Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
When the words "body horror" are put together, most cinephiles will first think of the great David Cronenberg and his disturbing filmography, from The Fly to The Shrouds. However, at this year's Fantastic Fest, writer-director Rocko Zevenbergen is taking a decidedly sillier, more bizarre approach to the stomach-churning subgenre. The I Need You Dead! filmmaker and The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs producer has returned with Flapjax, a sci-fi horror-comedy centered on "the most enthusiastic restaurant manager you have ever seen" who unknowingly becomes a pawn in an alien scheme. Ahead of its world premiere, we're proud to include the gonzo feature as part of Collider's Exclusive Preview series and share a new look at its unlikely hero, Arrow Bentley.
Flapjax tells the story of Arrow, who loves his job so much that he quite literally spends nights there in the spare room beside the kitchen and takes as many extra shifts as he can. Despite how enthusiastic he is, the job is far from luxurious. Arrow works for Hamudders, a pork-themed fast food joint in New York with a tacky pig mascot and dishes with a taste about as awful as their nutritional value. Yet, the higher-ups have taken notice of his extreme dedication, trusting him with the all-important task of reintroducing one of the eatery's long out-of-production items to the menu — the titular Flapjax. With little time to prepare, he scrambles to give it the best relaunch campaign possible, yet he can't help but grow suspicious about the true nature of the Flapjax and why the item was taken off the menu in the first place.
Our exclusive still sees Arrow sprinting through what looks to be a rundown restaurant with his full employee uniform on, down to his udder cap. Judging from the Flapjax promotional sign behind him, this may be another Hamudders that once sold the curious item and suffered the consequences. His panicked demeanor may mean he's witnessed something horrifying that betrayed his corporate overlords' sinister intentions. Yet, it's the perfect illustration of how Flapjax rides the line between eerie and humorous thanks to its wacky, overzealous protagonist navigating a world as full of frights and gnarly practical effects as it is silly noises and sight gags.
COLLIDER
Collider · Quiz
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival QuizWhich Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT
01
Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do?First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
QUESTION 2 / 8ENVIRONMENT
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
QUESTION 3 / 8STRENGTH
03
What is your most reliable survival asset?Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?
QUESTION 4 / 8FEAR
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
QUESTION 5 / 8GROUP
05
You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role?Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.
QUESTION 6 / 8MISTAKE
06
What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make?Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
QUESTION 7 / 8ADVANTAGE
07
What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means?Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
QUESTION 8 / 8FINAL SCENE
08
It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it?The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been CalculatedYour Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child's Play
Chucky
Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Who Will Lead the Gonzo Genre Mash-Up of 'Flapjax'?
In the official description, Flapjax is described as a mix of "Looney Tunes, a dash of Troma, and a hint of Brian Yuzna" to create something unique, gross, and homemade. Zevenbergen also made it brimming with satire about the experience of the modern American workforce under greedy corporate, potentially alien, entities. Leading the charge as Arrow is Gabriel Cagan, but the fast food worker will also be joined by his one-hit-wonder mother and an employee who's all too ready to call it quits. Estevan Muñoz also joined Zevenbergen in co-writing the script and will also appear on-screen.
Flapjax world premieres at Fantastic Fest on September 17 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Stay tuned here at Collider in the run-up to the genre festival for more early looks at some of the hottest entries this year. Visit the official film guide for more information on everything premiering from September 17 through 24.