Alex Phillips, the Chicago filmmaker behind the cult splatter oddity All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, is back with Anything That Moves, a lurid, funny, and deeply twisted valentine to the city’s stickiest corners. Think rust-belt giallo: neon grime, razor-sharp cheekbones, and a murder mystery that bleeds straight through the celluloid.
The film has its New York premiere at Brooklyn Horror Festival this Friday, Oct. 24, screening on 35mm, before rolling into the Chicago International Film Festival for hometown shows Oct. 25 & 26. At a lean 80 minutes, Phillips wastes zero time getting under your skin.
Shot on fleshy Super 16mm, the movie follows Liam, a bike-bound sex worker who hustles snacks and satisfaction across the city with his girlfriend, partner in business, pleasure, and bad decisions. As a serial killer’s body count climbs, evidence starts pointing alarmingly close to their bed, and Chicago’s humid nights turn knife-edge tense. Watch the trailer below:
Phillips leans hard into the giallo toolbox – gloved menace, delirious color, sensual menace—then smears it with Midwest sweat and midnight-movie humor. The pedigree is deliciously pulpy: produced with cult home-video tastemakers Vinegar Syndrome, featuring scene-stealing turns from erotic-cinema legends Ginger Lynn (The Devil’s Rejects) and Nina Hartley (Boogie Nights). Hunter Zimny (The Scary of Sixty-First, Funny Pages) shoots the city like a bruise you can’t stop pressing, while Chicago outfit Cue Shop supplies a lush, Bruno Nicolai–adjacent score that oozes across every frame.
The festival run is already leaving stains (the good kind): Winner, Best Feature Film at Switzerland’s Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, with official selections at Fantasia, Sitges, Sydney Underground, Tallgrass, Tallahassee, New/Next, and—of course, CIFF.
Critics are circling with grins and raised eyebrows: RogerEbert.com called it “indescribable… approaching the ribald anarchy of John Waters,” Fangoria hailed it as “sexy, shaggy and inventive,” and Dread Central stamped it “sincere and freaky… proof of Phillips’ confidence and vision.”
If you crave cinema that feels dangerous, funny, and perversely romantic—something that smells like hot pavement after a storm—this one’s for you. Anything That Moves doesn’t just nod at the ‘70s; it drags that era’s sweaty, transgressive spirit through modern Chicago and dares you to look away.
Bring a friend you trust, a towel for your palms, and maybe… don’t sit by the exits.
CREDITS:
Written and Directed By: Alex Phillips
Introducing: Hal Baum, Jeremy Everett, Andrea Huber, Maxton Koc, Jiana Nicole, Jade Perry and Cooper Whittlesey
Featuring: Ginger Lynn Allen, Trevor Dawkins, Jack Dunphy, Paul Gordon, Nina Hartley and Frank V. Ross
Music By: Cue Shop
Edited By: Alex Phillips and Troy Lewis
Cinematography By: Hunter Zimny
Produced By: Georgia Bernstein, Liane Cunje and Spencer Parsons
Executive Produced By: Joe Rubin, Ryan Emerson, Ralph Stevens, Ian Stone, Eddie Linker, Stephen Lanus and Amar Gupta
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL SCREENINGS:
Sat, Oct 25, 10:00pm at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 06
Sun,Oct 26, 8:00pm at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 06
Q&As with Alex Phillips and star Hal Baum
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