It seems like the horror genre has a bit of a hyper fixation with pop stars lately — following M. Night Shyamalan’s concert-set 2024 thriller Trap and Patrick Finn’s psychological horror sequel Smile 2, starring Naomi Scott as possessed pop superstar Skye Riley, comes Borderline, a comedy thriller from writer-director Jimmy Warden that was reportedly inspired by the 1990s-era stalking cases of real-life pop icons like Madonna and Britney Spears.
Premiering in theaters and on digital platforms via Magnet Releasing on Friday, March 14, Borderline centers on ‘90s pop diva Sofia (played by Warden’s actress wife Samara Weaving, the scream queen of recent horror titles like 2019’s Ready or Not, 2020’s The Babysitter: Killer Queen and 2023’s Scream VI), whose Los Angeles home is invaded by an obsessive fan named Duerson (Ray Nicholson) who believes they are meant to get married and manipulates her into going along with his romantic delusions. (Erin Dane, Alba Baptista and Jimmie Fails round out the cast.)
Those who saw Smile 2 will no doubt recognize actor Ray Nicholson (Out of the Blue, Prime Video’s Panic), who played a similarly menacing character in that film, but even casual moviegoers will be able to clock both his starry surname and family resemblance — yes, Ray is the son of cinematic living legend Jack Nicholson and actress-model Rebecca Broussard, and the 33-year-old has been shrewdly utilizing his spitting-image looks (complete with those distinctive Nicholson eyes and trademark wicked grin) to sinister effect in recent horror films. (Along with Borderline, Nicholson can be seen as a slimy bad guy in the action-thriller Novocaine, starring fellow nepo baby Jackie Quaid.)
Knowing that Nicholson of course can’t outrun his name or face, it’s smart that he’s instead leaning into the creepy homages to his movie-star dad and his iconic characters like The Shining’s Jackie Torrance. As for his roles in both Borderline and Novocaine, the young Nicholson told MovieWeb that villains are “really, really fun characters to play — like, completely different, both completely twisted, you know? And that's just my comfort zone, I guess."
Check out the official trailer for Borderline before tuning into the horror comedy starring Ray Nicholson and Samara Weaving in theaters and on VOD platforms like Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Fandango at Home beginning today, March 14.
