Ryan O’Rourke

Published Sep 1, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Ryan O’Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided’s CubbiesCrib. Whether it’s taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what’s going on. Outside of entertainment, he’s a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor’s in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

Sign in to your Collider account

The slasher genre has produced many a horrifying and iconic cinematic villain, from the original trio of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers to more recent favorites, like Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise. These classic killers are made memorable through a mix of an instantly recognizable style, gnarly methods of murder that both excite and terrify, and, to some extent, a sense of personality. At this year’s Fantastic Fest, filmmaker Joshua Gratton is about to introduce a new surreal entry into the pantheon made to, quite literally, haunt the dreams of their victims — Platypus. As part of Collider’s Exclusive Preview series ahead of the 21st iteration of the largest genre festival in the U.S., we’re thrilled to share a new image from the film that unveils the terrifying visage of the murderer with an unconventional weapon.

Platypus unfolds in a small town at the mercy of a masked killer that only a young girl named Kimberly (Kayla Lundstram) seems to know about. Despite her best efforts to warn her friends, though, nobody believes her claims. All the while, her dreams grow increasingly vivid and violent as the threat grows closer to home. With nobody on her side, it’s up to Kimberly to play detective, following clues to Platypus’ whereabouts to stop the carnage before his trail of bodies leads right to her doorstep. A love letter to the slasher’s history, the entire surreal ride is shot on Super 8 film and intentionally made to feel low-budget and DIY, with fake blood, bizarre dialogue and cuts, and plenty of nudity that goes beyond the tropes into something far more delightfully queer.

Our exclusive image captures that throwback aesthetic of an old slasher airing late at night on cable as it reveals Platypus in all of his fuzzy glory. There’s an air to the killer that blurs the line between sinister and goofy, with his stained work gloves, gritty jacket, and blood-speckled mask contrasted by his borderline silly expression and the seriousness with which he wields a confusing weapon — a seashell. The best horror serial murderers of this variety get creative with how they slay their victims, and it looks like he’ll be no exception with how he improvises using the objects at his disposal. The still serves as a promise that, despite its simple premise and familiar appearance, Gratton’s latest will be something humorous, horrifying, and deeply strange that viewers have never seen before.

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.

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gratton both wrote and directed Platypus in just their second feature effort after bursting onto the scene with Cuties in 2020. Yet another queer slasher that leans into the absurd and comedic with an 80s horror vibe, that film followed an insecure boy who witnesses gay teenagers slowly picked off one by one during their senior year. Instead of being entirely afraid, though, he begins to doubt his own self-worth and wonders why the killer is only targeting the cute boys and leaving him alone. For the director’s latest, Lundstram is also making her feature debut as Kimberly, joined by Giselle Morison, Micah Greentree, Annie Alfer, and Tristan C. Pina.

Platypus makes its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, which runs from September 17 through 24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Stay tuned here at Collider for more from our exclusive preview series throughout the month as we count down to the event. More information on each title can be found at the official Fantastic Fest film guide.