Unnamed Footage Festival 2026: ‘Content’ will make you cringe (complimentary)

Studio execs in suits like to call films “content,” a conveyor belt of ideas reapplied and rearranged into different shapes to bring in a profit. There’s also a tendency to follow the money when it comes to social issues and trends. What was once uncool 10 or 20 years ago (e.g., being a Nazi) is now the new “in” thing (e.g., cutting DEI initiatives). Screening at this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, Content bulldozes you over with a razor-sharp critique of modern culture and its impact on horror filmmaking. Writer/director Adam Meilech uses a two-ton anvil with his on-the-nose script, and that’s okay. In 2026, there’s no time for subtlety.

AJ Wilby (Meilech) aspires to become the next great director. He’s your average guy—dark hair, glasses, nerdy, and hella awkward. And he’s determined, determined in a way that teeters on obsession. He wants to make a movie, but it has to feel and be real. He hires two actors, Margot (Megan Boehmcke) and Teddy (Alex Mills), and pushes them to reach their full potential. But as the filming process of their screenlife film, also called Content, revs into overdrive, AJ begins stalking them. He fabricates an intricate plot that ultimately ends in blackmail.

Content happily plays around in a deranged sandbox, while also speaking to the present moment. AJ hires a diversity consultant named Siobhan (Zippy Esguerra) on his script, and the video call immediately goes off the rails. He claims to be “left-leaning,” but he’s far from it. He’s emblematic of all the “good guys” in progressive seats of power that exploit marginalized voices that actually have things to say. Meilech explores such toxicity through delicious humor and unwavering tension that’s so thick it makes you truly uncomfortable. When you realize what’s actually happening, it’ll knock you for a loop.

Screenlife horror can be difficult to nail. If you get too caught up in an onslaught of jump scares, you lose the real feeling of it all. But if you focus too much on character, then you just really have a drama film. Adam Meilech perfectly walks the tightrope between both; he expertly balances the fear unfolding and the characters. It also makes Content even more powerful in having incisive social commentary stitched into the script’s fabric. Horror is innately political, even if themes serve as an underpinning rather than explicit dialogue or story beats.

Content carries a timely air that’s smartly written and performed. Meilech provides a charmingly cringey, psychopathic performance as AJ, leaving nothing left on the floor. The film emerges as wonderfully unhinged, so much so that you question the truth: What is real? What’s happening? And what does it all mean? You’ll see.

Content screens on March 28, 2026, at 6 pm in The Baboa Theater in San Francisco.