Advertise on podcast: The Projection Booth Podcast

What if detention were group therapy? Detention (2026), a quirky teen comedy from Washington State's Bainbridge Island, swaps the usual punishment for something harder: a room of kids made to talk about what is really happening behind closed doors. Writer-director Emma Cameron, who co-directed with her husband Mark Cameron and also plays the sleep-deprived Dr. Messerschmitt, joins Mike after the film's Pasadena International Film Festival screening and a summer theatrical run, just as it arrives on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. She traces the idea to The Breakfast Club (1985) and a job on a school mental-health commercial, explains why she cast 90 percent of the film in Washington, how she recast a major role two weeks before shooting, and how two nights of magic-hour light captured the final scene at the water's edge. Follow Detention on Instagram and visit the film's official website. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

A body missing for 36 years turns up at a gruesome crime scene, and the daughter who goes looking learns her father's past is much worse than she thought. The Cycle (2026), a Fantastic Fest world premiere starring Deborah Ann Woll and Jeffrey Donovan, comes from Jordan Downey, the filmmaker behind The Head Hunter (2018). Stephen King has already called it special, and it arrives on Shudder October 23. Mike talks with Downey about the idea that consumed him and co-writer Kevin Stewart through the pandemic, protecting a twist as long as possible, shooting in weathered coastal Oregon locations, a body farm built from medical-grade bones, a life-cast practical corpse, and the Critters (1986) love-letter short he made hoping to land the reboot. Follow Jordan Downey on Instagram. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

A bus explodes in downtown Hong Kong on Valentine's Day, and the trail of wreckage leads to two young men nobody was watching. We're Nothing at All (2026), a festival drama that has played Hong Kong and Udine's Far East Film Festival, intercuts a forensic investigation with the love story and desperation of a gay couple pushed toward disaster by poverty. Herman Yau, the Hong Kong veteran behind Taxi Hunter (1993), directs. Mike talks with Yau and stars Anson Kong of the boy band Mirror, who plays Fai, and Ansonbean, who plays Ike, about 40 years in the Hong Kong film industry, why the pace of local cinema has slowed, a script written in three months and shot in 16 days, a tunnel scene where the actors really slapped each other, and the risk of offending audiences. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

In 1988, a Soviet underground rock hero flew west to record an album for CBS, and Michael Apted's cameras went with him. The Long Way Home (1989) follows Boris Grebenshchikov and his band Aquarium from studio sessions in New York and Montreal back to a Leningrad where glasnost was still a hope, with Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, and Crosby, Stills and Nash along for the ride. Now it's back: a 4K remaster built from the only surviving 16mm print premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in January 2026, with a new epilogue on Grebenshchikov's exile. Mike talks with producer Steven Lawrence about bringing the film back to the screen. Lawrence got his start in New York public-access television, filmed CBGB bands in the 1970s, produced long-form programming at MTV, and co-founded Link TV. He and editor Susanne Rostock supervised the remaster and co-directed the new ending. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

A man comes home from an alien abduction to find a tenant living in his house. Into the Sky (2026), a Fantastic Fest world premiere starring Sam Richardson, Sofia Black-D'Elia, and David Cross, pairs that premise with classic rom-com bones: the meet-cute, the estranged spouse, the big wedding. Drew Mylrea and Evan Wolf Buxbaum make their feature directing debut with an idea a decade in the making. Mike talks with them about a script that sat for six years after Evan called it terrible, a wedding scene inspired by the barn where Drew officiated Evan's own, cast improv that changed how they shot, a fruit-based code for settling disputes behind the monitor, and hoisting actors skyward on wires during short Catskill summer nights. Follow Into the Sky on Instagram and visit the film's official website for the merch raffle. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Nothing says team-building like a trap. Corporate Retreat (2026), a horror comedy that had its world premiere at BIFFF in Brussels, lures ambitious young executives to a luxury desert estate where the trust games turn deadly. Director Aaron Fisher follows his debut feature Inside the Rain (2019) with a cast that includes Odeya Rush, Rosanna Arquette, and Alan Ruck. Mike talks with Fisher and actress Ellen Toland, who plays COO Aubrey Johnson, about a one-room thriller in the spirit of Saw (2004) born from his father's 2008 financial collapse, blocking the carnage with chalk drawings and action figures in a backyard, Gary J. Tunnicliffe's practical gore, parodying summer-camp trust falls after consultants quoted $250,000, and a Brussels crowd that treated the premiere like a midnight-movie party. Follow Aaron Fisher on Instagram and follow Ellen Toland on Instagram. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Gunshots on Lioness aren't supposed to sound like movie gunshots. Supervising sound editor George Haddad, an Emmy winner for The Studio, talks with Mike about building Taylor Sheridan's CIA drama from authentic sources: researching how a specific weapon sounds in a specific place, recording a friend's Rivian for another series, and cleaning dialogue so viewers never reach for the subtitles. The conversation also goes back to Berklee, drumming, and a childhood Star Wars (1977) moment, then to DVD-era restorations of Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), where Clint Eastwood returned to re-record lines, and to Jackass Number Two (2006) versus House of 1000 Corpses (2003). Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Nearly sixty years after Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shot the most famous footage in Bigfoot history, forty seconds of forgotten 16mm film locked in a safe for half a century threaten to blow the legend wide open. Capturing Bigfoot (2026), a SXSW documentary that had the Bigfoot community arguing before most of them had seen it, comes from director Marq Evans of Claydream (2021) and arrives October 20, National Bigfoot Day, on Prime Video and in select theaters. Mike talks with Evans about the email from a colleague that started it, 130 interview tapes from researcher Greg Long, how Patterson's son Clint became the film's emotional heartbeat, watching the new footage on camera for the first time, being shut down by a bank president mid-interview, and why Evans pulled the film from festivals to protect its secret.  Visit the film's official website. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

The Joe Louis Fist is among Detroit's best-known monuments, yet plenty of people have forgotten whose fist it is. Etched in Pavement (2026), a festival documentary from Detroit photographer-turned-filmmaker John Sippel, brings that legacy back through two young fighters from Southwest Detroit. Sippel spent four years inside the grassroots Guns Down, Gloves Up movement, where boxing becomes an answer to gun violence, addiction, and loss. After Woods Hole and a packed Detroit homecoming, the film is now on digital and VOD. Mike talks with Sippel about two and a half years of shooting, screening the first rough cut for his subjects in his living room, an $80,000 post-production budget raised through boxing gyms and Kickstarter, and Joe Louis's children speaking on film about their father for the first time. Visit the film's official website for more details. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

What does it cost to believe everything? Gimme Truth (2026), which had its world premiere at Hot Docs and went on to Fantastic Fest, follows UFO contactees, starseeds, anti-vaccine crusaders, and other seekers of hidden knowledge without sneering and without sharing their beliefs. Co-directors Simon Ennis, who made The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop (2024), and Brad Abrahams care less about what these believers believe than why. Mike talks with both filmmakers about earning trust from wary subjects, including anti-vaccine filmmaker Mikki Willis, who took two years to say yes; shooting at the Red Pill Expo in Des Moines with no crew but each other; and a stash of footage that could become a film of its own.  Follow Brad Abrahams on Instagram and see where Gimme Truth is screening, including Windsor and DOC NYC in November. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with the two stars of Little Doors (2026) — married couple Anthony Oberbeck and Megan Koester — about a deadpan comedy in which a lonely woman, quietly living through the end of the world, discovers a small wooden door has grown into the side of her body and has to decide whether to open it. It’s the feature directorial debut of Oberbeck (Dad & Stepdad, the Reveries trilogy), who wrote, directed, edited, and co-stars in the film opposite his real-life wife, shooting almost entirely inside producer Eric Cotten’s mostly empty Baltimore house because emptying a room, Oberbeck found, was cheaper than dressing one. The same logic put both leads in identical blue jumpsuits for the whole shoot — sourced from a used-workwear tent in the City of Industry — so nobody had to track continuity or hire a wardrobe department. First-time film composer Lars Finberg, of garage-punk mainstays The Intelligence and Thee Oh Sees, scored the film from demos of his own next album, handing them over with “use whatever inspires you.” Oberbeck cut the whole thing from his bed, having no desk, while directing his own wife forced an early, blunt conversation about where “lead actress” ended and “spouse” began. Little Doors had its world premiere at the Calgary Underground Film Festival before playing its US premiere at Fantastic Fest. Follow Anthony Oberbeck and Megan Koester on Instagram for screening updates. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with Jake Allyn, writer-director of Clean Hands (2026), a true-crime drama about a celebrated Hagerstown, Maryland narcotics sergeant fighting the opioid pipeline he polices by day while his own daughter is consumed by it at home. Allyn found the story on YouTube during COVID and became close enough with the real Kevin and Dana Simmers that he calls them second parents; they and the police officers who served with Kevin were on set throughout the 20-day Atlanta and Hagerstown shoot, alongside Brooke’s actual drug counselor, who appears in the film herself. Zach Braff, taking his first dramatic lead as a real person and a cop, reportedly came to need Kevin’s presence on set by the second week after initially asking for space; Esther McGregor carried the weight of standing in for every woman who’s passed through the recovery home the real story inspired. Allyn structured the film’s financing so that a third of its profits go directly to Brooke’s House, the real nonprofit recovery residence Kevin founded after his daughter’s story played out. The film is Allyn’s second directing credit, made with his brother Conor, following their earlier border drama Ride; it opens Friday, October 16th, after premiering at this year’s Tribeca Festival. Follow the film on Instagram, and visit Brooke’s House to support the recovery program. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with Danish writer-director Kasper Kalle about his sophomore feature No Rest for the Wicked (2026), a queer gothic romance shot on the Faroe Islands that slides from love story into vampire tale into body horror without the audience noticing the ground shifting under them. Kalle built the film from an 1885 short story by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs — one of the earliest unapologetic accounts of gay love in print — and expanded its fifteen pages using the islands themselves: constant, unschedulable fog (created on set and in post), a 300-year-old stone village the crew stumbled on mid-scout, and composers from the Faroes so the score wouldn’t feel imported. Leads Egor Venned, a Faroese former model making his acting debut, and Danish star Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones) anchor the romance at the film’s center. After premiering at Fantasia and playing its US premiere at Fantastic Fest, the film is headed to US theaters, with Kalle already writing his next two projects. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with writer-director Chris Merola about his debut feature Lemonade Blessing (2025), a coming-of-age dramedy about a Catholic-school transfer student who falls for a girl who dares him into escalating sacrilege, all in the name of love. Merola wrote the script as a USC film student mining his own adolescence — a Catholic mother, a fake-named first crush, the general sense of being “unmoored” — and financed it himself, funneling 1,000% stock-market gains from a well-timed Tesla bet into New Jersey’s tax-credit system before approaching outside investors. He shot the film with a crew of first-timers (his editor, his production designer, his producers) in just 20 days, and credits his sound designer with the idea that reordered the final scene, flipping the film’s opening noise into closing silence. After a muted reception out of Tribeca and a near-miss with sales agents, the film found a second life through Letterboxd’s Video Store before landing distribution with Antenna Releasing, who are putting Merola on the road for a five-month, city-by-city roadshow. Merola’s a philosophy-and-psych double major who treats directing less like genius and more like mediating a fight between departments — which, he argues, is most of what the job actually is. Follow the film on Instagram for tour dates. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Mike talks with French director Quarxx about The Ones Who Grieve (2026), in which a mysterious plague called the Black Veil and a father’s religious cruelty turn out to be the same disease. Quarxx came to filmmaking through a decade as a painter before ever picking up a camera, and this is his first script written with a co-author, novelist Frédéric Soulié, after years of collaborations that never clicked. He reunites actors Thierry Frémont and Zélie Rixhon ten years after they played an unhealthily entangled pair in his debut All the Gods in the Sky — only now she’s grown into the role that reverses their dynamic. The film’s plague victims wear masks designed and sculpted from scratch for the production, a deliberate swerve away from standard zombie iconography toward something that isn’t dangerous, just hungry and discarded. Made on what Quarxx calls the lowest budget of his career after French funders balked at the material, the film premiered this year at Fantastic Fest following festival stops across Europe. .Follow Quarxx on Instagram for updates on his next film. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support. Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth