Spoiler-Free Reviews: SILVER SCREAMERS and THE RUG (Fantastic Fest 2025)



September 29, 2025



Documentaries | Film Festivals | Foreign | Movies | Reviews | Short Films

Written by Joseph Perry

Joseph Perry is the Film Festival Editor for Horror Fuel; all film festival related queries and announcements should be sent to him at josephperry@gmail.com. He is a contributing writer for the "Phantom of the Movies VideoScope" and “Drive-In Asylum” print magazines and the websites Gruesome Magazine, Diabolique Magazine, The Scariest Things, B&S About Movies, and When It Was Cool. He is a co-host of the "Uphill Both Ways" pop culture nostalgia podcast and also writes for its website. Joseph occasionally proudly co-writes articles with his son Cohen Perry, who is a film critic in his own right. A former northern Californian and Oregonian, Joseph has been teaching, writing, and living in South Korea since 2008.

SILVER SCREAMERS (2025)

Official synopsis: The cameras have rolled, the fake blood has flowed, and the retirement community is about to slay the big screen with Silver Screamers, a heartwarming and spine-tingling documentary following a spirited crew of retirees as they swap knitting needles for camera lenses to make their very own horror short – The Rug.

Writer/director Sean Cisterna’s Canadian documentary Silver Screamers is a feel-good — actually, make that feel-great — film that finds him and his crew mentoring a group of senior citizen volunteers in making a horror comedy short film. Whether using skills that they haven’t had the opportunity to practice in decades or trying out new technology and talents for the first time in their lives, the lovable retirees are all up to the task. Their reasons for getting involved with the project range from the poignant to the life affirming as they prove you’re never too old to be young at heart. The volunteers aren’t simply told what to do by the mentors. They are important team members who are given tasks that can be quite challenging, and they find novel ways to meet their goals. Film lovers of all stripes should get a huge kick out of this big-hearted documentary.

THE RUG (2025)

Official synopsis: Edna, a senior aged woman, discovers that a discarded throw rug she has found will, for lack of a better word, digest anything left under it. The more it digests, the more it wants. After devouring her pesky landlord and a nosey cop, the rug has gotten so frisky that Edna finds herself trapped in her own home with no way out.

The Rug is the Canadian short film that is the result of the work by filmmaker Sean Cisterna, his mentor crew members, and the senior citizen volunteers/first-time film crew participants profiled in the documentary Silver Screamers. It’s a horror comedy that hits the right notes. Viewers who know the story behind the making of this short will certainly find appreciation for it, but it also works nicely as a stand-alone smaller slice of independent scare-fare.