the prestigious Odeon Leicester Square cinema as part of a popular film festival. Matthew Ninaber, the actor and filmmaker behind the dark thriller Hy3na, is feeling the nerves.
Some of those nerves might stem from the topics and themes at the centre of his latest project. The meekish Nicole (Kristen Kaster) is drawn into the world of sex work after meeting the charismatic Rachel (Storm Steenson). As she gains confidence, Nicole becomes the target of a serial killer and gets tangled in a plot full of twists and turns.
Hours before the world premiere, FILMHOUNDS sat down with Ninaber to talk about the hyper-stylised filmmaking, working with frequent collaborators, and developing creative skills.
Your film is having its world premiere at FrightFest 2026. How are you feeling about that?
Terrified! Terrified, [I’m] so nervous to be on the main stage. There’s been some great movies this festival that I’ve watched already. And I’m excited [because] I haven’t shown people this movie. I actually haven’t had a viewing with more than two people. So to be in a theatre that massive—it’s the biggest theatre I’ve ever been in. This is crazy. This is so crazy. I didn’t sleep last night. I was up all night. But I’m pumped. I really want to see how people respond, and hopefully everything plays right.
Diving into the film, something that immediately stood out for me was the editing, in which you’re credited as the editor.
I don’t want to give away too much of the movie’s mechanism, but there’s a lot that I wanted to be faster. And that was a choice that I struggled with because my other stuff has been a little bit slower, and I wanted to be abrupt, which is kind of like the personality of some of the characters in [Hy3na]. It is very nonlinear, and you have to pay attention, and things move very quickly; they don’t wait for you. Some people may like that, some people [might] be like, “Yo, you guys slow down a little bit.” And that’s part of the process of making cinema and seeing how people respond to it.
It must be quite freeing to be in a mindset of, you know what? I’m making my art my way. Not everybody’s going to like it, and that’s fine.
Yeah, and that’s the beauty of doing stuff at this budget level is that you get to have a little bit more fun and you get to break some of the rules. Not just the editing, but the way that it’s coloured. I want it to represent different characters. So, if you’ve noticed in the film, it goes from very polished to looking almost like a grindhouse movie. There’s days that I purposely shot with less crew because I wanted [audiences] questioning, like, did this happen? Did this not happen? [I was] exploring different styles, breaking rules where I can, and just trying [to] explore different ways of filming.
It was really interesting seeing sex work as a big topic in Hy3na. Is there any nervousness with how people might react to it, in terms of representing the community?
Oh, that’s such a… That’s one of the reasons I was intimidated by this movie in the sense that, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people that have been in the industry, on different sides of the industry. From people who were excited by the industry and still in it, and people who’ve been taken advantage by the industry. And so I’ve had the whole gamut. My mom [is also] a therapist, and [we were] having discussions about this industry. I don’t think anyone’s ever going to be happy with how you approach a sensitive subject like that, but I also think when it comes to art, if you ever operate from a place of fear, then you’re kind of holding back.
I originally wasn’t gonna make this movie. I was just like, “Hey, I wrote it. It’s done. Yay.” Then I shared it with my co-writer, and she looked at it. She’s like, “Yeah, you gotta make this. We’re gonna work on this, we’re gonna make it better.” We just kept on developing it, and then it got to the place that someone else should make it. [It] just scared the crap out of me. But at the end of the day, being an independent filmmaker is terrifying. And stepping out there is just like… how do I give you context? I live in a small farmer Mennonite town. There is no film industry. There’s no film community. There’s nothing. I’m walking down, there’s horse and buggies, and then there’s me in a monster suit making one of my movies. That’s just the juxtaposition there. So, the whole idea of does this guy have business making movies? No, I don’t. But I love it. And to be honest, I usually go after the thing that scares me the most. If I’m really afraid of something, I just go at it until I’m not afraid of it anymore.
You have a lot of close collaborators across your projects. How have the relationships developed?
I film my movies on the weekends. I’ve been doing this since I was in high school, where I just get friends together, and we film something. Each time, we get a little bit better. And when I find somebody who is like-minded, wants to make cool stuff, and [is] fun to be on set, wants to work hard, doesn’t take themselves too seriously, but we can have great dialogue. I’m like, oh, do you want to hang out again? That’s kind of how I make my movies. Like, who wants to hang out? It’s like a paid weekend retreat. But Kristen [Kaster], who is one of the lead characters in this, we’ve worked together on one, two, three movies, four movies, and she’s such a powerhouse. And once I got the script to a good spot, she’s like, “Hey, what are you working on?” I’m working on this. And Jannah [Kitzman] and I send it over to her, and she’s like, “Yeah, you’re making this movie”. I’m like, I don’t think I’m making this movie. She’s like, “No, you’re making this movie, and I’m playing this character, and we’re doing this.” I’m just like, let me get back to you.
A lot of the cast, we’ve done A Knight’s War, which was like a dark fantasy. It was a lot of fun, it was a great time making that. We did Death Valley. And for me, I’m exploring different genres and just trying to figure out how to become a better storyteller. None of my movies have intimacy; do I even [have a] love interest? You know what I mean? So, this was like, “Oh my gosh, where are the guys?” Maybe we should do something, a little baby step, before we jump into this thing? Like, this is crazy. But the team was just like, I think this is the good one to go with.
I’m just a very collaborative person in the sense that [when] making movies, there’s so much alone time. You write it, and you edit it. If people can get excited by it, and they want to come on the ride with you, it’s like, okay, all right, I got people who are gonna not abandon me. The only person that we haven’t worked with before on this was Storm [Steenson]. When we saw her—I will release it someday—audition tape, I was terrified. Who is this person? She was so good, and right away, we were just like, this is Rachel. She was fantastic, and I want to keep working with her again.
But when it comes to some of the more intimate roles and the topic matter, this is the first movie that I had to really slow down. Meeting with intimacy coordinators, and asking, okay, how do you do this? What’s the right way? What’s the wrong way? How would I protect friendships? How do I make sure the set’s good and that everyone is protected. There was so much prep work that went into things that I just wasn’t used to. Having those conversations and learning so much about the industry, what people have been doing legitimately wrong.
You’ve worked across different genres: horror, action, sci-fi, dark fantasy. Are there any other genres that you’re really keen to dive into?
Just right now, I met with this producer and director. He was like, “Before you’re 50, you’re just playing around, Matt. You don’t know what you like.” What a fascinating thing, where you’re almost just gathering, like, tools. Some of my favourite directors, when they approach their movie, it’s not like they’re that genre director. They’re taking all the body of work that they have, and they put it into that genre. And so, for me, I think I have a couple more movies of I’m gonna do this stuff that scares me right now. Whatever scares me, I’m gonna go do that, because I don’t want to become stagnant, and I want to push myself. Again, I had never done any intimacy. I don’t think I’ve ever had any of my actors ever hold hands on set.
I like going to action films ’cause I want to learn the stunt choreography. How do you do this? Keeping people safe but making it work. How did you communicate that? A lot of my films are like, I need to figure this out. And I’ll just dive into it.
Playing around as a director, do you think that will affect your acting, in terms of taking more risks?
One of the things I keep getting casting calls for is romance of all things. My auditions are so bad. My wife’s just like, “You’re such a bad flirt.” How do I get better at this? You have to understand, it’s an art form. Flirting’s hard in a movie. There’s actors who are such good flirts on screen. I’m just like, fuck you, how are you doing this? So, yeah, I ran to monsters, ’cause I know how to play a monster. Or a barbarian knight. I think one of the mistakes directors and actors make is they find one thing that they’re good at, and they just keep doing that thing over and over again. And that’s fine, but for me, I really want to explore. I just want more tools. I don’t know where it’s going to line up, if I’m going to be more of a director, more of an actor, maybe I’ll be a producer. I don’t know what it is, but I just want to follow what scares me. What am I bad at? What can I get better at? And drag people along in the process.
Hy3na had its world premiere at FrightFest 2026 on Monday, August 31
