Sender

After receiving a series of unnervingly personal packages she never ordered, a woman, newly sober and starting over, spirals into paranoia, convinced someone is watching her. As the online retailer denies responsibility, her search for the anonymous sender sends her down a dangerous rabbit hole, forcing her to confront her past and the fragile reality she’s trying to rebuild. A tense psychological descent into surveillance, recovery, and self-doubt.

Premiered at SXSW on March 14, 2026.

“Boldly off-kilter, brilliant and bizarre, its dark humor and taut psychological horror are laced together in a delightfully heady blend” - Variety

“A mesmerizing psychological thriller… Russell Goldman‘s feature film debut is as intriguing as it gets, a fantasia of paranoia and twisted truths and lies roaming through a woman’s disheveled life that reminds me of movies like Todd Haynes’ Safe. You may be thinking about this one for days after experiencing it” - Deadline

“An anxiety-driven nightmare, Goldman's film doesn't just examine surveillance habits and the cycle of supply and demand, but our relationship to these things and the comfortable embrace of addiction. Sender is designed with extraordinary precision. Lower's work here is especially phenomenal.” - Screen Rant

“Unnerving and smart, thoughtful and off-kilter, and will really make you think twice before hitting “Buy Now” on any app” - IndieWire

“Most impressively, Goldman also demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of addiction. Recovery in Sender is not portrayed sentimentally as redemption, but as a destabilization. Sender repeatedly wants the audience to question whether Julia is being stalked from the outside or dismantling herself from within, and wisely refuses to provide a clean answer.” - Fangoria

For press or booking inquiries, please write sendermoviepress@gmail.com

Written & Directed by Russell Goldman

Producers: Jamie Lee Curtis, Molly Hallam, Jake Katofsky

Executive Producers: Thomas Grabinski, Akshay Shah, Britt Lower, and Russell Goldman

Cinematographer: Gemma Doll-Grossman

Production Designer: Melisa Myers

Costume Designer: Sarah Trost

Editor: Marco Rosas

Sound Design: Nathan Ruyle

Composer: Gavin Brivik

Cast 

(in order of appearance)

Jamie Lee Curtis
Britt Lower
Utkarsh Ambudkar
Rhea Seehorn
Edward Torres
David Dastmalchian
Anna Baryshnikov
Mike Mitchell 
Alyssa Limperis
Inger Stratton

PRESS & PRAISE FOR SENDER

DREAD CENTRAL: “The spell was cast on me, and I remained enraptured by Goldman’s sneaky dismantling of identity through commerce.”

THE FILM NERDETTE: “A film that one simply must see.”

POP HEIST: “One of the most thematically coherent and nerve-shreddingly effective films I've seen in a long time.”

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: “Weird, singular, and smartly acted.”

COLLIDER: “Goldman isn’t just stepping into the feature film space. He’s making his presence well known as someone who’s capable of crafting a wildly ambitious, beautifully bizarre and trippy ride with a whole lot of thematic heft.”

FILM AUTHORITY: “Riddled with surprises and reversals, its irreverent aggression and bracing originality make it a rewarding outlier in the perennially crowded horror/sci-fi stakes.”

FATHER SON HOLY GORE: “Here lies Sender‘s coherent message under all its delightfully contained madness: capitalism drives some of us to drink, it drives us to consume in so many varied ways that are unhealthy, it drives us to be violent with ourselves—through both figurative and literal forms of violence—and, most of all, it’s driving all of us crazy.”

ELEMENTS OF MADNESS: “Sender” wields digital curation as bladed commentary on trust and social responsibility.”

GEEK VIBES NATION: “The story is a potboiler, sizzling, then cooling, before ramping up to its final delivery. Goldman is a filmmaker to watch. Sender is bursting with clever ideas and a remarkable flourish, resulting in creepy intensity and cathartic release.”

AWARDS BUZZ: “It’s impossible to escape this film while watching it.”

INDIEWIRE: Before Filmmaker Russell Goldman Made His SXSW-Bound First Feature, He Was an IndieWire Intern

UPCOMING HORROR MOVIES: “Director and writer Russell Goldman has villainized the excitement of receiving Amazon shipments, and now he’s on my shit list.”

FILM INQUIRY: “Sender lingers in an invasive way, clinging to the brain long after it’s over. This is not comfort viewing; it’s provocation by design. Even when it had me at my most unnerved, it still had me.”

KNOCKTURNAL: Britt Lower On How Making Indie Films is Like Cutting a Record

FILM GEEK: “Goldman keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat from beginning to end.”

KNOCKTURNAL: Britt Lower and Russell Goldman on the Visual Spectacle ‘Sender’

DEADLINE: ‘Sender’ Star Britt Lower Highlights How Working With Rhea Seehorn In Russell Goldman’s Thriller Film Mirrored Their Real-Life Relationship – SXSW Studio

DEN OF GEEK: Jamie Lee Curtis joins the cast of new film Sender to discuss online "brushing" scams

DEADLINE: ‘Severance’s Britt Lower To Topline Psychological Horror Film ‘Sender’ Produced By Jamie Lee Curtis 

SCREENRANT: Sender: Exciting Upcoming Thriller Starring Pluribus & Severance Leads

DREAD CENTRAL: Jamie Lee Curtis Produces SXSW Thriller

BLOODY DISGUSTING: First Look at ‘Severance’s Britt Lower in ‘Sender’ Produced by Jamie Lee Curtis