‘Touch Me’ seduced Sundance audiences with its gory, outlandish tale of an alien cult leader with addictive tentacles. Its director says it was inspired by his life.

Every year, the Sunndens Film Festival cures a midnight program filled with unusual independent horror films. The slate included a breakout hit in 2024 love Lies Bleeding And I saw the glow of the TV. In 2025, comedic and gross horror films like Together And Touch me The audience left both spray and cracking.

Touch me Was written and directed by Edison Heman. It follows Joy (Olivia Taylor Doodle) and her cod -seeded roommate Craig (Jordan Gavaris), who vacate their apartments after the stomach churning plumbing accident and goes with a foreign cult leader, whose sex appeal And drug addiction touch on his friendship.

“People are calling it”Fun the skin, under the skin, In which Scarlett Johansson acted with a foreign people, then disappeared for an alternative dimension. Touch me There is all supernatural chaos with a more playful tone.

Heman and Doodle had joy with Yahoo Entertainment with joy before their Sundans premiere.

This interview is edited for length and clarity.

What a wild film? Where did the idea come from?

Addison heimann: Depression is always the answer. I was going through a very terrible friendship breakup, and a lot of stuff was going on with my family. I just watched this film Untouched, Who is about a foreigner who has sex with people in a cabin and makes them feel enthusiastic. I was so, “I wish it would happen to me.” So I dreamed of a world that took the concept of a foreigner who removes anxiety and depression and fuses it at that time with his life and destruction, and created this world where two codescent friends f *** a Foreigners are ING and start fighting because they are accustomed to her touch.

I too have been learning Japanese for five years and suffered from Japanese films of the 60s and 70s – a lot of pink films, and like Kwaidan, Jigoku And Home. I influenced that wild madness in this world.

Olivia, you are a science-fi and horror star. What was this about this film that attracted you inside?

Olivia taylor dudley: I really read the script fast and decided, such as one hour after me. There were 50 reasons to do this film: Tracksuts actually, hip-hop dancing, The Alien Sex and The Trauma. I have OCD and I (Exposure and Response Prevention) I am in therapy, like Joy. The film works such a good job of touching a very real and personal trauma and I think everyone in the audience will be related to one level or another. Then there is this levity and cheerfulness and ridiculing that makes it a great vehicle to receive a truly important message.

At each turn, there is something terrible and painful for these characters – all of this begins when they lose their house because their shower breaks and starts spraying sewage.

Heimann: It was a real thing that happened to me. I had to find a way to get $ 10,000 to fully re -prepare the lower part of my house because it was full of water water. I took things from my real life for the film.

Both Joy and his friend Craig have to address their previous trauma that keeps coming up. How did you contact to deal with those heavy topics?

Heimann: When the Olivia stopped on the board and became an executive manufacturer and helped to develop the script further, we have created the backstory of Joe on the basis of things they have experienced, and the backstory of Craig Is, whom I have experienced or experienced a tangent. I think the style of style is an interesting vehicle to talk about things while being wildly entertaining.

Eventually I decided to make the mashup, because I wanted to talk about the things that I was close to my heart and Olivia had experienced, and it was presented to those who also presented it to those who also presented it It must have been experienced so that they can laugh at it too, but it is also related to it.

Olivia, how will you describe Joy as a character?

Dadli: She makes me feel personal. I rarely get to fulfill such characters who feel so close to the house. He is a person who is just lost and swimming in the world and is actually a code -pendent on someone. He has a lot of love and heart, but it is easy for him to get trapped on the wrong thing. And I think many people can belong to it! If someone else created a sexy alien, who promised to remove all his worries, they would say yes. I can’t make a mistake for him. I think he is a red chick, which has a lot of flaws that people can belong to.

Edison, do you have any inspiration for Bryan, your foreign cult leader?

Heimann: I think we all have that kind of *** boy who dries us and ruins your life. Brian is a amalgamation of experiences that I have attracted to you and spit you in a way that makes you feel worse. I think this person in our lives is both suspicious, but it is also seductive.

Lu (Taylor Paved), who plays him, offered to dye his hair to a black dye, and when he did, we thought he looks like a strange jaared lato that makes everyone who makes everyone “Him,, But also “him!”

We have talked about the characters, so now we should address everything else – Gor, Tent and all the sexuality of all. A lot is going on. What was the practical versus visual effect?

Dadli: I always knew that I wanted to keep things 100% practical. Some are great about seeing some tangible. I love virtual effects very much, but for this, I wanted the alien look like a puppet. When you finally look at the alien, it is a two-foot puppet that we put in water. When Olivia arose during the sex scene, we had wires and a giant tent wrapped around him. I would say that we finished 90% of our VFX designer to move things and keep the fluid. A lot of (prop) heads are floating around.

One last question for both of you: If you can recommend this film to any kind of person, then who will be this? What is your ideal audience?

Heimann: I think this is a trendy gene z person who wants to make fun of me but I still want to be friends with them.

Dadli: Obviously, I want Jean Z-Aers feel that I am calm! But I hope that style audience loves it and hugs it. I don’t think there is something else like this right now. This is a unique vision. The entire film does not give up.

Touch me Plans for distribution have not yet been released.