Chris Marrs Piliero’s Appofeniacs Unleashes Deepfake Carnage Ahead of North American Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025

Sean Gunn stares down a digital nightmare in Appofeniacs, premiering at Fantastic Fest on September 20

Fantastic Fest is about to get digitally unhinged. The North American premiere of Appofeniacs, the bold and brutal feature debut from music video auteur Chris Marrs Piliero, is set to light up the screen on Saturday, September 20th at 2:30 PM at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. A brand-new teaser trailer dropped today, giving audiences a first look at the frenzied, hyper-stylized descent into AI-driven chaos.

Best known for his wild, genre-mashing visual work across iconic music videos, Piliero steps fully into the genre feature space with Appofeniacs—a thriller-laced horror satire about identity, delusion, and the terrifying ease with which technology can destroy lives. The film stars Sean Gunn, Jermaine Fowler, Aaron Holliday, Michael Abbott Jr., Simran Jehani, Amogh Kapoor, Will Brandt, Paige Searcy, and Harley Bronwyn.

In Appofeniacs, a reckless prankster named Duke gets addicted to a deepfake app, using it to manipulate the world around him with increasingly disturbing consequences. As his fictions gain traction and spread, reality begins to splinter—driving a collective unraveling among a group of characters caught in the digital crossfire. What starts as a tech-fueled dark comedy slowly morphs into a blood-soaked nightmare about paranoia, perception, and the cost of seeing only what you want to believe.

From what we’ve seen, the film blends the hyperpop energy of Spree with the hallucinatory tension of The Signal and Bodies Bodies Bodies, all wrapped in a glossy, neon-soaked visual language pulled straight from Piliero’s music video arsenal. Expect outrageous destruction, gleeful genre shifts, and a sharp critique of our current digital climate.

Fantastic Fest marks a major launchpad for Appofeniacs, which is already building buzz for its chaotic tone and standout performances—especially from Gunn, who reportedly balances the absurd and the tragic in equal measure.

Our full review will drop following the film’s North American premiere, and HMU will also feature an exclusive interview with Sean Gunn later this week.

Stay tuned—and maybe put the phone down.

For more info and tickets: fantasticfest.com