Slasher movies aren’t always known for their oneiric quality, even those specifically about dreams. More often you will see filmmakers chasing a nightmarish element that’s been designed to create dread. Meanwhile, Canadian filmmaker Joshua Gratton has achieved a combination of the two ideas; his second directed feature, Platypus, is equal parts dreamy and uncomfortably surreal.
Like many dreams are, Platypus is haunting. Gratton has crafted a movie so virtually intangible, in both story and comprehension, that it’s hard to get a firm handle on, no matter how much I try. At the same time, I appreciate the feeling it gives me as I piece everything together. In that way, it very much is like a dream I’m desperately trying to remember and jot down notes about before I can forget.
At a glance, Platypus passes as ultra-indies ’80s horror, but look below the surface and you’ll see there’s a glob of ’70s cinema in its DNA, as well. I also detected notes of vintage safety and PSA videos. Regardless of what it comes across as the most, the movie is a mélange of retro styles that benefits from it being shot on genuine Super 8. That sort of authenticity does a lot of the heavy lifting when trying to convince you this is some lost film of yesteryear.
One notable thing Gratton does very well here is simulating that incidental strangeness found in amateurish, decades-old media. Allowing the camera to simply linger on the most mundane of things, such as someone analyzing a seashell or eating a cookie, provokes an odd feeling in the viewer. It’s almost as if you’re not supposed to be seeing these tedious and intimate parts of people’s daily lives.
What about the story, though? Well, that, more or less, revolves around a character named Kimberly (Kayla Lundstram) and her visions of a serial killer. Rather than then seeing Kimberly go on a one-woman manhunt, you patiently watch the movie’s namesake commit his or her grisly crimes in near succession. It’s almost anthological in how those murders play out one after the other.
Gratton eventually does make an effort to advance the story forward with some semblance of plot development, rather than relying on the killer’s goofy and vignette-like slayings. A local professor (Richard Ellis), along with her friends, assists Kimberly in that search for the titular character. The outcome, while still amusing, is even less grounded than what all came before it.
I imagine Platypus would be less widely appealing without its certain presentation. That’d be like trying to sell a pizza without any toppings and sauce. As it is, though, Gratton’s movie is a distinctive experience for not only adventurous horror fans, but really anyone who delights in out-there, out-of-the-box cinema made with a nostalgically unpolished edge. It’s high concept done on a low budget, minus the fetishization that’s inherent to too many other retro-vintage movies coming out nowadays.
In the end, you may just see Platypus as a midnighter movie coasting on its gimmick, and arguably that’s what you get here, however, Gratton’s care and attention is also undeniable. That laser-focused, directorial precision is superb, not to mention the key to this oddity’s enjoyability.
Platypus screened at Fantastic Fest 2026.
Tales from the Paulside 
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