Trailer: Malibu Horror Story brings found footage to Californian caves

Last Updated on October 4, 2023

You never know where footage will be found; and this time around, it’s hitting Malibu, California – well, some spooky caves on the outskirts of town, at least. The upcoming Malibu Horror Story has gotten its first trailer, with a release date set for October 20th.

The trailer sets up some standard tropes such as mysterious markings on rocks and forbidden entryways that we all know will only bring about trouble (have these guys not seen The Descent?) before showing that Malibu Horror Story will try to play with the found footage subgenre by bouncing around in the timeline. As the vigils and searches continue, we’ll also find out exactly what happened to the high schoolers as their night wore on…

As per the movie’s official Instagram page, Malibu Horror Story is “a spine-tingling journey that plunges a group of novice paranormal investigators into the bone chilling journey of four beloved high school boys who mysteriously vanished a decade ago, on the night of their graduation.”

Malibu Horror Story comes from writer/director/producer Scott Slone and stars Teen Wolf’s Dylan Sprayberry, The Night Shift’s Robert Bailey Jr., Gossip Girl’s Valentina de Angelis, and Replace’s Rebecca Forsythe.

On his influences for Malibu Horror Story and how he attempted to make it stand out in the found footage game, Slone said, “I am a big fan of the found footage sub-genre and wanted to try and do something different with the format and structure of how a traditional found footage film is presented. Our story is told through different perspectives, timelines, and layers of media that were compiled over several years. The goal was to incorporate all of those elements and place them inside of a conventional horror movie structure that would not only appeal to found footage enthusiasts but to a broader horror audience as well.”

Malibu Horror Story has been generating some solid hype on the festival circuit, which is nice to hear since it’s in a subgenre that many people have grown tired of. On this, producer Andrew Williams noted, “We are thrilled with the positive reception from fans and critics during our film festival run this past year, and the success has demonstrated that this is a horror movie made to be experienced in theaters…”

Will you be catching Malibu Horror Story when it comes to theaters next month or will you wait for its streaming debut?