Nothing tends to go well in horror movies when the characters within them pop in a mysterious videotape. Sometimes, the tapes themselves are cursed, as is the case with the Japanese horror classic, The Ring, while other times, their contents are simply beyond disturbing, like in the deeply unsettling Poughkeepsie Tapes. For Australian actress Sophie Lowe in the Fantastic Fest-bound film Posthumous, however, a single VHS will completely reshape everything she knew about her life and the death of her mother. Ahead of its world premiere in Austin next month, we’re excited to include the film in Collider’s Exclusive Preview series and share a shadowy image of Lowe with a camera in hand as she dives into the horrifying secrets behind her family.
Posthumous follows Lowe as Zoe, a university student with a drinking problem who has just left her car, boyfriend, and studies behind to move back in with her single father while she gets her life straight. Zoe has no mother because hers denied life-saving care to ensure she could be born, so all she has left is a dad who has no real interest in connecting with her. However, that’s not entirely true. Before her death, her mother left behind a VHS tape filled with messages of wisdom for her daughter meant to be viewed every year until the age of 21. On her 30th birthday, with nothing to do and her father at work, Zoe settles on the couch to rewatch the tape, seeing her mother’s decline in real time with the tape’s degradation, but also finding a new lead pointing to their reclusive, widowed next-door neighbor. Investigating further completely shakes everything she knew about her birth and unleashes terror beyond comprehension, yet it also offers her a chance to speak to her mother after years of one-sided conversations.
Our exclusive image shrouds Zoe in shadow as she looks into what looks like a retro camcorder. Perhaps it’s the same instrument her mother used years before to film the very tape that sent her digging into this dark family mystery. Whatever the case, it creates a feeling both eerie and intriguing as she unravels the reality of her past. Zoe’s curiosity will lead her to break into their neighbor’s home, where she uncovers evidence of the arcane used to channel her mother’s pain through portals through arcane sacred geometry. She could attempt to use those same techniques to reach her mom, but given how dodgy her dad was about their neighbor, there may be more sinister forces at play and secrets that aren’t meant to be trifled with.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Who Is Behind the Horrors of ‘Posthumous’?
A ghost story promising real terror mixed with pain, loss, plenty of twists, and the fading of memory with time, Posthumous marks the feature debut of Josh Tanner. He both directed and co-wrote the film with Jade van der Lei, who previously produced the Daisy Ridley-led horror We Bury the Dead and has a stacked resume as a production supervisor, ranging from Alan Ritchson‘s War Machine to the unique Robbie Williams biographical drama Better Man. Tanner’s horror flick marks a reunion of sorts between her and Lowe, as she previously served as a production manager on the actress’ 2017 drama, The Butterfly Tree. Rounding out the cast are David Roberts, Doris Younane, Remy Hii, Christopher James Baker, Kira-Che Heelan, George Pullar, and Mia Morrissey.
Posthumous will make its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, running from September 17 through 24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Check our exclusive image above and stay tuned here at Collider for more new looks at the hottest entries heading down south next month. Visit the full film guide on the event’s official website for more information on each title coming to Fantastic Fest.
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