Cinema Scholars is back at Fantastic Fest with coverage from the 21st annual celebration of genre film in Austin, Texas. Up first, we chat with Nick Simon, director of the Heather Graham chiller What Happened to Doris? The film celebrates its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026 on Sunday, September 20, with additional screenings on Wednesday, September 23.
Introduction
By now, even average moviegoers are familiar with haunted house tropes. Moving objects, foul smells, cold spots, voices, and visions are all hallmarks of the catalog. But those same audiences likely never wonder where such specific details originate.
“I was aware of the story, but not to the level that we uncovered during the research. I knew the original movie, The Entity, was based on a true story. I didn’t realize where that stopped and where it started from.Tom Benton, who wrote the script, built this relationship with Brian Harris, who is Doris’s real son. Once we started talking to him, and once Tom had built this relationship over years with this guy to get the family’s rights and hopefully tell the story the right way. And then you start doing your own research, you find out all these different things.
So, yeah, it’s an incredible, crazy story. It’s also the most documented ghost story. The DNA of this story ends up in all these other ghost movies because it is so well documented. Everything from Ghostbusters, with the parapsychology university, to Poltergeist, with the Thelma Moss character. It’s all interesting.”
A Harrowing Real-Life Story
In What Happened to Doris?, the typical creaky-house jump-scare clichés ratchet up into an all-out assault on Doris and her children by an evil force. As the single mom reaches the breaking point, validation from the paranormal scientific community and her resolve to protect her brood help validate Doris’ unbelievable plight.
Depicting such a horrible true story involving real people comes with a huge responsibility, according to the director.
“Heather is an incredible actor. She really does so much research and so much work and so much backstory. She really delved into it. She talked to Brian also about his mom and just, like, how do we portray that character? I feel like, again, things that you would read online about Doris were things like, “Oh, yeah, she was an alcoholic, and she had four kids by four different dads,” and all these things. But Brian will tell you straight up: the most important thing for his mom was that she didn’t lose the kids.
And that’s why she was really sensitive. She didn’t want to tell people about it until it got so bad where she felt like she had to tell people about it. And then she immediately regretted telling people about it. That story seems like it’s very relevant today with all those things. Heather played it perfectly. She understands how to tap into that vulnerable place, but yet also remains strong for the kids and understands the family dynamic of it.”
With another stellar horror turn from Graham, plus gravitas from Mimi Rogers as a paranormal expert, What Happened to Doris? is ultimately an unexpected story about strong women thrust into an inexplicable, menacing situation.
What Happened to Doris? Celebrates its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026 on Sunday, September 20, with additional screenings on Wednesday, September 23. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our chat with director Nick Simon. We talk about veteran actors in genre film and the art of combining VFX and practical effects.
