The Things We Hide: Lil Rel Howery Returns to Psychological Horror at Cannes

A couple retreats to a remote farmhouse to repair their marriage. What follows is a slow descent into ambiguity—trauma, paranoia, or something worse. Lil Rel Howery, Angela Sarafyan, and Manny Montana lead the cast. Italy's Minerva Pictures launches sales at the Cannes Market this month.

Why This Casting Matters — And Why Horror Fans Should Care

Three years after Get Out, Lil Rel Howery isn't coming back to horror as comic relief. He's the lead.

That's the headline. Howery was the funniest, most grounded presence in Jordan Peele's 2017 breakthrough—Rod Williams became an accidental folk hero, the character everyone quotes. But The Things We Hide is a different kind of film. Darker. More psychologically claustrophobic. The kind of role that tells you an actor has moved beyond one defining part and wants to be taken seriously in a genre.

I keep thinking about what that signals. Indie horror has spent the last five years proving it doesn't need jump scares or gore to work—Hereditary, Midsommar, The Witch rewired what audiences expect from fear. A couple. Isolation. Trauma bleeding into ambiguity. Those aren't accidental genre signifiers anymore. They're the playbook.

Howery's co-stars sharpen the picture. Angela Sarafyan brought devastating quiet intensity to Westworld as Clementine, an android whose apparent simplicity masked something the show kept returning to. Manny Montana, best known for playing Rio in Good Girls across four seasons, has made a career out of roles that demand you hold contradictory emotions at once—charming and genuinely menacing in the same scene. That's exactly what psychological horror requires.

What We Know About Production, the Plot, and the Cannes Sales Play

Principal photography kicked off in New York in May 2026. Co-directors Amir Noorani and Eric Bergemann—who's also the screenwriter—are producing alongside Atit Shah of Create Entertainment, the independent outfit behind Monsoon (2019) and other character-driven work.

The story: Mihai and Octavia (the characters' names in production materials) are a couple recovering from a psychological breakdown that nearly ended their marriage. They retreat to a remote farmhouse hoping for a reset. What follows—according to official descriptions—is a descent where terrifying events begin blurring the line between trauma, paranoia, and the supernatural. No runtime or release date confirmed yet.

Italy's Minerva Pictures boarded the project and will launch world sales at the Cannes Market. Minerva isn't a household name in the US, but they're not small players—their library sits at nearly 2,500 titles, historically specializing in elevated genre fare across European and international markets. Their involvement signals appetite for both theatrical and streaming distribution across multiple territories.

Here's what's worth noting: independent horror has proven remarkably resilient on streaming platforms. Films without massive theatrical footprints can find enormous audiences through global SVOD deals, particularly when the cast carries recognition across multiple markets. Howery is known in the US and UK primarily through Get Out and his stand-up work. Sarafyan's Westworld run on HBO built her a dedicated international following. Montana's Good Girls ran for four seasons on NBC, giving him solid name recognition across North American and European streaming audiences.

The Directors' Vision — And Why It Matters for the Market

Noorani and Bergemann framed the film in terms that suggest serious visual intentionality. "We're designing this to feel layered, intimate, and psychologically ambiguous," they stated to Variety. "A story where every visual choice is intentional, constantly inviting audiences to question what is real, what is perceived and what may be influencing these characters."

That's a promise—and a pressure. Films that over-promise psychological complexity sometimes collapse under their own ambition. But with a cast this capable of holding contradictory emotions simultaneously, there's real reason to believe the execution can match the vision.

What's striking is how deliberately the filmmakers are framing the project around psychological ambiguity rather than conventional horror mechanics. That's not just artistically smart. It's market-savvy. International buyers at Cannes—particularly from European territories and Asian streaming platforms—have demonstrated consistent appetite for films that sit between the arthouse and the multiplex. They don't want jump scares. They want films that linger.

Where to Watch The Things We Hide — Once Distribution Deals Close

No India-specific release date or streaming home has been confirmed yet. But here's what's likely, based on Minerva's track record and market patterns:

• Netflix India — Minerva has strong relationships with Netflix for international distribution; this is the most probable landing spot
• Amazon Prime Video India — A solid alternative, especially given Prime's investment in elevated genre content
• JioCinema / Disney+ Hotstar — Possible, though these platforms have historically leaned toward domestic productions for horror
• SonyLIV — Less likely for this profile of film

Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker will be updated as distribution announcements come through—it's worth bookmarking if you're following this one. Indian audiences have shown particular enthusiasm for psychological horror that operates on a domestic-tension premise. The "couple retreating from trauma" setup has proven universally legible across cultures, which bodes well for the film's international streaming performance.

That said, don't expect an India release announcement immediately after Cannes. Sales typically close over weeks, not days. Streaming deals in particular can take months to finalize once the festival closes.

Why India Actually Cares About This Film

Horror has exploded on Indian OTT platforms over the last three years. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Stree 2 proved theatrical appetite exists. But streaming horror originals on Netflix India and Prime Video India have consistently overperformed in completion rates and social chatter—viewers are finishing these films and then talking about them, which is the metric that matters.

The Things We Hide isn't a Bollywood production, but that doesn't mean it won't find a substantial Indian audience. English-language psychological horror has a dedicated following on Indian streaming platforms, particularly among urban audiences in metros who've already consumed the Western horror canon and are hungry for something that doesn't rely on cultural specificity to work.

The farmhouse isolation setup—a couple alone with their trauma—translates across cultural contexts in ways that, say, a regional ghost story might not. That universality is exactly what international streaming platforms look for when they're building global catalogs.

Create Entertainment's Track Record — And What It Says About This Film

Atit Shah's Create Entertainment has quietly built a reputation for independent cinema with emotional texture. Monsoon (2019), directed by Hong Khaou, was a critically admired character study that proved Shah's taste runs toward films with substance rather than commercial formula.

Shah was direct about what drew him to The Things We Hide: "Eric's script taps into something primal about trust, trauma and what we're willing to unsee when we love someone," he said in a statement to Variety. "Our cast brings extraordinary depth and complexity to roles that demand exactly that. Partnering with Minerva to bring this film to the global marketplace is an exciting step."

That language matters. Shah isn't talking about scares or spectacle. He's talking about emotional complexity. That's the signal that this film is built for the streaming audience that's moved beyond jump-scare horror—audiences on platforms like Movie OTT, which tracks exactly this kind of title (films that premiere at market events and eventually land across regional platforms), are hungry for films that demand something from them intellectually.

The Directors' Backgrounds — Who Are Noorani and Bergemann?

Neither Amir Noorani nor Eric Bergemann has a major studio feature on their résumé, which makes this Cannes market launch a genuine coming-out moment for both. Bergemann is credited as screenwriter and co-director. Noorani brings the directorial partnership. This dual-hyphenate arrangement is increasingly common in independent genre filmmaking, where creative control and production efficiency often live in the same hands.

It's a risk for Minerva to back first-time feature directors, even with a cast this solid. But it's also how indie horror gets made—filmmakers with clear vision and no studio interference tend to make the most interesting work.

What Happens Next — And When to Expect News

Production is active in New York right now. The Cannes Market sales launch—happening this month—will be the first real test of international buyer appetite. Hard to say if a streaming deal will be announced during the festival itself, but Minerva's track record suggests they'll move efficiently once buyers start bidding.

Post-Cannes, watch for:

• A trailer drop (likely within 2-3 months)
• A festival premiere slot (Tribeca, Toronto, or Sundance would all make sense for this profile of film)
• Streaming acquisition announcements (these typically close over weeks, not days)
• India-specific release or localization news (dubbed version, subtitled release, regional streaming home)

For readers tracking this film's availability across territories, Movie OTT's regional streaming tracker will have updates as deals are confirmed. Set a bookmark if you want to know the moment it lands on your preferred platform.

Should You Watch This?

The ingredients are there. Psychological horror with a cast that can carry emotional weight. Directors who've articulated a clear visual philosophy. An international sales apparatus that knows how to place genre films globally. A farmhouse. Isolation. A couple trying to save a marriage while something else—something unclear—closes in.

That's the hook. Not what happens. Whether they survive. What's real and what's in their heads.

That ambiguity is the whole thing. Keep this on your radar.

Sources

• Variety (exclusive reporting on cast and production)
• Movie OTT's where-to-watch database