Follow the Dark: New Cerebral Horror Movie Explores Grief Through a Parallel Universe Labyrinth
How far would you go to save someone you lost?
British production company Happy Sisyphus Productions prepares to launch its most ambitious horror feature to date. Follow the Dark, a cerebral horror film from director Matthew Tibbenham and writer Nathan Shane Miller, begins its Kickstarter campaign on April 28th at 2PM BST. The film follows Detective Ari Hasan, a grieving father whose teenage son has died. During a routine investigation, Hasan discovers an ancient subterranean chamber beneath an archaeological excavation. Inside waits a mirror carved with a recurring phrase: To see the day, follow the dark.
The mirror, according to the film’s synopsis, can open pathways to parallel universes. Specifically, realities where a traveller’s greatest regret never occurred. For Hasan, that means a world where his son Doni still lives. But stepping through the mirror does not grant an easy reunion. He must first navigate a vast labyrinth of shifting stone chambers. The labyrinth operates under a single rule. Only darkness reveals hidden doorways to the next chamber. The same darkness, however, awakens a predatory entity called the Guardian. Hunters who linger too long in the shadows do not survive.
Tibbenham, who previously worked on Sinister, describes the film as three interwoven storylines. One thread follows Hasan’s deteriorating relationship with his wife Zara. Another tracks his harrowing traversal of the labyrinth. The third shows an alternate life where Zara and Doni never experienced loss. Each thread has its own visual signature.
The real world borrows from David Fincher and Denis Villeneuve. The labyrinth uses harsh Caravaggio shadows with splashes of Argento colour. The grief free world looks warm and saturated, like a Spike Jonze film. Creature designer Theo Salisbury, known for Dune and *1899*, built the Guardian using practical effects and SFX make up. The Kickstarter campaign runs through May, with a free Gleam giveaway contest already open until May 14th.
Genre: Cerebral Horror
Director: Matthew Tibbenham
Writer: Nathan Shane Miller
Runtime: Approx. 95 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Website: https://happy-sisyphus.com/follow-the-dark
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happysisyphuspro/
Kickstarter (launching April 28th at 2PM BST):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/happy-sisyphus/follow-the-dark?ref=r80l80
Free Gleam Giveaway Contest (Running until May 14th):
The free Gleam giveaway contest runs from April 21 until May 14. Participants can win prizes including a limited edition Guardian head bust (hand finished from the original creature design), a collector’s edition Blu ray, and early digital access to the film. A referral reward offers a digital STL file for 3D printing the Guardian bust. The giveaway is open worldwide to those aged 18 and over, with no purchase necessary.
https://wn.nr/WrzEKh2
Logline
After the death of his teenage son shatters his family, a grief-stricken detective discovers an ancient subterranean chamber capable of opening pathways to parallel universes. Desperate to reach a world where his son still lives, he enters a deadly labyrinth of shifting chambers guarded by a monstrous entity — where the only way out is through the dark.
Brief Synopsis (spoiler-free)
When a respected archaeologist is arrested for attempting to destroy his own excavation site, grieving Detective Ari Hasan uncovers an ancient subterranean chamber containing a mirror said to open pathways to parallel worlds — realities in which your greatest regret never occurred.
Still raw from the loss of his son, Doni, and the distance that grief has carved between him and his wife, Zara, Ari crosses the threshold. Inside, he awakens in a vast liminal labyrinth governed by a single rule: only darkness reveals the path forward. Hidden doorways to the next chamber materialise when the lights go out — but so does something else. A terrifying entity known as the Guardian hunts those who linger too long in the shadows.
Woven through Ari’s descent is a quieter, parallel thread — moments following Zara and Doni in a life untouched by profound sadness. As both stories deepen, each reframes the other.
Follow the Dark is an elevated cerebral horror film about the seductive danger of hope and the terrifying cost of refusing to let go.
Detailed Synopsis (spoiler-free)
Follow the Dark is an elevated cerebral horror film told across three interwoven storylines: the unravelling of Detective Ari Hasan in the aftermath of his son’s death; his harrowing traversal of a supernatural labyrinth between realities; and his wife Zara’s life in a world untouched by grief.
After the passing of his teenage son Doni, Detective Ari Hasan struggles to function. His relationship with Zara deteriorates as grief isolates them both. Throwing himself into his work, Ari’s latest case takes an unsettling turn when respected archaeologist Dr David Bell is arrested after attempting to destroy his own excavation site, insisting that something dangerous lies beneath it that must be buried before “it opens again”.
Investigating the site, Ari enters a sealed subterranean chamber and finds an ancient mirror wrapped in cryptic carvings that repeat a single phrase: To see the day, follow the dark.
Dr Bell reveals that during rare celestial alignments, the mirror exposes pathways to parallel universes – realities in which a traveller’s greatest regret never occurred. But to reach that world, they must step through the mirror and navigate the vast labyrinth that exists between realities.
Driven by the possibility of seeing his son alive again, Ari enters the mirror.
Inside, he awakens in a shifting maze of massive stone chambers governed by a single terrifying rule: only darkness reveals the way forward. Hidden doors materialise when the lights go out, allowing passage from one chamber to the next, but something else emerges with them. A predatory entity known as the Guardian stalks the labyrinth, hunting those who linger too long in the dark. Survival means mastering the very thing that makes you vulnerable.
As Ari pushes deeper, he encounters other travellers who entered the mirror seeking their own second chances. Among them are alternate versions of people he knows, including Dr Bell himself.
All the while, the third thread continues to unspool. Small, tender moments with Zara and Doni: a life without the heartache of loss and impossible grief. As their story deepens alongside Ari’s descent, it quietly reframes everything he is risking to reach the other side.
As all three threads converge, Ari is forced to confront the true nature of the labyrinth and the price of rewriting reality.
Follow the Dark explores the seductive danger of hope and the psychological horror of refusing to let go.
Director’s Statement
Fourteen years ago, a writer named Nathan Shane Miller sent me a script. I read it in one sitting, and I haven’t been able to let it go since.
Follow the Dark is a film about grief – specifically, what desperation does to a good person. What happens when a father cannot accept that the world is indifferent to his loss. When descending into the abyss feels easier than grappling with our sorrow head-on. I think most of us understand that impulse. The need to undo the thing that broke us. That’s the terror at the heart of this film, and it’s more frightening to me than any monster.
The year before we finally made it, I lost my father. He always encouraged me to make films – pushed me towards the screen even when I drifted away. He wasn’t especially a fan of horror, but I think he would have loved this one. Because underneath everything – the creature, the chambers, the unravelling – it’s a story about love and loss. About how profoundly another person can define us, and what we become when they’re gone.
The film tells three interwoven stories, and each has its own distinct visual identity. The real world – Ari’s grief, his casework, his disintegrating life – is desaturated and oppressive, closer to a David Fincher or Denis Villeneuve film than a conventional horror film. The labyrinth that lies beyond the mirror is something else entirely: stylised, disorienting, lit with the harsh shadows of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, and fractured by splashes of colour in the tradition of Argento and Derrickson. While the third strand shows the world Ari is fighting to reclaim – warm, saturated, whole, shot with the colour palette of a Spike Jonze or Damien Chazelle film.
That contrast is deliberate, and it helps centre the audience between the shifting storylines. At its centre is a creature built on practical effects and SFX make-up. I had the privilege of working with Theo Salisbury, who shaped the worlds of Dune and *1899*, and what he and his team delivered here is the most unsettling creature work I’ve ever been part of – and I worked on Sinister!
In terms of tone – think Cube and Lights Out raised a child obsessed with Primer. Or if Christopher Nolan made a full-on horror film. Cerebral, layered, and emotionally devastating in ways that sneak up on you.
My production company is called Happy Sisyphus Productions. The myth resonates with me because Sisyphus keeps pushing – not to get the boulder over the summit, but because persevering is itself the purpose. This film is about transformation. About choosing to live with grief rather than be consumed by it.
I hope audiences are frightened. I hope they’re moved. But more than anything, I hope Follow the Dark is the kind of film they need to see twice – not just because of where it ends, but because of everything they missed along the way.
