Cine Circle Releases New Sci-Fi Thriller Anthology “STATE OF FEAR”
Cine Circle is expanding its catalogue of independent feature-length anthologies with STATE OF FEAR, a new collection of four science-fiction, horror and thriller shorts exploring what happens when fear becomes a tool of control.
Featuring Let It Kill You, Callisto’s End, Gift and Immune, the anthology moves from military conflict and an isolated outpost on Jupiter to a near-future manhunt and a disease-ravaged authoritarian Britain. Although the worlds are very different, each story follows characters caught between an immediate threat and a larger system deciding who should be feared, protected, imprisoned or destroyed.
Soldiers are forced to question who the real enemy is. Investigators enter environments where appearances cannot be trusted. Governments and military forces respond to the unknown with control and violence. Across the collection, STATE OF FEAR asks what happens when survival depends not only on confronting danger, but on questioning the people who have defined that danger in the first place.
LET IT KILL YOU
Written and directed by David Cornue, Let It Kill You is a 15-minute American horror short that places supernatural uncertainty inside the structure of a military story.
Adam Huss stars as Sergeant Aidan West, a disillusioned American soldier who uncovers a man believed to be an enemy combatant buried alive inside a tomb. Convinced that the prisoner has been wrongly condemned, West challenges those around him and attempts to prove the man's innocence.
The rescued man, Rahotep, is played by Adam Bucci, alongside a cast that includes Dionne Gipson as Captain Gina Anderson, Cord Jackman, Ingrid Gillming, Colton Little and Alex Suarez. As West's determination to protect Rahotep grows, however, evidence begins to suggest that there may have been a reason he was buried in the first place.
Cornue not only wrote and directed the film but also composed its original score, with Adam Huss, Adam Bucci and Livi Zheng among the producers. The short received its California premiere through Dances With Films and later screened at the Oceanside International Film Festival, where it was recognised among the nominees for Best Art Direction and Cornue's score was nominated for Best Original Score.
At the centre of Let It Kill You is a conflict that runs throughout STATE OF FEAR: the difference between genuine danger and fear created by authority. West begins the story believing that someone identified as an enemy has been unjustly treated, but his certainty is tested as the boundaries between victim, threat and ally begin to collapse.
CALLISTO'S END
Director Nathan Schiele takes the anthology away from Earth with Callisto's End, an 18-minute science-fiction mystery set at a remote outpost on one of Jupiter's moons.
The film follows investigator Dagny, played by Claire Street, who travels to Callisto following a mysterious murder. Far from Earth and surrounded by an unfamiliar environment, her investigation gradually exposes a world in which isolation, suspicion and the unknown become as dangerous as the crime she has been sent to solve.
Street stars alongside Joseph Finfer as Captain Schleppe and Jeanette G Junco as The Siren, with Adal Munguia, DeJante Eaton, Omer Jamal, Richmond Keeling and Daemon Pedroza also appearing.
Schiele co-wrote the film with Aaron Galindo, with the pair developing a story influenced by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Produced through Fowl Play Productions and Schiele Productions, the film uses its distant setting to combine science-fiction world-building with the structure and atmosphere of a murder mystery.
Callisto's End has built a substantial festival record, winning Best Sci-Fi Short of the Year at Indie Short Fest and WorldFest Houston, Best Short Film at the L.A. Sci-Fi & Horror Festival, and Best Sci-Fi Short at the London Indie Film Festival. It also received Best Cinematography at the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Film Festival, alongside further nominations for acting, editing and visual effects.
The film's placement within STATE OF FEAR widens the anthology's world while retaining its central tension. Dagny has travelled to uncover the truth, but doing so means entering an environment where she cannot immediately know whom — or what — to trust.
GIFT
Written and directed by Graham Northrup, Gift is a 19-minute American science-fiction thriller set in a near future where a young woman's extraordinary abilities have made her valuable to forces determined to control her.
The story follows Liam, played by Elijah Pettet, as he attempts to flee a rogue military force with his barely conscious sister. Her mysterious gift has turned her into a target, placing the pair in the path of a relentless pursuit as Liam attempts to prevent her from falling into the hands of those who want to use her abilities for their own purposes.
The cast includes Jessica Vesey as Kiersten, Daniel S. Carlan as Yeager, Stephen Harr as Lieutenant Sinton and Paul Rohrer as The Commander. Produced by Northrup Studios, the film brings together science fiction, pursuit thriller and military elements around a story fundamentally concerned with power: who possesses it, who controls it and what happens when an individual becomes valuable because of something they can do.
Northrup Studios describes its work as genre filmmaking centred on human beings facing extraordinary circumstances, and Gift fits directly within that approach. The film's speculative elements create the larger world, but the central relationship between Liam and his sister gives the chase its emotional stakes.
The film has also developed an international festival presence. It received Best Thriller at the New York Film and Female Actress Awards in 2025, was named a Darkland Film Awards nominee and advanced as a semi-finalist at both the AREA51 Underground Film Contest and Planet Cinema NYC Film Festival in 2026.
Within STATE OF FEAR, Gift shifts the idea of fear from something unknown to something deliberately institutionalised. The very thing that makes one person extraordinary also makes her dangerous in the eyes of those who cannot control her.
IMMUNE
The anthology's most overtly political dystopian setting comes from Immune, directed by Robert Macfarlane from a screenplay by Maurice C. Kenney.
Set in an alternative Britain devastated by a deadly disease, the 15-minute science-fiction thriller follows Sarah O'Connor, played by Celine Arden, a pregnant woman who has remained healthy while much of the population around her has become infected.
Rather than making her safe, Sarah's immunity places her in direct danger. An authoritarian government controls the population through access to medication and views those outside its system as a threat. Sarah is therefore forced to escape before the state can take control of both her future and that of her unborn child.
The cast also includes Andrew Scarborough as Inspector Dyson, Drew Elston as Dr John O'Connor, Nina Stratford and Turaya Rose. The film was produced by Far Lane Media and In The Mo Films, with Lesley-Anne Macfarlane and Mo Wani producing and writer Maurice C. Kenney serving as executive producer.
Immune has earned numerous awards during its festival run, including recognition for director Robert Macfarlane and its science-fiction storytelling. Its awards include Best Director and Best Sci-Fi Short Film recognition at the Seattle Film Festival, while the production also received BAFTA albert certification for its environmental production practices.
Although its story is built around a pandemic, Immune is ultimately as concerned with political power as it is with disease. Fear of infection allows authority to expand, individual freedoms disappear in the name of collective survival and Sarah's biological difference transforms her from an ordinary citizen into someone the system needs to control.
That makes it a natural conclusion to the ideas running through STATE OF FEAR. The greatest threat is not always the crisis itself; sometimes it is what people and institutions become willing to do because they are afraid.
When Fear Takes Control
Across its four stories, STATE OF FEAR presents very different versions of a world shaped by uncertainty.
In Let It Kill You, a soldier questions whether an alleged enemy really deserves to be feared. Callisto's End sends an investigator into an isolated community where a murder conceals something deeper. Gift follows a brother attempting to protect someone whose abilities have made her a target. Immune imagines a society where fear of disease has allowed authoritarian power to take hold.
The threats may be supernatural, extraterrestrial, biological or entirely human, but each film returns to the same question: what happens when fear determines how we treat the people we do not understand?
Combining science fiction, horror, mystery and dystopian thriller storytelling, STATE OF FEAR joins Cine Circle's growing catalogue of independent feature-length anthologies, bringing together short filmmakers and their work into a single curated release for wider digital distribution.
About Cine Circle
Cine Circle supports independent filmmakers through events, education, funding opportunities and film distribution. Alongside its filmmaker community and industry events, Cine Circle works with short filmmakers to bring their work to wider audiences through curated feature-length anthology releases and digital distribution.
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