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.
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 Else Will Be Part of the Nightmare in ‘Platypus’?
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.
