We have an exclusive look at the first clip from The Red Mask, in which a screenwriter’s attempt to revive an ’80s slasher blurs the lines between homage, horror, and reality.

The meta horror film will have its world premiere at FrightFest in London on August 23.

When hotshot indie screenwriter Allina Green is hired to revive a cult slasher franchise, she and her fiancée Deetz retreat to a remote rental to ‘method-write’ a fresh take. But as Allina’s script begins to rewrite itself and two unsettling strangers show up claiming to have booked the same cabin, her weekend writing retreat becomes a terrifying descent into fandom, identity, and a legacy she never asked to inherit.

Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Inanna Sarkis (Seance), Jake Abel (Malignant), and Kelli Garner (Lars and the Real Girl) star. Dead Meat’s James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca make cameos.

Ritesh Gupta makes his feature directorial debut from a script by Samantha Gurash and Patrick Robert Young (Bastard). Create Entertainment and Intrinsic Value Films are behind the project with Atit Shah, Aimee Schoof, and Isen Robbins producing.

“While it explores themes like toxic fandom and the debate around fan ownership, The Red Mask pushes the meta even further — holding up a mirror to our obsession with controlling stories and the blurry line between homage and possession,” commented Shah.

“The Red Mask is the kind of story I’ve been building toward for years: intimate, bloody, and loud,” adds Gupta. “It’s brutally honest, weirdly funny, and deeply personal — and I can’t wait to watch it with the fans of FrightFest who truly love genre films. This is a movie about modern-day rage, obsession, culture wars and reclaiming authorship… with blood.”