Cutting Room Floor (2026): Cast, Story and Release Details

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Cutting Room Floor is an 11-minute horror thriller about a desperate auteur director who discovers that murder may provide the missing ingredient for her festival submission. Directed by Emmerson Moore and Chiara Hosking, the short film features Abbey Marks, Isaac Simpson, Jackson Smith and Chiara Hosking.

Cutting Room Floor is a 2026 horror thriller built around a darkly self-aware premise: a filmmaker’s artistic ambitions take a lethal turn when she decides that real murder could complete her festival submission.

With an 11-minute runtime, the film presents its idea in short-form territory, pairing creative desperation with the grim mechanics suggested by its title and tagline: “The paperwork is going to be hell….”

Cutting Room Floor movie details

Story without spoilers

The story follows Catherine Sears, a desperate director-auteur searching for the missing piece in her festival submission. Her pursuit of a stronger artistic result leads her to become a serial killer, turning the filmmaking process into the basis for a horror-thriller scenario.

The supplied synopsis establishes the central conflict without revealing how the story develops or concludes. The title also points toward an uneasy connection between filmmaking, editing and the consequences of what gets left behind.

What to expect

Cutting Room Floor is classified as both horror and thriller, so viewers can expect a premise focused on murder, danger and escalating creative obsession. Its brief 11-minute format suggests a compact narrative rather than an expansive exploration of its concept.

The director-centered setup gives the film a specifically filmmaking-related backdrop, while the festival-submission objective supplies the character’s immediate motivation. No further details about the film’s style, structure or ending are provided.

Cast and creative team

Abbey Marks plays Catherine Sears, the director-auteur at the center of the story. Isaac Simpson plays Tristan Jacobs, Jackson Smith portrays Billy, and Chiara Hosking appears as the Technician.

The film is directed by Emmerson Moore and Chiara Hosking, with a screenplay credited to Dylan Manson and James O'Keefe.

• Abbey Marks as Catherine Sears
• Isaac Simpson as Tristan Jacobs
• Jackson Smith as Billy
• Chiara Hosking as Technician

Release and production context

Cutting Room Floor is a 2026 film with a listed release date of October 18, 2026. It is marked as released and has a runtime of 11 minutes. The supplied metadata identifies it as a horror thriller but does not provide a country, spoken language or production company.

Movies Dock view

Cutting Room Floor offers a sharply defined short-film premise: an auteur’s attempt to strengthen a festival submission becomes inseparable from serial murder. Its concise runtime and horror-thriller classification make the concept clear without requiring a larger production context.

Film data:
TMDB