How One Of SXSW’s Buzziest Horror Movies Went From A Short Into A DIY Anthology Hit

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Rob Huebel and Barbara Crampton screaming at something in Grind

Published Mar 15, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT

Brea Grant and Ed Dougherty have turned their DIY filmmaking spirits into one of SXSW's buzziest horror titles, Grind.

Grant began her career as a star on Heroes and Dexter before later finding success behind the camera as writer on Lucky and writer/director on 12 Hour Shift. Dougherty, meanwhile, has done everything from executive producing a segment in The ABCs of Death to co-writing and producing Amber Tamblyn's directorial debut in Paint It Black.

Grant and Dougherty previously teamed up for their 2024 short film MLM, which served as the foundation for Grind. Their new film is a horror anthology exploring the challenges of the modern work landscape through four perspectives, including the hustle culture of a multi-level marketing scheme, the repetitiveness of working as a food delivery driver, the terrors of working as an online content moderator, and the unionization of a coffee shop.

Also teaming with Into the Dark alum Chelsea Stardust, Grant and Dougherty have put together an ensemble of horror and comedy veterans for Grind. Among the roster is horror icon Barbara Crampton, Children's Hospital's Rob Huebel, Barry's Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette, Fear the Walking Dead's Mercedes Mason, The Venture Bros.' James Urbaniak and Dimension 20's Ify Nwadiwe. Having made its world premiere at SXSW, Grind has garnered acclaim from critics.

In honor of its festival showing, ScreenRant's Ash Crossan interviewed Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, Chelsea Stardust, Barbara Crampton, Rob Huebel and Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette in our SXSW media suite to discuss Grind. When asked about turning MLM into the feature-length horror anthology, Grant began by recalling how they "shot [it] a year before we shot the rest of the movie," describing the full product as being a "truly indie, DIY project":

Brea Grant: We shot most of MLM at Ed's house, in his actual home that he lives in, and his girlfriend was really nice about it, which is cool. But before we shot it, we had planned on making the full feature, and we kind of worked out all of the stories before we went into production, but it just took us a while to raise the money, and figure out the rest of the movie.

In looking at the various plots of Grind's tales, Crampton shared that part of the core of the movie's theme is "corporate overlords taking over our world and our life" and turning various people "into little peons for the greater good of themselves." The conversation then turned to how Grant and Dougherty sought to divide and conquer the four segments of the anthology, to which the former joked "we arm wrestled" for it, but went on to explain it came about naturally during the writing process.

However, Dougherty did quip that "there was no way" Grant would be able to direct the film's "Content" segment, as his co-director has "never seen a horrifying video in her life." Grant not only concurred, but even explained that some of the videos Dougherty originally edited into the segment were "too horrifying" to include and ultimately "had to nix" them being part of the film.

For Stardust, she explained that her role on the film was that of the producer and directing Grind's frame narrative, "Warehouse Wonders/The Black Box," joking she was "the tie-breaker" in splitting up the directorial duties. But while she found the opportunity "very fulfilling" from a creative perspective, she also found her position to come with "a lot of pressure" for one key reason:

Chelsea Stardust: I did feel a lot of pressure doing that, because the intro brings you, the audience, into the world, and then the outro is what you lead the audience with. I definitely felt a lot of pressure there, and I'm so thankful that they trusted me with that. And then producing an indie film in Los Angeles is a huge challenge, and we did do it together, but it was such a joy. It was very fulfilling, creatively for me, to work on this movie.

The Grind Cast Put Their Full Trust Behind Grant & Dougherty's Visions

The Grind cast and directors with Ash Crossan in ScreenRant's SXSW media suite

ScreenRant: One of my favorite dynamics is actually when you two, Barbara and Christopher, are having your interviews and your meetings, it's like cracking me up, and it's so dark. So just talk to me a little bit about those moments. Was there room for any kind of improvisations?

Christopher Rodriguez Marquette: Yeah, tons. I mean my whole job showing up is, I was like, "Oh, keep up with Rob." I mean, Rob didn't do like one take exactly the same, you know? And it was nice, like we talked about it last night. I hadn't seen it until last night, until we were here, and there was so much I forgot we did because of how playful we got to be on the day, and it's nice. I mean, I think good comedy improv, it only comes when there's really strong writing, you know, like the best of it, when it comes to really strong writing to work with, and so, it actually gives you so much good foundation, and so much good character to go off of, and that was like the nice thing. We showed up, we hadn't met each other, and we were just like, "This writing's really witty and funny." Yeah, it's cool, man, and then we can just go off, and it's fine.

ScreenRant: Rob, you are a comedy genius, but you do play a lot of d-----ads.

Rob Huebel: My mom's watching, so. [Chuckles] Yeah, no, I really like to play a----les, and that's how I pay my rent, and there's a lot of a----les out there, and they need to be made fun of. All these terrible people, who's going to play them if it's not us?

Ed Dougherty: It's a service.

Rob Huebel: We're healthy. But yeah, for me, this is just like a super fun thing. When I heard Barbara was doing it, I was like, "Oh my God, she's like a legend." I really wanted to do it because of her too. It's fun to do a movie that actually does say something in a cool, smart way. It's not like, heavy-handed. It's totally entertaining, and exciting, and horrifying, but it really does say a lot of really important stuff about where we are as workers right now, and like who's really running s--t. So it's really fun to do a movie like that.

ScreenRant: What do you get recognized for the most? I have to say I have a vocal stim with one of your lines, where I say, "Me no likey nibbles" all the time.

Rob Huebel: Yeah, I still say that sometimes, it was a really horrible, racist line from I Love You, Man, from like a long time ago, and I threw that out, and then I meant to flag it later like, "Oh, I said that in another movie." And I was like, "It's fine." This character is just a terrible a----le, so I think it's fine. I'm actually best known for a GIF, where I'm throwing glitter. It's like a congratulatory happy birthday. I'm in a blue suit and a mustache, and it's a thing, and it's just like, it'll be on my tombstone. That'll be the thing if we have electronic tombstones, so I'm just like throwing glitter, and I feel like that's what a lot of people [know me from]. It's from Children's Hospital.

ScreenRant: And you have an amazing cast here. Barbara, I want to start with you. You are a freaking legend. So tell me what was it about this film that you just had to do? What was it?

Barbara Crampton: Well, first of all, I mean, it was Brea. She's my good friend, and she told me about MLM, and initially, I don't know if she told me that it was going to be an anthology, but she said, "We're doing a short, and I need you to play this part." And I was like, "Okay. Sure." I said, "Yes, I'm sure," before I even read it, 'cause I trust her, and then she said that it was based on a real woman. There's a documentary about this woman that owns a leggings company. And I was like, "This woman is a horrible person, and I want to play her."

Brea Grant: She's watching. She's sending you leggings.

Barbara Crampton: She doesn't know that she's horrible, but does any villain know they're horrible? They don't think they are, right? And I normally play very nice characters, and as I've gotten older and crotechty, now I'm getting to play the compromised, older women roles and I really welcome that.

Brea Grant: You're in your iconic villain era.

Barbara Crampton: Give me more villains. And also, working with these guys, and Rob being a comedy god, so when they did the other segments, and they said it's going to work with [sound cuts out here] Maybe some of it will rub off, because he's amazing, and you're amazing. Brea's very funny too. And as horrible — as the movie exposes corporate America, and these institutions that are just leading us — taking more, and more, and more from us, it has a lot of humor to that, because we have to laugh about our circumstances. So anyway, it was a good mix, I think, of horror and satire. I think they came up with a great foundation. A very thinking kind of movie with all of its trappings.

ScreenRant: When people approach you, what is the number one thing they say, quote, or ask you about?

Christopher Rodriguez Marquette: I usually get like, "You were so good in Superbad." I was like, "That was McLovin." "You're so good in Barbarian," and I'm like, "That was Justin Long." "You're so good in Spectacular Now." "That was Miles Teller." So I get generic, short brown-haired white guys.

ScreenRant: There's no way, really? What about Girl Next Door?

Christopher Rodriguez Marquette: There's also a season for me, like there are seasonal things, where at Christmas time, people are like, "Oh, you're the guy from this." And then there's also groups of people, like every frat guy that went to college in like the early 2000s, it's Girl Next Door. And then there's, like, a show I did where it's like anybody that was a new mom in 2010. They're like, "We love that show." You're like, "Okay. It just hit little demographics."

ScreenRant: Well, you look exactly the same.

Christopher Rodriguez Marquette: I've been cryogenically frozen until yesterday. I feel like my whole acting career has mostly been defined by, like, you've seen something, but it has not hit a certain threshold. So most of the time I get people, "Where'd you go to high school?" [Chuckles]

Rob Huebel: I did that one time when I first moved to LA, I saw a guy that I knew I went to high school with, and I was going over to like check in with him — this is in a restaurant — and it was just a guy from porn. [Laughs]