Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct a mispelling of Niko from “Dusk” and the last name of Bruce DuBose.
“Dusk,” a new psychological horror film, had its first screening, right down the road from SMU at the Angelika Film Center on March 7, 2026. “Dusk” follows two characters, Chelsea and Niko. Chelsea is a student in college who has recurring nightmares, but it turns out her nightmares are actually her past lives. In every lifetime, she and Niko are hunted by an evil entity and ultimately killed.
The screenwriter of the film, Scott Noack, shared his inspiration for creating the story behind this movie.
“There is just something about a being that is eternal, and in this case, it is always reincarnating, as the two main characters are reincarnated as well,” Noack said. “I just like that thought of throughout history civilizations have been lost, and it’s due to these two people who so far have never been able to vanquish the demon.”
This demon was described as being a vampire by Bruce Debose’s character, Niko, in the movie. Noack expanded on this explanation of what the demon is.
“The demon wants to drink blood, really just to spite humanity or to spite God. It’s vampire adjacent,” Noack said. “That is Niko’s belief, and he’s rather right because they always go after blood because that means the demise of these characters.”
Noack described the cultures he tied into this story, specifically the Assyrian empire, the Vikings, and the Roanoke colony, which is associated with the famous word, Croatoan. These cultures all have history which ends up vanishing, just like the culture surrounding the demon that’s hunting Chelsea and Niko.
Niko himself is a Greek character. Played by Bruce DuBose, Niko played a pivotal part in the movie.
“I thought it made sense to place the character of Niko coming from Greece because you trace back a lot of myth. A lot of the stories and motifs in myths, universal myths, come out of ancient Greece,” DuBose said.
DeBose also expanded on his experience working on the movie, specifically with his co-star, Laura Bailey.
“Laura was great to work with. She was very intuitive. When we were casting, I thought,‘Oh, she’s got a lot of momentum. She was a wonderful actress,’” DeBose said. “I remember it was such hard work when we were making it. It really pays off now to be able to see it in this format.”
Audience member Ginger Bery gave her opinion on the film, commenting on the finished piece DeBose mentioned.
“I thought the performances were beautiful, the story was really beautiful and the feel,” Bery said. “There was a feeling throughout the movie that they were able to maintain, and they never broke that feeling. It was kind of amazing.”
Kyle Hodgkinson, one of the producers for “Dusk,” spoke on his driving inspiration for working on the movie.
“It was in our heart and that’s what we wanted to do,” Hodgkinson said. “The vision was we want to make [good] films.”
The entirety of “Dusk” was filmed in Dallas or the greater Dallas area. When asked why Dallas, Hodgkinson explained that he was born and raised in Dallas.
“Dallas was such a good place to shoot. Downtown has lots of good art,” Hodgkinson said. “There’s not a lot of film work here, so nobody had bad vibes or experiences with a crew coming in and not doing what they should. You leave things better than the way you got it, and that’s what we tried to do.”
