The more things change, the more they stay the same; smart ones just know how to remix the delivery. Take #VYMARA, for example. The indie horror film, which hit theaters on October 19, 2026, before touching down on Tubi, has two things working in its favor.
First, it joins a recent wave of horror films that draw from social media. Earlier this year, Barbie Ferreria moderated an app where she discovered a series of Faces of Death-inspired murders on the timeline, while Kai Cenat, Kevin Hart, and Druski recently had to evade a serial killer during a livestream. #VYMARA takes things a step further, centering on a horrific livestream that sends up influencers while bringing in some of horror’s biggest online personalities—including Wendigoon and Coffehouse Crime—into the mix.
But the film's online presence extends beyond what's onscreen. #VYMARA was generating buzz months before audiences saw a trailer or even knew a movie existed. Search for VYMARA online, and you'll find Reddit, Facebook, and YouTube posts discussing a mysterious plant with a number of ... effects if consumed. You’ll find concerned parents asking about their children hiking at night looking for mysterious plants, and others discussing the plant’s benefits. The buzz surrounding the ARG successfully teed up the film’s trailer, combining the lived-in ARG with a film sprung from that world.
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It’s truly giving The Blair Witch Project, which, according to Ava Westcott, producer at West Key Studios and one of the stars of #VYMARA, was by design. “We went into the ARG elements,” Westcott told Complex over Zoom. “It basically unveiled the lore underneath the film, which is a very fun, campy movie, but the lore underneath it is very disturbing and dark, so we wanted to elaborate on that.”
In a conversation with Westcott, #VYMARA writer-director Paul Bukoskey, and Carrington Bornstein (who plays the “Missing Content Creator” at the center of the film's livestream), the team discussed bringing livestream culture to horror, creating practical effects that make audiences squirm, building an alternate reality game, and the possibility of a sequel.
This conversation had been edited for length and clarity.
First off, it was dope to see the film hit theaters on October 19th; congrats! What was that theater experience like?
Paul Bukoskey: It was fucking awesome. It was so cool. We had a premiere last week that we were all at with other creators, industry folks, casts, and I mean, it was just a blast. Seeing these guys up on the screen was cooler than anything else, because the performances [are] fucking awesome.
I went into #VYMARA kind of cold, and in doing the research, I felt like I was transported back to 1999. I remember being on the computer back then like, "What the fuck is this Blair Witch Project? Where is all of this info coming from?" Ava, can you talk about building out this world and making it feel so alive online?
Ava Westcott: Yeah, I appreciate that. [There] was a lot of work going into it, but I do appreciate the 1990s aspect. That was something we tried to really build: the analog feel within the livestream elements, because while that is the traditional new age sense, that is the original underlying [thing about] found footage, that crispy analog feeling.
It was such an interesting experience grassrootsing this; as you know, we were an indie film, very minimal marketing budget. It was a lot of boots on the ground—myself and [#VYMARA producer] Taylor Smith, we started off doing a bunch of different Reddit forums and basically bringing these people to life. We had a botanist who was studying this plant who went insane, started consuming it, started recommending it, saying it was anti-aging, it could prevent hair loss, which is to build into the lore that these creatures are immortal because of their plant. Then we had a conspiracy theorist who was like, "It's a government cover-up; the government wants us to eat it," and losing his mind as well. And then we had a couple [of] party people who were like, "This is the coolest new party drug. I can't wait to get lit."
People talking about their kids going out at night—
Westcott: We also had a few Facebook moms being like, "Don't let your children do VYMARA." We really wanted it to feel like an ecosystem. It wasn't just living in one area. And before we even announced it as a film, it was creating a lot of curiosity.
I think that's important: not just shoving idea systems down people's throats, but having the curiosity of, “What are these new elements?” And we wanted to do so in a safe way because our original idea was to make someone actually go missing, but we took a step back.
Bukoskey: Everybody liked that idea.
I was going to say, we still want Carrington around, right? [Laughs]
Westcott: Yeah, we love Carrington. [Laughs]
Then we went into the ARG elements. Taylor and I built a lot of different puzzles and ciphers and mazes and codes; a team of Discord people solved all of these. They had a lot of trouble solving some of them. [Laughs] I will say, Taylor Smith is quite the genius; it basically unveiled the lore underneath the film, which is a very fun, campy movie, but the lore underneath it is very disturbing and dark, so we wanted to elaborate on that. You could have two different experiences viewing this film: [either] you understand what these things mean, versus just [watching] a fun popcorn movie.
Carrington, what drew you to this project in particular? Are you a fan of horror? Was it the lore?
Carrington Bornstein: I love horror movies. This is my favorite movie genre, but I also come from comedy, and I was very interested in the comedy aspect. I feel like there's been so many movies that have internet stuff in it, and they try [to] put people who have clout or whatever in the movie, but this movie was actually tasteful, and it was also very funny how they did it. I don't think I've seen a better merging of online and movie into it. The [constant] cutting, especially at the tail end of the movie, was cracking me up. But also, I really like monsters, so I'm really into the whole makeup SFX thing. That's super cool to me.
I have a couple of questions about your performance in the film in particular. One, and this may be a you and Paul question: you're talking about quitting vaping and whatnot. Was that you, or was that in the script?
Bornstein: That was just improv.
Bukoskey: I can't write words like that. No, that was so funny.
Westcott: No, no. There's a lot of funny stuff from Paul. The film is about 30 percent improv.
OK!
Bukoskey: Well, when we were casting this, we were going in the same tune as Carrington mentioned it, trying to be as authentic as possible. As we were looking for people to cast in the roles, we hit up Carrington and brought in folks [from] plays, characters who let somebody go off the leash and do whatever they want, and spend time on set doing that. It can be a bit risky, and that's why we cast it correctly because it's like, I don't want to get in front of Carrington's performance. It was the same thing with casting Ava.
Bornstein: It helped a lot with how encouraging Paul was as well. He gave us the guardrails, but then just let us do our thing. So that was really good synergy there.
You're also talking about the cuts back and forth, how the film was shot. Were you actually holding the camera, or was it really good faking of you holding the camera vlog-style?
Bornstein: Paul, you want to speak to that?
Please, please. I'm fascinated.
Bukoskey: I think it was a little bit of both in a way.
Bornstein: Right? It was like both.
I was wondering, you've got a whole camera person. When you're looking at vlogs and streams, especially streamers who have camera people, there's a certain way that they whip that camera. Were they watching vlogs? Were they up on how to do that compared to shooting for a TV show or a film?
Bukoskey: Oh, that's a really good question. I mean, John [Calabrese], our DP, is such a rockstar; he does films, commercials, everything at the highest level, but this is a bit of a more nuanced procedure, because in a way we wanted it to be elevated, but then also be true to the style of vlogging, so it feels immersed in that world. So that was something we worked on a lot. Our shot list is so dense. The shot list page I had on set was so long, with different ways we wanted to shoot it, but really it was just he and I getting on the same page. Because then, of course, with wonderful actors, you’ve got to follow them, let them take it where they want to go. I want to make sure I [was supporting] them in their performances.
So the adventure that the DP and I went on was like, how are we here to just almost set it up as a play and keep them in this certain area, have coverage via one of the character’s GoPros, put him opposite, have our DP stand over here. OK, now what area are we letting the actors go into? And then how do we stay nimble and get it, but then also maintain that movement in camera language that's synonymous with this type of filming natively?
I love it.
Westcott: Yeah, a lot of the performance aspect was very theatrical in a way because of the long takes of the found footage, but also our DP John was really a character in this. His interactions with the camera [were] so fluid, but at the same time, very planned out. He did a great job.
I think it adds to all of what we're talking about here. We should get into the other element, which: I love the breaks into the creators watching the stream and engaging with their chat throughout the film. There's a number of people, and people get bloody. There's a lot going on here. Was it difficult getting all of them in there?
Westcott: We really just wanted this to live in the horror space, so the creators that we reached out to were mostly true crime creators or people who love horror movies and talk about that. And then Wendigoon, of course, he's very native in the horror space. We just really wanted it to feel like it belonged. I think a lot of the creators that we reached out to were very excited because of the idea systems of it, but also because I think a lot of films, as Carrington has said, try to put an influencer in an area that [makes] them be something else. And we wanted who they are to shine, and that's why people love them. People love Carrington because he's Carrington. People love Wendigoon because he's Wendigoon. We wanted their fans to see every reason they love them so much.
Bukoskey: And we never had a conversation of, “Which wig should we put on Carrington?” It was like, “No, let's throw a chain on him, throw a hoodie on him, let's send him out there.”
Carrington, were you eating anything for real in that scene?
Bornstein: Yeah, I think I was eating yogurt raisins or something—
Westcott: They were yogurt balls.
Bornstein: Yogurt balls! Yogurt balls. Jesus, I don't think I've ever purchased yogurt balls on my own.
There's that one shot towards the end where the monsters are really just ripping at Mason. You guys did phenomenal work with the practical effects. I was sitting in my chair like, "Ugh."
Westcott: Appreciate that. Robert Bravo built a lot of different organs with gelatin, so they were edible.
Oh, OK. That makes sense.
Westcott: And then intestines, we had a blood cannon shooting at them for, I think it was eight minutes, because it keeps going.
It's a long scene.
Westcott: It was just eight minutes of them being blasted with blood.
Bukoskey: And then he had to fill that bucket up so tall. It's just a bucket that they were pulling from in front of the GoPro where it was something like the cannon right below the camera, and then the bucket right below the camera in front of the cannon, and then just a stockpile of blood and guts and everything she was talking about. It was beautiful. I think we cut half of it just because it was so long. We're not going to put all of it in the movie, but we did fight for as [much] of it as possible.
#VYMARA is out now on Tubi at a moment when people are still looking for stuff to watch for spooky season. Could there be a sequel? I don't want to put anything out there, but if there's enough support, could people be seeing more from this world?
Bukoskey: There's a treatment written. There's a treatment written. That's all I'll say. That's all I'll say. A very rough treatment, let's be clear. A treatment.
Have you guys seen an uptick in conversation since the film’s release?
Westcott: Before the announcement and after, we had two different types of fan bases: someone who's a traditional horror sense of the popcorn eater; they come when they see, “oh, there's a new fun movie,” versus our day one fans. We've had some pretty great reactions from certain individuals all across the world—the Netherlands, Australia; they've hung posters even before it was announced as a film, trying to get the word out there that we have to be wary of VYMARA because it's going to take over and infect our brains. So, for our next film, we plan to do an ARG too, with a bigger budget. And I won't spoil anything, but to the extreme: anything that has been seen now will be incredibly shocking times—I want to say 20, 30, 40. Once we have the budget to do so, that's something that's very important to West Key, because I think we're all sick of traditional marketing.
I think we're all sick of, "OK, there's a new movie." I think something is being awakened within our generation, and [that is] wanting a different form of media that feels like you live in it; you're a part of it. You are speaking to the person, and they can be involved. And I think that makes it special, and it makes it eventized within itself.
But I think that's something that, in the next movie and the movie after that, we plan on making ARG a component of the marketing.
That's great. Not to give Big Hollywood any tips, but I mean, it's the lesson that they haven't learned from what they should have learned earlier this year.
Bukoskey: Very true.
You can stream #VYMARA right now on Tubi.
