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Cicada: I Was a Teenage Horror Movie

In 1997, tweens with a VHS camera filmed a horror epic.
25 years later, they edited it—as a comedy.

Soak in the gloriously glitchy VHS splendor of this remixed horror-comedy that is at once a bloody twist on vampire lore and an endearing portrait of filmmakers coming of "rage," struggling to make an ambitious home movie—each playing multiple roles, spilling dimestore blood in a slew of murder scenes, and testing testicular limits with a homemade zip-line setpiece.

The ultimate genre-lovers' party movie, it's both endearing satire and "serious" mad-scientist thriller—it's so fun to watch with as large an audience as possible: https://letterboxd.com/film/cicada-i-was-a-teenage-horror-movie/reviews/

We are excited to announce that an all-new version of this film is going to be distributed in 2026, and we're planning a select festival run ahead of release!

  • Keil Orion Troisi
    Director
    Human Resources, Peace Pipeline, Total Disaster, The Yes Men Share the Safety
  • Gabe DiDomenico
    Key Cast
  • Aaron Troisi
    Key Cast
  • Will DiDomenico
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Horror, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 13 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    VHS
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Creature Feature Weekend
    Gettysburg
    United States
  • Splat! International Fantastic Film Festival
    Warsaw
    Poland
    European
  • Terrible Fest
    Toronto
    Canada
  • Skate Or Die Film Festival
    Pottstown, Pennsylvania
    United States
Director Biography - Keil Orion Troisi

Keil Orion Troisi has been a filmmaker since childhood. He directed the comedic documentary short "Total Disaster" (2022), which began its festival run in June at San Francisco DocFest, award-winning corporate-horror movie "Human Resources" (2015, feature) and "Mono Generation" (2017, short), and produced and co-wrote "Peace Pipeline" (2021) which won Best Doc Short at Dallas VideoFest, North Dakota Human Rights, Wolf Creek, Skoden, and Jim Thorpe film fests. Since 2012, he has been a core member of mischief-activism collective The Yes Men. He has worked for over a decade as a screenplay ghostwriter, editor, and story analyst, and won a NYFA Fellowship in Screenwriting-Playwriting. His screenplay "Aphids" won Best Overall, Best Drama, and Best Concept awards at Screenplay Summit.

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Director Statement

As teenagers, my friends and I made VHS horror movies every weekend and every day after school. We didn't have any money or resources, but we had a lot of imagination. More than 25 years later, I decided to re-edit that footage to make it on the one hand a version of a modern vampire/mad-scientist story, and on the other hand a meta comedy appreciation for its "so bad it's good" ethos. It is quite a fun experience to watch with an audience. You can read some audience reviews here: https://letterboxd.com/film/cicada-i-was-a-teenage-horror-movie/reviews/