The official trailer has arrived for Breeder, a darkly funny new horror film with Dot-Marie Jones (Glee) playing a poodle breeder who has moved on to something considerably more disturbing. Watch the trailer above and get the details below.
A Research Grant With One Hell of a Catch
Daniel Doheny (Brand New Cherry Flavor) plays Russell, a college student working on what he hopes could be a game-changing solution to help save the endangered bee population. The problem: money. He’s struggling to secure funding when an unexpected offer comes his way from Patti (Jones), an eccentric poodle breeder living off the grid on a remote ranch.
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Russell heads out to see whether the offer is legitimate. It is, technically. Patti is prepared to give him the money. She’s just left out one fairly important condition.
“I’m actually moving on from dog breeding. Now I’m doing something more important. Now I’m breeding people,” she tells him.
Specifically, Patti wants Russell to breed with her daughter Ainsley, played by Gen V‘s Maddie Phillips. And from there, the trailer moves very quickly from deeply awkward to outright terrifying.
Patti Takes Her Stud Selection Very Seriously
Jones gets some wonderfully threatening dialogue as Patti explains that her experience breeding prize-winning dogs has apparently given her all the qualifications she needs to start applying the same thinking to humans.
“You want to know how I won best in group in ’93? By picking the right stud,” she tells Russell. His response is understandable: “That’s not me, okay. I’m not the right stud.”
He may want to rethink his response. “You want to know what I do with the wrong studs?” Patti asks him. “The wrong studs get put down.”
As the trailer suggests, Russell is only the latest man Patti has selected as a potential “stud” for her new venture.
There’s More Going on Here Than Shock Value
Breeder is written and directed by Alex Goyette, whose previous directing work includes 2014 teen comedy Expelled. This is a considerable change of direction, although Breeder doesn’t look afraid to find laughs in the madness.
Goyette has said the film is deliberately engaging with the subject of eugenics. Speaking when Independent Film Company and Shudder acquired the film, he explained: “As conversations around eugenics continue to resurface, our film confronts those ideas through the eyes of a deranged poodle breeder.”
The project has also been kicking around for some time. Breeder began its journey as a 2019 Tribeca Creators Market project before having its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. Tribeca’s programme described it as “the darkest of dark comedies”, which certainly tracks with the footage released so far.
Executive producer Steven Schneider also brings some substantial horror credentials, with credits including Paranormal Activity and Late Night with the Devil.
Dot-Marie Jones Looks Perfectly Cast
Beyond Glee, Jones has appeared across Ryan Murphy projects including American Horror Story, and Patti gives her a particularly juicy horror role here. The trailer lets her shift from eccentric and welcoming to casually threatening without Patti ever seeming particularly bothered by how insane any of this is.
Joining Jones, Doheny and Phillips in the cast are Tanaya Beatty, Paige McGarvin, Carmen Moore, Lillian Doucet-Roche, Rochelle Greenwood and Charlotte Kavanagh.
The film runs 97 minutes and has already received an R rating in the U.S. for “disturbing material, violence/bloody images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.” So, yeah, not exactly fun for the whole family.
Release Date
Breeder opens in select U.S. theatres on October 16, 2026, through Independent Film Company and Shudder. The companies have also acquired rights for Australia and New Zealand, although a local release date has yet to be announced.
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