A werewolf, a vampire and a Frankenstein creation are headed for Schenectady. Director Larry Fessenden's new film “Trauma or, Monsters All” is set to screen at the Proctors GE Theatre at 7 p.m. on Nov. 17, with Fessenden himself introducing the two-hour horror-drama and sticking around afterward to take questions from the audience, as reported by The Daily Gazette.
According to The Daily Gazette, the post-screening Q&A will be moderated by Matthew Kiernan, a programmer with the Fantasia International Film Festival. The film itself is described as a present-day revisionist take on familiar horror archetypes, centering on a writer named Cassandra, played by Laëtitia Hollard, who can also be seen in the second season of HBO Max's “The Pitt.”
Proctors and Downtown Schenectady
The theater’s history is also tied to the city’s downtown revival. According to Proctors, the Arts Center & Theatre of Schenectady restored and reopened the venue in 1979 with federal and city funds; Proctors says it later became a motivating factor in downtown Schenectady’s revitalization.
A Journalist Stumbles Into Her Town's Dark History
Cassandra, a writer played by Laëtitia Hollard, comes to Talbot Falls to work on a book about George Washington Carver and takes a job at the local library. Her newspaper reporting on the town’s dark history becomes a flashpoint: as speculation about monsters grows, a werewolf, a vampire and a Frankenstein creation emerge, the same report notes.
Fessenden has spent decades circling back to the genre's oldest creatures with fresh eyes. He has said he has been reinterpreting classic horror movie tropes since the 1990s, as noted by The Daily Gazette, a throughline that connects this latest film to a career built on subverting expectations rather than simply restaging them. In a separate conversation with The A.V. Club, Fessenden said current events inspired “Trauma” more than any movies could, pointing to a sense that the world outside the theater shaped this particular story more than genre influences did.
A Career Built on Independent Horror
Fessenden’s work extends beyond directing: according to the Gazette, he has appeared in more than 100 films as an actor and has run the independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix since the mid-1980s. In 2022, the Museum of Modern Art presented a 26-feature-film retrospective of the company’s work, which spans horror and other genres.
The Schenectady stop follows a run of New York City screenings. IFC Center scheduled showings of “Trauma Or, Monsters All” from Nov. 4 through Nov. 12, 2026, according to IFC Center, including an opening-night Q&A with Fessenden after the 7 p.m. show on Nov. 4 and another the following night on Nov. 5. The Proctors date gives upstate audiences their own chance to hear directly from the filmmaker before the film moves on from local screens.
