The Sundance Film Festival 2025 has showcased an array of unconventional films, among which Touch Me stands out as a remarkable entry. This intriguing work comes from the creative mind of writer-director Addison Heimann, who previously captivated audiences with his unique horror-drama, Hypochondriac, featuring Zach Villa from American Horror Story: 1984. Heimann’s return to Sundance follows a series of successful festival runs for his earlier project, and Touch Me draws inspiration from deeply personal experiences, as well as the celebrated Mexican horror film The Untamed.
Touch Me follows Joey, a woman who claims to have escaped a toxic relationship with an alien disguised as a human. Years later, she relies on her codependent best friend, Craig. When the alien, Brian, reappears and offers them a dangerously addictive physical touch, their desires lead them into his sinister agenda. The film features a talented cast, including Olivia Taylor Dudley (known for The Magicians), Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black), Lou Taylor Pucci (Physical), and Marlene Forte (Monsters).
To celebrate the film’s premiere at Sundance, ScreenRant conducted a group interview with Heimann and the standout cast, discussing the film’s conceptualization, influences from different genres, character intricacies, and the challenges of utilizing practical effects throughout production.
The Birth of “The Horniest Movie”of Sundance
An Eclectic Mix of Influences
Heimann’s Touch Me is a bold blend of sci-fi, horror, and comedy genres. Drawing from his experiences with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Heimann infuses a personal touch into the characters and script. He also found inspiration in The Untamed, a Mexican horror film featuring a god-like alien, combining elements of eroticism and sci-fi:
Addison Heimann: Absolutely. So depression, don’t we love it? But basically, I was depressed, I suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I watched this movie called The Untamed, which is a Mexican horror movie about an alien who was this God-like creature that f–ks people. It’s euphoric. And I was like, I want that. I want to go there. And I’ve been learning Japanese for five years, and I am really obsessed with pink films, exploitation films of the ’60s and ’70s from Japan. And so wanting to explore this idea of what would it be like if you could get your anxiety and depression zapped away from you under this wild, tentacle sex euphoria combined with that kind of whisper for Touch Me?
Innovative Practical Effects: “Slimy”& “Beautiful”
The Reality Behind the Surreal Scenes
As the story unfolds, the absurdity escalates with Brian’s character lying at the center of intimate encounters enhanced by tentacle effects. The cast reflected on the playful yet challenging nature of these scenes, particularly for Gavaris, marking his first horror film experience, compared to Pucci and Dudley’s extensive backgrounds in horror:
Jordan Gavaris: It was slimy.
Addison Heimann: Jordan’s so Canadian. He’s like, “I’m having a good time. I’m having a good time.”
Marlene Forte: The idea of those scenes are way more fun than actually shooting them.
Jordan Gavaris: Yeah. I’d never done a horror movie before. It was beautiful, but I was so not prepared for how wet and sticky you are. There was a day where I think I was just wet, sticky, and cold for 12 hours on a concrete floor, but it produces great work. You’re distracted, you’re out of yourself. There’s no room to —
Addison Heimann: Look at this wonderful Canadian sentiment he’s doing.
Olivia Taylor Dudley: You left your body at one time.
Jordan Gavaris: Some might call it toxic positivity.
Pucci on Portraying “The Biggest Slut Possible” in Touch Me
Insights on Audience Takeaways
Beyond its outlandish premise, Touch Me delves into the dynamics of codependency, self-identity, and the importance of healthy relationships. The cast and Heimann expressed varied hopes for viewer takeaways. While some wish for entertainment, others aim for deeper connections:
Marlene Forte: I want them to have fun watching this. I’ve said it before that if the audience has just half as much fun as we had making the film, I think we’ve succeeded.
Addison Heimann: I want people to have a good time, but my whole goal with film is to make queer movies in the genre space about mental illness. And regardless of the comedy, I want to make movies that make people feel less alone, and I hope that they feel less alone.
Jordan Gavaris: I think just from the perspective of the character I played, which is the lens by which I’m viewing the film too – that your trauma doesn’t always have to define you. Sometimes it actually becomes quite the Achilles heel. And as is true with Craig, that was sort of the reason why he couldn’t launch. He was stuck. So I think that’s something, and it’s sad in the end, because he does take responsibility, but I can’t say.
Lou Taylor Pucci: Oh, I just want people to be horny. I think I play the biggest slut possible and it’s so exciting. What he told me when I first met him was that this was based on a toxic relationship that he was stuck in based on an enslavement issue, like a feeling of being enslaved and some kind of thing that you couldn’t get out of, right?
Addison Heimann: Yeah.
Lou Taylor Pucci: That sounds really real. That’s what it’s been.
Olivia: Similar to Addison, what I got out of it is, I want people not to feel alone. The mental illness, the OCD and anxiety, that was what I connected to when I read the script. And I just hope that people read it and feel seen. I’m not alone. Everything’s okay. And I think that the genre is the best way to get that message across.
Continuing the Conversation on Touch Me
The Visual and Stylistic Inspirations Behind Touch Me
ScreenRant: Addison, the visual aesthetics of Touch Me are strikingly beautiful. Can you discuss the creative process that influenced the film’s visual style?
Addison Heimann: I knew I wanted to do homage to Japanese cinema. So I just basically had a litany of films that I was pulling from. And so there’s a lot of shot-for-shot remakes depending on what movie you’re thinking of. House obviously is the biggest influence, as you can tell, but like you said with the thought bubbles — but there’s also basically everything that Quentin Tarantino homages in Kill Bill, like Lady Snowblood, Sex and Fury, Female Prisoner, and the trick stuff from Ballad of Narayama and Jigoku and Kuidon — All these different, beautiful little Japanese cinematic pieces that I love. I pulled it up and put in the film. But the biggest influence is a movie called Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which is a postulated film from the 80s.
And it’s about a very famous, maybe infamous, writer who was a gay fascist. And he basically wanted to return to the time when the emperor was like Jesus or God. And so he took over a military base, tried to proselytize his views. They all laughed at him. He committed Seppuku. But he was one of the most prolific, famous writers ever. So Paul Schrader made this movie, and it’s called Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and it tells a story that I just told you now, but in between, there are these four short stories that take place entirely on theatrical-style sets. And so I knew when I was going to do all the alien world stuff — it’s why we change aspect ratios.
It’s like we’re doing our in-world reality stuff and then once we hit the kind of world in the alien space, we change aspect ratios. We’re on a stage. Everything is practical, everything is tangible, and everything is homage. It’s kind of kabuki-esque stylization of cinema from that era, and especially from Mishima. So we had our production designer create these steps. So when you’re there, it’s very practical.
Mastering the Language: Japanese Dialogues in the Film
Jordan and Lou, did you take the time to study Japanese for your roles, or did you rely on the script for your dialogues?
Jordan Gavaris: Absolutely not. I know zero Japanese.
Addison Heimann: You know what’s funny? I will say though, because both of them were like, “Can you record yourself doing the Japanese?”And I was like, “Sure.”And I originally was going to be like in the edit when we were doing subtitles, it was going to start bad Japanese, and then we were going to translate. But Lou and Jordan did such a good job actually speaking Japanese that I was like, “Oh, I actually can’t do that.”It’s not a funny joke because they legitimately spoke Japanese.
Jordan Gavaris: I went through that art school kid phase where I was very obsessed with Japanese culture for about four years, and I did learn — I think I had it in my mind that I was going to become fluent one day, because I’d seen Kill Bill and I think I saw House, and I was also very interested in the artistic works of Japan. And I learned three things and then gave up because it’s an exceedingly difficult language to learn, but I remembered enough to say what you needed me to say, except when a tentacle was being shoved into my mouth.
Exploring Vulnerability: Joey and Craig’s Journey
Olivia, Joey’s character embodies deep vulnerability, particularly evident in her heavy monologues. How did you prepare to portray such a fragile character?
Olivia Taylor Dudley: I just think Addison is so incredible at writing dialogue and characters. When I read the script, I rarely read something that I relate to so much, and I really related to Joey on a lot of things. I heard her voice in my head [and it] was my own voice, and I don’t ever hear that. I always hear a character’s voice while I’m reading it, and I just have a lot in common with her. I also have OCD, and that was something that we connected on, and [Addison] just trusted me, and I felt like there was a lot of trust between Addison and all the actors, so there’s space for being vulnerable.
And it was such a wonderful set. It was just really cathartic, honestly. And those monologues were written so beautifully and we worked together on one of them. I had some thoughts about Joey saying some things in that and, I don’t know, I’m just really proud of it. The opening monologue was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Addison Heimann: By the way, that was the first day, first take. She dry heaved afterward.
Olivia Taylor Dudley: Yeah. It was really, really f—-ng hard, but I’m so proud of it, and that was such a good way to get into Joey from the get-go and feel vulnerable in front of our crew because it was wildly vulnerable to do. I just think Joey is me on some level.
Jordan, Craig shares his own vulnerabilities throughout the film, particularly during critical scenes. How did you balance the humorous aspects of the script with Craig’s deeper issues?
Jordan Gavaris: Honestly, it was really scary. As an actor, that’s a really scary thing because there’s so much humor in the script. Despite this genre in the movie being so kind of fantastic and surreal, all the characters are really quite three-dimensional and very real. And I didn’t want to dishonor what Craig went through. But you’re right in that Craig is a human being, is not someone who’s openly vulnerable, and he’s got severe failure-to-launch syndrome. He does not adult well. So treading that line was quite scary for me, and I really just relied on Addison to tell me if it was good, or [if] it was not good.
Because I was also last into the movie in the casting process. I only had about two weeks before the start of principal photography, so I didn’t have time to get in my head about a process or my approach. Addison basically said, “You’re playing my shadow avatar.”Craig is all the parts of the sort of dark side of me, and frankly, a lot of us. But I
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