How Fear Street Star's New Body Horror Movie Is The Culmination Of Their 10-Year Friendship With Ugly Cry Director & Co-Star

Ryan Simpkins has returned to the horror genre for the buzzy SXSW title Ugly Cry, and there’s a very sweet reason for their involvement on the film.

The body horror film hails from Eighth Grade alum Emily Robinson, who wrote, directed, produced and leads the new movie as Delaney, a young actor who, in the midst of being alone when her boyfriend leaves to shoot a major zombie movie, goes to audition for a character she’s passionate about. However, when she’s told by the producers that she has an “ugly cry,” she begins falling down an emotional and psychological rabbit hole in which she tries to make her cry prettier, all while confronting the dangers of fame obsession and her own prior demons.

Alongside Robinson and Simpkins — who has followed in their brother’s footsteps by venturing into the horror genre with the Fear Street trilogy and Russell Crowe-led The Exorcism — the film’s star-studded roster includes Only Murders in the Building‘s Aaron Dominguez, The Mentalist‘s Robin Tunney, Ghosts‘ Andrew Leeds and Heart Eyes‘ Josh Ruben, among others. Having made its world premiere at SXSW on March 12, Ugly Cry has garnered very positive reviews for its thematic commentary and nightmarish visuals.

In honor of its festival premiere, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Dominguez, and Robin Tunney in our SXSW media suite to discuss Ugly Cry. While reflecting on building the movie’s ensemble cast, Simpkins shared that they and Robinson have “known each other for 10 years,” having first met “while we were in high school” during a Sundance Lab, where they became “really close and good friends.”

Even more relevant for their partnering on Ugly Cry was that they “found safety in each other to vent about the industry,” one of the key elements of the body horror movie’s themes and both of their characters within it. Simpkins went on to recall how Robinson had been trying to make the film for years, having “wanted to try to tell this story with whatever tiny means she had at the time,” which led to some early scenes even being largely improvised:

Ryan Simpkins: You would come over to my apartment, and we would improvise scenes, and then I think you kind of fell in love with the idea, and were like, “No, I actually want to try to pull this together and really make this.” So, then it sort of developed from there, and Emily kept me around for it.

Dominguez went on to share that Robinson “has known my manager for a little while,” encouraging the Witchboard vet to “take a read at this script,” which he immediately found to be “brilliantly written.” Subsequently meeting the Ugly Cry writer/director/producer/star and getting offered the part, Dominguez got to “experience Emily ebb and flow” during production and marveled as she was “wearing all the hats that she did seamlessly.”

The Ugly Cry Team Hope To Inspire Other Female Filmmakers

ScreenRant: What was the reaction you were hoping for, and what was your kind of takeaway from watching it with an audience?

Emily Robinson: It was just so fun, because I directed it, and I’ve been sitting in a room alone watching it again and again. And so to have two full screens playing, where people are laughing and cringing, it was a lot of fun to see with people, and watch them squirm, and relate, and all the things.

ScreenRant: So, what is the background of this story?

Emily Robinson: So I grew up in the industry, and I’ve just been thinking a lot about body and gender, and the internet and the ways in which we kind of objectify by ourselves, and create a false sense of competition sometimes, within ourselves and our peers. And I think the pandemic really brought that to light even further for me, where it was like, “Oh, if you take this in the wrong direction, you can really just continue to isolate yourself more and more,” especially with the internet. And I wanted to create a story that really tackled beauty standards and this comparison culture in a way that was relatable, but also specific and took it to an extreme.

ScreenRant: I adore you, I think you’re a legend. So, what did you see in Emily? What makes her direction unique?

Robin Tunney: First of all, I saw the 26-year-old I wanted to be, but I was in a climate that allowed for women to have that kind of autonomy, and I didn’t have any role models. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she was like, “I wanted to be a film major and I studied photography, because I didn’t know it was possible.” And now, with Chloé Zhao, you’re like, “It’s possible.” And other actresses will see what Emily did, and say, “I’m not going to wait for a role, or play something that I feel like I’m objectified in, or whatever.” That you can create your own material. I just felt like I wanted to support her, to make the world a better place for women, and to make girls know that this is possible, and that their stories have validity, and how they feel in the world is enough to make a movie about, because nobody did that for me. And then, I had done a movie that was directed by a friend of Emily, this woman, Amanda Kramer, and she called me, and she was like, “I never do this, but I think you’re going to really like the script and I really believe in Emily.” I saw it was starting to shoot the following week, so I read it immediately because, I was like, “She must be really stressed out.” I called her that night, and she was not stressed out. I was like, “You don’t have this part cast, and you seem that you’re going to do really well.” But I didn’t know what I was walking into specifically, and it was this environment that was filled with so much support, and so much love, and Emily wore so many hats. Every person who worked on that crew was just there to make her dreams come true, and support her, and we all believed in the script. I do think it’s not something that’s so niche, like just to the entertainment industry. I think that it’s so pervasive with social media, and your image, and perfection and what we see, and filters, and what that does to women and girls is so destructive, and it’s sort of this exploration of that.

ScreenRant: What did you learn about yourself through this experience as a filmmaker, and like in terms of what kind of movies you want to make after this?

Emily Robinson: Yeah. I think I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I both hope to direct things that I’m in, but also direct things that I’m not in. And I was trying to think of, like, what is the unifying thing, because it is kind of a genre-bendy deep film, and I do hope to do more body horror. I hope to do more dramedies. I hope to kind of live in different tonal spaces, and I think the thing that I’m most drawn to is women on the verge, and explorations of the body in different facets. So, I think that can look like a bunch of different things, but yeah, I’m very into depicting feral women.

Robin Tunney: I think it’s such an exciting time for movies, because we grew up watching movies about girls that women did not write, and they did not direct, and Emily is so young, and it’s a pure voice. Because I think it’s sort of what trained women into their gender roles, when they watch movies, because they feel like that’s who they’re supposed to be. And now, we have young women out there, telling their stories on their own terms, and like you see Eva Victor, who did Sorry Baby, or like you see Greta Gerwig, it’s just incredible. It’s such a remarkable time for women in cinema, and we’re creating a generation of women, and what they’re seeing to let them [say] like — this is who we really are, and it’s not objectification, and the things she’s auditioning for. They’re, like, getting r—d — and like I don’t want to do another job where I have to — if I get tied to a chair, and have tape on my mouth one more time. Oh my God. I’ve done it so many times, but this idea of like that women are doing things on their own terms, I think, is important, just culturally.

Ugly Cry made its world premiere on March 12 and is currently awaiting a global release date!

Release Date: March 12, 2026
Director: Emily Robinson
Writers: Emily Robinson
Producers: Emily Robinson, Jolene Mendes, Pablo Feldman, Rhianon Jones, Sophia Sabella, Tristan Scott-Behrends