Dennis Iliadis made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller Hardcore in 2004, then landed the job of directing the remake of Wes Craven‘s The Last House on the Left. Since making that film, Iliadis has brought us the sci-fi thriller +1, the horror films Delirium and He’s Out There (for which he used the pseudonym Quinn Lasher), and the documentary No Cap. Next up from Iliadis is the psychological thriller Buzzheart, and Variety recently revealed that the film has secured North American distribution with Dark Star Pictures.
Busch Media will be releasing the film in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with Belas Arte Group bringing it to Brazil and Dexterity Entertainment distributing in Spanish-speaking Latin America. B-Rated International will be releasing Buzzheart in France in early 2026. B-Rated International is handling the worldwide sales, and is also offering up the remake rights.
Set in Iliadis’ native Greece in the 1990s, the story begins when Argyris, a timid 18-year-old, visits a massage parlour where he instantly smitten by the masseuse, Mary, way out of his league. In a surprise turn, she gives him a handjob and invites him as her boyfriend to meet her parents. Argyris can’t believe his luck. There, Mary’s mother – “the last true experimental behaviourist” says her husband, Yorgos – subjects him to increasingly bizarre and sinister challenges to prove Argyris’s love and that he is worthy of Mary. Things take a more sinister turn as Yorgos becomes increasingly violent. This one sounds interesting to me, especially since Variety notes that the movie “flips conventional genre” as it goes along.
Iliadis told Eye for Film, “I wanted to use all the elements I’ve learned in my American films which, in the end, were getting a bit too ‘standard horrorish’ and do something ideally more deep and human. Usually you have people pretending they are normal and they turn out to be weird but here the people are weird and you discover their humanity at the very end.“
Buzzheart was produced by Panoply Films and Neda Films, with Twin7.
Are you a fan of Dennis Iliadis, and are you looking forward to Buzzheart? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed