By: Michele Schultz

Summerween officially began as the Tribeca Festival celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, a century milestone in June, and highlighted its dedication to an array of genre films with the world premiere of Escape From Tribeca’s horror thriller Hallowarrior. The festival had emphasized its commitment to feature the wildest, most thrilling, and no-holds-barred selections in a spectacular showcase.

“I was surprised the horror movie found its place in Tribeca, but it totally makes sense,” Andi Ralph (Editor) said, noting that Hallowarrior made its way to Tribeca in the horror genre, specifically in the Escape From Tribeca lineup. “It’s kind of a wholesome movie that is a lot of fun, but it is a bit of a departure from the usual festival film.”

Since Milly Shapiro’s breakout role as Charlie in the 2018 horror film Hereditary, Shapiro now returns to the genre in writer-director Ben Sottak’s horror thriller Hallowarrior, follows Pumpkin (Shapiro), a Halloween-obsessed post-apocalypse survivor who thinks she’s the last person alive. But when a vicious band of scavengers shows up at her doorstep, Pumpkin has no choice but to tap into her deadliest survival instincts.

“Pumpkin is a girl who just wants to celebrate Halloween—she just wants to make some friends, and she wants to have some fun, and not all that goes according to plan,” Shapiro said more about her character [Pumpkin] doing a lot of physical stunts for this role in embodying the final girl. “I did do some stunts in this, which was very fun to do; I didn’t do much prep work for them— I survived somehow, nothing but injured.”

A Shudder and Escape From Tribeca horror thriller, Hallowarrior, upends the genre that subverts the tropes, considering how the film follows a holiday-obsessed survivor as the last person alive in a post-apocalyptic universe that builds to an exhilarating action-packed climax that stands apart from typical horror apocalypse fare.

“Unfortunately, I feel like the world is not too far-fetched, and it’s not too far off where we are heading right now,” Ajani Russell said briefly about the film, and her character emphasized stepping into the end-of-the-world environment of Hallowarrior. “It was really fun to step into this world with people I worked with— we really cared about each other when we were working on it— we weren’t afraid to be silly but also get to that emotional and vulnerable place.”

Michele Schultz

Part of the approved Cherry Picks critic community, with span across independent-run digital publications. Past experience includes contributions to FanSided’s entertainment and lifestyle verticals, notably Culturess, 1428 Elm*l, and TripSided. Journalistic roots began as a City University of New York (CUNY) undergraduate student journalist.

Armed with a signature in theatrical data analytics and out of home (OOH) marketing measurement. Outside of the digital editorial newsroom and after hours, reporting on culture continues.