‘Foundation’ Star Officially Goes Dark in Brutal First Look at New Horror Film [Exclusive]

Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

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Sports and horror are a particularly rare pairing, yet after last year's football-centric Him took the field, Fantastic Fest is about to give genre fans their second combination of the two in as many years. Bloody Tennis will attempt to take the niche subgenre and serve up a winner in its North American premiere at the country's most prestigious event for genre filmmaking. Drawing comparisons to Dario Argento's magnum opus, Suspiria, it takes the titular sport to violent new places with an eruption of blood, dark humor, and satire about the all-consuming desire for greatness and the power it has over the young and hungry who aim to prove their doubters wrong.

As part of Collider's Exclusive Preview series, we're thrilled to share a new look at the brutal thriller that shows exactly where the title comes from. Bloody Tennis unfolds at a prestigious girls' tennis academy where violence is part of the regimen and only the hungriest, most cutthroat players will survive. At the center of the experience is Sophie (Sandra Guldberg Kampp), who is slowly exposed to the academy's extreme methods when she's enrolled over the summer. As she slowly builds bonds with her fellow young players, their circumstances grow from strange, like being constantly served bizarre red, chunky smoothies, to creepy, with leeches applied to help performance. Getting further into the program and getting better only gives the Academy more hold over Sophie, and the push to reach greatness at all costs only grows.

Our exclusive image shows Sophie observing the results of her training in the mirror. A large, bloody gash just below her eye leaves streaks of crimson down the left side of her face, as she looks detached and borderline unfazed by the damage. The academy encourages a singular commitment to winning on another level, where bodily harm and sacrifice are viewed not as problems to correct, but signs of commitment to be rewarded. It's an illustration of the key behind Bloody Tennis' satire about the modern world that glorifies and expects the grind. Buying into the academy's logic won't just cost Sophie her own blood, sweat, and tears, though. The cost of her ascension will be paid by the people around her, with whom she's experienced friendship, rivalry, and desire.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring

Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.

😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)

🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)

Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.

ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.

You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.

AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.

Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.

ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.

Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.

AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.

How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.

AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.

Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.

AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.

Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.

ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.

Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.

AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.

The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

Kampp takes the court in Bloody Tennis after most recently reprising her role as Thalis for one episode in Season 3 of the Apple TV sci-fi series, Foundation. She's joined by a talented international cast including Zlatko Burić, who's had a busy year between Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Wonder Man, and The Bride!, alongside Elina Löwensohn, Tracy Gotoas, Helena Zengel, Lily Taïeb, Juliana Vieira Guerra, Lucie Zhang, and Vincent Romeo. Behind the camera, meanwhile, was writer-director Nikias Chryssos with a much bloodier follow-up to their music drama Rave On, released last year. Shudder was so enticed by the sports horror feature's mix of stomach-churning violence and emotional coming-of-age elements that it purchased the rights to distribute it starting September 25, even before its festival premiere.

First, Bloody Tennis makes its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20. The festival begins this week on September 17 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Check out our exclusive image above and stay tuned here at Collider for more new looks throughout the rest of the week as we gear up for the event's 21st edition. More information on each entry can be found on the official Fantastic Fest film guide.