Festival horror hit The Waiting Man holds its US premiere this month
September has been a great month for horror films. Zach Cregger's highly anticipated Resident Evil adaptation releases this Friday, and on September 25th we'll see Maika Monroe (It Follows) play an unhinged governess in Victorian Psycho. But the good news extends to the independent circuit as well.
Back in July, attendees at PUFA (Pucela Fantástica) in Spain were treated to a new, terrifying found footage legend. The Waiting Man had its world premiere in July. Now, the horror phenomenon that swept PUFA is spreading its darkness to the United States. Its North American debut will be held September 26th at the 2026 Horror Fest Film Festival (HFFF) in Wilmington, Delaware.
Written and directed by Swedish photographer/filmmaker Carl Sundström, The Waiting Man follows Joey, the head of a content creation channel called TOMNI. With over 7.5 million followers, TOMNI looks to expand their content from vlogging and gaming. They get more than they wished for when a mysterious silhouetted man appears outside Joel’s apartment building one night while live-streaming a videogame. After his viewers begin speculating that the figure could be a legendary entity known as “The Waiting Man,” Joel decides to run with the concept. Before long, he’s running from the entity itself.
When we spoke with Sundström in July, he revealed that the idea for the titular entity (also referred to in the film as Alikabiha) began when he was a teenager aspiring to make a short film about Slender Man. The film never came to fruition. At least not in the way he thought it would.
Several scenes in the film were written between 2018 and 2021, but it wasn’t until 2025 that he fully conceptualized the vision with collaborator Nathaniel Pellikka Erlandsson. He compared the entity to a terminal disease, and Joel’s reaction to his haunting mirrors many of the reactions associated with having such an illness.
The film opened at PUFA to rave reviews, and the same reception is anticipated at HFFF, which takes place from September 24th through the 27th. The festival will be held at the iconic Theater N Cinema in Wilmington and feature over 100 original short and feature films. Among the VIP guests at the event is Wilmington native John Gallagher Jr (10 Cloverfield Lane, Hush), who will host a one-hour Q&A discussion about his roles and acting in general.
The Waiting Man will hold its North American premiere at the 2026 Horror Fest Film Festival on September 26th.
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