Appofeniacs

Appofeniacs is a Pulp Fiction-style ensemble horror-thriller structured around four intersecting vignettes, all set in motion by Duke (Aaron Holliday), a nerdy, socially marginal figure who uses a smartphone deepfake app to fabricate videos of people who have wronged him. Duke treats his creations like a contagious party trick—not to prove a point, but simply because the technology makes it frictionless and consequence-free in his mind. Soon blood begins to spill, though Duke himself is never the one left to clean it up. The film's title is a portmanteau of 'app' and 'apophenia'—the psychological phenomenon of perceiving meaningful patterns in unrelated things—signaling its satirical thesis: in a digital-first culture, fabricated video evidence exploits the human tendency to find and believe patterns, regardless of truth. The intersecting storylines follow characters caught in the fallout of Duke's petty hobby: Poppy (Simran Jehani), who heads out to the desert for a weekend of cosplay and intimacy only to find her life upended; Clinto Binto (Sean Gunn), a larger-than-life figure whose reputation is too valuable—and too fragile—to survive fabrication; and Lazzy (Paige Searcy), an ordinary stranger who picks the wrong coffee shop line on the wrong day and becomes an unwitting target. As the vignettes converge, a broader and increasingly deadly conspiracy behind the weaponized deepfakes comes into focus, escalating from personal humiliation into lethal real-world violence. The film blends psychological horror, dark comedy, and tech-paranoia satire to argue that the gap between creating a convincing fake video and destroying a life has effectively vanished. Coverage is based on pre-release promotional materials and early festival screenings (Fantastic Fest); detailed third-act specifics are not yet publicly available.

Sources: IMDb, TMDb, Horror Obsessive, Black Nerd Problems (Fantastic Fest review), WebSearch aggregated (Variety, Bloody Disgusting, AceShowbiz, HorrorSociety, FirstShowing)