Projection
2026 · 13m
Directed by Ari Groobman
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Two sisters move into a new apartment to escape their abusive home, only to find new pairs of eyes watching their every move.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A stalker-in-the-walls premise that feels like it's been done to death—unless Groobman's actually interrogating the voyeur narrative from inside the victims' terror, which would be genuinely perverse, but I'd need to see it actually *do* that rather than just inhabit it.
The formal architecture here—two sisters as a contained emotional unit against an unseen gaze—echoes the mirror-stage anxiety of Carpenter and recent elevated horror, though the question is whether Groobman adds anything structurally rather than aesthetically to that lineage.
There's a specific edit or sound design choice buried in those 13 minutes that tilts this from 'abused sisters find new prison' into something about complicity or witnessed shame that reframes the whole thing—that's where Groobman's budget constraints become clarity.
Reviews
Gray embodies the tenuous line leading from chronic vigilance to destructive collapse. It results in an effective climax a la early and classic horror cinema, combining lighting, editing, and a generous dose of gore.