‘Hunting Matthew Nichols’ Expands to 1,000+ Screens With Wide North American Release
- Horror Movies Uncut
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
There’s a certain type of horror film that doesn’t just tell a story—it builds a case. Hunting Matthew Nichols leans directly into that space, and now it’s moving from the festival circuit into something much bigger.
Dropshock Pictures, in association with Moon7 Films, has announced that the supernatural thriller will receive a wide North American theatrical release, landing on more than 1,000 screens across the U.S. and Canada beginning April 10. That’s a significant jump for an independent debut feature, especially one that’s been operating in that faux-umentary lane you don’t see scaled up like this too often.
Directed by Markian Tarasiuk, the film follows Tara Nichols, an aspiring documentary filmmaker returning to a decades-old mystery—her brother’s disappearance on Vancouver Island. What starts as an investigation gradually shifts into something far more unsettling, as new evidence pushes her and her crew into territory that feels less like true crime and more like something they shouldn’t be documenting at all.
That hybrid approach is exactly what’s been driving the reaction so far. The film blends true crime structure with cinematic horror in a way that doesn’t feel stitched together. It plays like a documentary until it doesn’t. And when it turns, it hits.
The response has already been there. After premiering at the Newport Beach Film Festival and making stops at Blood in the Snow and Whistler—where it was nominated for the Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature—the film built momentum through word of mouth and audience reactions. That carried into its recent “Monday Mystery Movie” rollout, where it screened on 1,400 screens across major chains like AMC, Regal, and Landmark, putting it directly in front of general audiences without the usual indie rollout buffer.
What makes this release even more notable is how it’s being handled. The film is being self-distributed by Dropshock Pictures and Moon7 Films, with consulting support from former National Association of Theater Owners president John Fithian. The team reportedly spent much of 2025 touring the film and meeting directly with theater chains, building out a strategy that led to this kind of scale.
That kind of groundwork doesn’t happen by accident.
Shot on Vancouver Island with a BC-based creative team, Hunting Matthew Nichols stars Miranda MacDougall alongside Tarasiuk, Ryan Alexander McDonald, and Christine Willes. It’s positioned as a supernatural thriller, but everything about how it’s been presented suggests something more grounded at first—something that earns its shift instead of forcing it.
Before the wide release, the film will screen April 2 at The Park in Vancouver and April 6 at Landmark Sunset in Los Angeles as part of a Film Independent event.
Then it goes wide.
For a film built on investigation, mystery, and perspective, the next phase is simple—put it in front of as many people as possible and see how they react.
Read our review from FilmQuest here:
Comments