The Brilliant Terror

A feature length documentary about grassroots horror filmmakers, The Brilliant Terror’s inspiration comes from being intimately included behind the scenes of microbudget genre filmmaking. Witness the obsessive lengths to which people will go to bring their greatest fears to life on screen—and why. It’s not just about blood and boobs, zombies and vampires.

Shot over the course of seven years, the film follows the life of small-town auteur Mike Lombardo as he writes, directs, shoots, and reshoots (and reshoots) “The Stall.” Viewers are privy to candid moments that inform his inner drive—from his giddy triumph at successful DIY special effects to his painful personal crises to the everyday tedium of working at a pizza shop. Along the way, interviews with fierce women filmmakers, other grassroots directors, horror experts, and misunderstood fans bring fascinating diversions and unexpected viewpoints.

At times hilarious, at times repulsive, and at times weirdly moving, The Brilliant Terror is not only for horror fans, but for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. It helps us understand why we all, in some way, need a place to belong—and why that place may well be lying with friends on a cold, dirty bathroom stall floor wrangling (and re-wrangling) bloody, slime-covered tentacles. Speaking to the psycho-entrepreneur in us all, Lombardo says, “It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be awesome.”