Studio Dome dropped the official trailer for “Hate Thyself” this week, and it’s a quiet reminder of just how much unreleased work Tony Todd left behind when he died in late 2024. The psychological thriller, directed by Shivaan Makker, is set for a limited theatrical and digital release beginning September 1, according to Bloody Disgusting.
The story follows Angelo Matteo, a deeply religious detective played by Oscar Torre, whose faith starts to crack as he and his partner Rufus chase down a killer preying on young men across the city. As the case drags on and the body count climbs, Angelo finds himself pulled into something closer to obsession than investigation, with the line between the two increasingly hard for him to see. Screen Anarchy describes the film as built around that unraveling — a devout man forced to confront a conspiracy that tests everything he believes, while his personal life falls apart around him.
The film draws directly from a real case. It’s inspired in part by the crimes of Robert Berdella, the Kansas City serial killer convicted in 1988 of murdering six young men. Letterboxd’s plot summary for the film names the killer character Ed Erdella, a lightly fictionalized version of Berdella who lures victims from bus stops before subjecting them to prolonged torture — grim source material that the trailer leans into rather than softens.
Todd’s involvement puts “Hate Thyself” in a small, somber category of films still trickling out after his death. He’d already appeared as Bludworth in “Final Destination: Bloodlines” earlier in 2025, a role several outlets flagged at the time as his final screen performance. Bloody Disgusting and Screen Anarchy both instead describe “Hate Thyself” as one of his last completed roles rather than definitively his final one — the reality is that Todd left behind more than one project that wrapped before his passing, and this is simply one of them making its way to release nearly two years later. The film premiered at Screamfest New Orleans last year before this week’s trailer and September digital rollout.
Director Shivaan Makker described his intent behind the story in comments included in Screen Anarchy’s report, saying he wanted to explore what happens when someone who sees the world in stark black and white is forced to confront the gray areas of human nature — and that the film isn’t only about catching a killer, but about the emotional and spiritual toll that fighting evil takes on the people who commit their lives to it.
Screenwriter Sullivan McGuffin wrote the script, and the supporting cast rounds out with Happy Anderson, Corin Nemec, Deborah Rennard, Danforth Comins, Vincent Banks, Gary Brunner, Evan Daigle and Christina Urias. The horror thriller “Hate Thyself” has debuted in select theaters across the U.S. and is now available digitally. and Canada on September 1.
