The participants in Sean Cisterna’s documentary will be the first to tell you they don’t want anything to do with horror movies, but that didn’t stop them from being part of making one. Silver Screamers will have its world premiere at the 2025 Fantastic Fest. The documentary subjects are a handful of seniors, and no, not high school or college seniors. These are seniors of life, people in their 80s and 90s who live in retirement homes around Canada and said yes to an adventure. Silver Screamers is a documentary about the filmmaking process as experienced by these seniors, many of whom had never thought of making a movie before Cisterna showed up on their doorstep.

“I read a short story several years ago called The Rug by horror author Edna O’Brien,” recalls Cisterna. “I’ve been thinking about adapting this for a while, and then when I finally set out to do it, this funding opportunity came across my desk. It was a fund called the New Horizons for Seniors Program meant to get seniors doing something different, being active, getting off their couches, and being a part of a community. It’s not a fund for filmmakers, but I spun the application to work for a film and used their funding to help bring a group of seniors together to make a horror movie.”

The biggest hurdle for the seniors to overcome wasn’t getting filmmaking skills, although that was quite the learning curve. They were overwhelmingly hesitant about the horror short they would be working on. When Cisterna originally pitched the concept at the retirement home, he came on a little strong about the horror aspects and wasn’t getting much interest.

“Over the years, I’ve really started to pay attention to how people around me are aging. My grandparents passed away, my dad’s in assisted living, friendly old neighbors have come and gone,” Cisterna reflects. “Seniors are always on my mind. When I started speaking to them, they were very adamant: we don’t like horror movies. We don’t like to feel scared; it’s not a pleasant feeling. They didn’t specifically say what they were afraid of, but it’s just not a feeling or rollercoaster that they feel like going on at this stage in their lives.”

“We reached out to about fifteen retirement centers across the geographic area where we shot the film,” Cisterna continues. “We reached out to retirement homes, senior active living centers, and church groups to say we wanted to take seniors and make a horror film with them. I don’t think they quite grasped what I was going for, even though I tried to make it as clear as possible. You’re going to be part of the crew. This is a fun experience. They just heard blood, death, and horror and they shied away from it.”

“It really boiled down to these eight key people who wanted to go on this journey, who thought it would be fun,” Cisterna went on. “Some of them complained that they never get opportunities to do anything like this. It’s sad and disappointing that their lives aren’t filled with a lot of these fun opportunities. Those who did sign up, I would say they had the time of their lives, for sure.”

“To come together to make a horror film really put them out of their comfort zone,” Cisterna says. “When we started making the film within the film, being around the fake blood, the prosthetics, and actors bringing these scary moments to life helped to demystify the process. It became fun for them.”

Part of what makes Silver Screamers such a special film is the relationship that develops between the seniors and the younger people who were the on-set mentors. Each senior is given a role, from sound to costume to cinematographer, and they’re responsible for most of the decisions made on the set of The Rug. Cisterna called upon friends and colleagues to mentor the seniors in their roles.

“When these mentors look back on their experience, the relationships they formed will last a lifetime. It was definitely a very intergenerational storytelling environment,” explains Cisterna. “We were able to learn from each other. The skills passed between generations both ways. It was definitely a reciprocal environment.”

“It’s a really enriching experience when you get to spend time with a senior and share some time with them. What we want to do in our marketing and distribution is encourage our distribution partners to facilitate these relationships. Bring a senior to a movie and maybe the senior gets a free ticket or something. We want to create a scenario where an older generation and a younger generation can come together, share the same film, and talk about it afterwards.”

Cisterna’s experience with the seniors in making The Rug and Silver Screamers has shaped the way he looks at how film sets should be run.

“Reducing stress is a key component to longevity. Deal with problems in a calm, creative manner rather than the chaos that generally happens on a film set,” smiles Cisterna. “Oftentimes as a director, you listen to the advice of every kind of crew member and the information comes at you rapidly and you have to disseminate it very quickly.”

“The seniors sit down calmly and rationally and think of a solution off the top of their head that they’re willing to try to overcome the problem. I really respected the calm-down process. How they made a decision after that reflection rather than the chaos that generally happens on a film set because it’s time and money.”

There is palpable joy that comes from the seniors of Silver Screamers when they’re able to get their hands dirty in the prep process for what would become their short film. Cisterna says the preparation process was the most fulfilling aspect for most of the seniors because they got to work one-on-one with Cisterna and their mentor. Part of their joy also came from the almost serendipitous way each member of the group had some immediate connection to the role they were assigned.

“I’m thinking of David,” Cisterna says. “He’s our 80-year-old special effects guy. He had a history in puppetry and he wanted to use this marionette system to make our hero rug come to life. We bought the rug one day during a seniors’ prep time, delivered the rug to David, and David punched holes in strategic corners of the rug. He used a fishing line to tie to a dowel and was able to move and marionette the puppet, bringing the rug to life. Serendipitously, David had this puppetry experience and was able to draw from it, even though he hadn’t done so in the past 60 years of his life. It was just something he did as a young teacher.”

The premiere of Silver Screamers at Fantastic Fest will be paired with the fruits of the seniors’ labor: The Rug. Their short film is an anti-landlord, horror-comedy that fits right in with the rest of the genre flicks that are part of the festival.

“I think genre audiences are going to dig it. We didn’t quite make it for genre audiences, but it just so happens that people who love genre have big hearts. It’s a community that loves gore and blood, but also has a huge heart at the same time, which is something I did not anticipate.”

After all this talk of seniors, blood, and guts, it feels only right to ask Cisterna if any of the seniors eventually came around to the horror genre.

“They still do not like horror movies,” laughs Cisterna. “They loved the project we worked on and they loved getting their hands dirty, but I don’t think they’re going to be buying tickets for the new Terrifier when it comes out.”

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Fantastic Fest 25: Sean Cisterna Talks Intergenerational Horror in “Silver Screamers”

TIFF25: Lucía Aleñar Iglesias Talks Grief, Ghosts, & Memory in Forastera