Look a Little Closer at This Haunting New Indie Horror and You’ll See a Favorite ‘Black Mirror’ Episode -

We’re in the midst of a full-blown slasher renaissance. From Heart Eyes to Terrifier 3 and a host of indie features like Bloody Axe Wound, the genre hasn’t felt this alive since the aftermath of 1996’s Scream genre reset. These days, you have to do something completely different from the norm to truly stand out from the pack. For example, Bone Face wrapped in whodunit conventions, and Totally Killer went all in on its Back to the Future approach. Similarly, Daniel DelPurgatorio’s Marshmallow dares to be unlike anything we’ve seen in the current wave of slashers. It takes cues from slasher conventions (more on that later) while involving elements from a popular, futuristic Netflix TV show–culminating in a thrilling entry in the slasher lineage.

‘Marshmallow’ Follows Slasher Traditions and Conventions

A masked killer stands in the woods with a taser wand in 2025's 'Marshmallow.' — Image via Hemlock Circle Productions

Marshmallow starts like any other camp slasher: groups of kids descend upon a secluded camp for a summer of fun. They have no idea that something (or someone) lurks just outside their field of view. Things start innocuously enough; kids get busy swimming in the lake and other activities. It’s not until after one counselor tells the urban myth about a diabolical doctor who once operated on the property that things go awry. Kue Lawrence plays our lead protagonist, Morgan – a shy, frequently bullied kid looking to escape his everyday life. He suffers from deranged nightmares, too, of the Freddy Krueger variety. When the doctor seemingly steps out of his dreams, all hell breaks loose.

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The doctor’s get-up takes a design cue from 1981’s slasher Hospital Massacre, a perfectly fear-inducing outfit that makes anyone squirm. When you’re a kid, who’s not afraid of going to the doctor? The masked killer mounts his murderous rampage throughout camp and even commits a massacre or two when he enters a cabin full of sleeping children–it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s a mix of Friday the 13th and Fear Street Part 2:1978 in its sheer brutality. No one could possibly survive such an attack. We meet several counselors, and it becomes a guessing game about who could be behind the mask. In true slasher fashion, it’s all about putting the clues together to uncover the real killer.

But Marshmallow does veer way off course from here. Instead of a machete or butcher’s knife, the maniac wields a taser wand to incapacitate campers for an unknown diabolical plan. DelPurgatorio and scriptwriter Andy Greskoviak tinker with these ideas to deceive you and lull you into a state of complacency. What you think you know about slashers is flipped on its head. The creative team uses slasher traditions as the shiny veneer for their version, so when things blow up in the third act, you won’t see it coming.

‘Marshmallow’ Rips a Page from This ‘Black Mirror’ Episode

What sets Marshmallow apart from most modern slashers is its hyper-focus on grief, peeling back the psychological layers in a very The Final Girls way–in which a young teen deals with her mother’s death by falling into an iconic slasher. While it sits comfortably next to Todd Strauss-Schulson’s 2015 meta-slasher, Marshmallow actually rips a page out of the Black Mirror playbook. Bearing a striking resemblance to the show’s “Be Right Back” episode, the film fuses these two reference points from which to sprout its very own unique perspective.

In the Black Mirror episode, a young woman’s husband dies in a car crash. As she attempts to pick up the pieces, she learns of a technology that can bring her husband back to “life” through combing his social media posts and compositing a version of him. Similarly, the indie slasher explores the lasting impact of death and how that impacts someone’s perceptions of life and death. The effect it has on Morgan forces him to confront reality, whether he’s ready to accept it or not.

In “Be Right Back,” the woman fails to nurture her real-life relationships, finding herself being consumed by the need to have her husband alive again. Much like the episode, Marshmallow dissects what grief can do to human interconnectivity, even if it means resurrecting the dead and postponing the grieving process. Both media are underpinned by the idea that prolonging grief does irreversible damage. There’s a heaviness that descends upon Marshmallow mid-way through its runtime. It’s a sad and devastating turn of events that punctuates the idea that pain is unavoidable, and if you don’t deal with it head-on, you’re in for a world of trouble.

In exploring such a profound topic, Daniel DelPurgatorio’s indie slasher rises above most other modern slashers. It trades socio-political issues (as in There’s Someone Inside Your House) and the visceral intensity of the Terrifer franchise for something more universal. Living and dying are two experiences we all have in common, and within a slasher shell, it imparts a powerful message about the end of life. Possessing such a strong emotional lining makes Marshmallow way more than just a hack ‘n slash fest. It’s deeply rich and poignant to real life.