Why Horror Fans Should Keep an Eye on Clifton Park

Horror doesn’t always crawl out of basements or storm drains. Sometimes it comes dressed as art — polite, intellectual, and just a little too immersive. That’s the vibe behind Clifton Park, a new short from One-Eyed Rabbit, premiering this October at Screamfest LA 2025.

The setup sounds harmless enough: a theater retreat in upstate New York, a group of artists, a play in progress. But like most bad ideas in horror, it starts with good intentions. Mari, a college student, finally gets the chance to work with her idols — an avant-garde troupe called The Ambassadors. They’re charismatic, obsessive, and maybe too committed to their craft. When the weekend begins, Mari learns the ensemble plans to stay in character the entire time. Their new play is based on a real-life cult. And the performance doesn’t end when the lights go out.

That premise alone earns comparisons to They/Them and Satanic Panic — both for the social edge and the way performance becomes possession. Clifton Park stars Hayley Griffith, familiar to horror fans from Satanic Panic, alongside Natalie Cabo (Twentysomethings: Austin) and Matt Steiner (The Blacklist), who also co-wrote the screenplay.

Director and co-writer Maren Lavelle calls the short “a story about theater, sex cults, and gaslighting. And it’s ultimately a story about resilience.” Which is a perfect line for what she’s building — something that doesn’t just aim for jump scares, but digs into the manipulation behind them. Lavelle’s work has already landed her in Shoot Online’s New Directors Showcase, and Clifton Park looks like a natural escalation: more confident, more dangerous, and visually sharp as hell.

The trailer’s already live on YouTube (watch here), and it’s got that uncanny tension only live-performance horror can pull off — when acting becomes ritual and you can’t tell who’s pretending anymore.

If you’ve ever been part of a production, you know the feeling: the late nights, the blurred lines, the way everyone slowly starts to lose their footing between the script and reality. Clifton Park just takes that and asks the question: what if no one ever stepped out of character?

For updates and festival info, visit one-eyedrabbit.com/clifton-park.