Bloody Tennis, the sports horror feature from writer-director Nikias Chryssos, arrives on Shudder, AMC Networks’ specialized service for horror and thriller content, on September 25, 2026. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and makes its North American premiere as an Official Selection at Fantastic Fest.
The story follows Sophie, newly admitted to an elite tennis academy tucked deep in southern Europe, where the competition is fierce and the institution itself is worse. What begins as a familiar rite of passage curdles into something darker, and Sophie is eventually forced to choose between the greatness she has trained her whole life for and the friends and lovers who make her human. Chryssos folds trippy hallucinations, grotesque humor, and blood-sucking leeches into a world built on brutal ambition.
Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Holy Spider) stars as Sophie. The supporting cast includes Elina Löwensohn (Nadja, Let the Corpses Tan), Tracy Gotoas (Furies), Helena Zengel (News of the World), Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness), Lily Taïeb, Juliana Vieira Guerra, Lucie Zhang (Paris, 13th District), and Vincent Romeo. The film runs 94 minutes and is presented in English.
Chryssos previously directed Der Bunker and A Pure Place, both of which built their horror out of closed systems and the people who enforce their rules — a throughline that carries straight into the academy at the center of this one.
