Stiletto

HE TAKES THE SHOES. SHE WANTS REVENGE.

The killer doesn't just murder them.

He keeps the shoes.

In Samuel Gonzalez Jr.'s Stiletto, a masked serial killer is stalking exotic dancers and slaughtering the women he selects as his victims.

Then he takes something with him.

Their pumps.

Trophies for what the movie's official synopsis describes as his “perverse collection.”

For Lyric, this isn't somebody else's nightmare.

One year earlier, the killer murdered her older sister.

Now the anniversary has arrived.

He's still killing.

And Lyric wants him stopped.

Gigi Gustin plays Lyric, who sets out seeking retribution while trying to protect the community of dancers still in the killer's path. 

But Gustin's relationship to Stiletto goes much deeper than playing its final girl.

The story originated with her.

She co-wrote the movie.

She produced it.

And before Eli Roth's company ever became involved, she financed it herself.

That last part matters.

Gustin is a former exotic dancer, and she has been unusually open about what it took to get the movie made.

She described financing Stiletto gradually through her own work, taking on high-interest loans and even selling her possessions as she tried to get enough money together to complete the film. 

So when Stiletto places dancers at the center of a slasher movie, it isn't doing so from an entirely outside perspective.

Gustin has said she drew from what she witnessed while working as an exotic dancer—the private conversations, vulnerable moments and darker realities that exist behind a world audiences usually see only from the other side of the stage. 

And she gave the result a wonderfully concise description:

“my glittery little revenge story.”

That's probably the most useful four-word explanation of Stiletto anybody could give us.

Because this is still very deliberately a slasher.

A masked killer.

A group of potential victims.

A survivor who wants revenge.

Blood.

Trophies.

A distinctive weapon-and-costume mythology designed to create a new horror villain.

But Gustin and Gonzalez Jr. are building that familiar structure inside a community Gustin actually knows.

Director Samuel Gonzalez Jr. describes the movie in equally vivid terms.

His goal was to make a slasher that felt like a “seductive neon fever dream” built around blood, obsession and atmosphere. 

That explains the visual identity already surrounding the film.

This isn't being marketed as a stripped-down rural slasher.

The world is neon.

Nightlife.

High heels.

Performance.

Sexuality.

And a killer whose fetish transforms one of the dancers' most recognizable pieces of clothing into a trophy.

The title itself carries two meanings.

A stiletto is a high heel.

It's also a blade.

For a movie about a serial killer murdering dancers and collecting their shoes, there probably isn't a more appropriate word to put on the marquee.

The masked killer's visual identity has serious genre pedigree behind it too.

The mask was designed by Jason Baker, the effects artist who worked on the Grabber's masks for The Black Phone. 

And Eli Roth clearly thinks the filmmakers found something.

Roth's involvement came after the movie was already made.

His company, The Horror Section, acquired Stiletto in February 2026 while the film was in post-production. 

That distinction is important.

This isn't a project Gustin was simply hired to star in after Roth developed it.

She originated the story and financed the production independently.

The Horror Section saw the completed—or nearly completed—film and picked it up.

Roth subsequently joined Gustin and Matthew Hersh among the film's credited producers. 

And he has been extremely enthusiastic about what they made.

Roth praised Gustin and Gonzalez Jr. for drawing on her real experiences while still creating something he believes works as an entertaining theatrical slasher, particularly highlighting the new masked killer and Gonzalez Jr.'s direction. 

That theatrical part matters to Gonzalez Jr., too.

The director has spoken specifically about loving horror in a crowded auditorium—the screams, laughter and collective reaction when a movie gets an audience going together.

He says Stiletto was designed for that kind of experience. 

Which makes its release date almost suspiciously perfect.

October 30.

Halloween Eve.

The Horror Section is sending a brand-new masked slasher into theaters the night before the biggest horror holiday of the year. 

And unlike several of the smaller releases we've covered for What's Screaming Now, the company isn't positioning this as a tiny specialty engagement.

Its June announcement explicitly called Stiletto a wide theatrical release, nationwide. 

Gustin herself referred to the surreal prospect of running for her life in eight-inch heels across a thousand screens.

That's a long way from financing the movie dollar by dollar.

The cast surrounding her includes Charlotte McKinney as Porsha, Colleen Camp as Ginger Malone, Meghan Carrasquillo as Headphones, Hannah Hueston as Trixie, Stephen Blackehart as The Gentleman, Pancho Moler as Nick, and Mia Challis as Skates. 

And here's where Friday Night VHS should stop.

Because Stiletto hasn't opened.

We know who Lyric is.

We know what happened to her sister.

We know the killer is targeting dancers.

We know he's taking shoes from his victims.

And we know Lyric intends to fight back.

We don't need to identify the killer.

We don't need to explain why he does it.

We don't need to reveal who survives.

And we definitely don't need to repeat anything Roth has said publicly about the finale, because even vague hype about a slasher ending can start shaping expectations about what happens.

The setup already gives us everything we need.

A woman lost her sister.

A killer kept going.

One year later, he's still taking trophies.

This time—

someone is coming after him.