T Blockers

Cryptessa the drag queen introduces the film as fiction, hinting it might be realer than it seems. She frames the story as an excerpt from a lost film Terror from Below by Betty Palmer, a trans woman from a small Australian town in the 1990s who later took her own life. This sets a meta context about memory, survival, and the danger of the unknown.

Sophie, a young trans woman, works at a cinema and writes a screenplay about coming out. The present-day calm is interrupted when an earthquake shakes the town during her work and personal life. The quake foreshadows the disruption to come and reframes her experiences as material for her film.

On a date with Adam, Sophie senses he is a chaser after a Grindr notification labeled 'chicks with dicks.' She leaves, and later Adam is confronted by a man who fuels his anger. He is then recruited by a hidden group that dunks his head into a vat of green chemicals and emerges smiling, now under their sway.

Sophie and Spencer drink at a queer bar where a flyer for an alt-right protest catches her eye. Kris intervenes to eject Danny after violent and transphobic remarks. Kris explains that Danny has been radicalized by watching Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro videos.

Sophie receives a voicemail from Zen, a producer who expresses interest in one of her short films, but she doesn't call back. The film also mentions a proposed law that would criminalize doctors for prescribing hormone therapy to children. Cryptessa's commentary about doors and warnings hints at looming threats.

Sophie’s brother London visits, bringing cash from their father. He notes their father has stopped drinking and speaks of a monster, which he says is on the outside for Sophie. She accepts the envelope but remains wary of her family’s past.

Kris sees Adam and others violently assaulting him outside the bar. Sophie and her friends intervene as the attackers are overpowered, and the gang eagerly feeds on the entrails of a victim, revealing a monstrous threat beneath the surface.

Spencer and Sophie notice the events resemble the film Terror from Below, about a parasitic worm turning men into misogynist zombies. The earthquake seems to have reawakened the threat, and they decide to form a masked vigilante group to combat the infected.

Sophie's father, who is a police officer, visits with a warning to stay low as queer people have been going missing and the police appear hamstrung. The scene highlights the social danger surrounding the community.

Sophie agrees to meet Zen at a cafe, where he patronizingly asks her to participate in a film festival. She and her friends plan to burn down the building where the zombified men are gathering, setting up a direct assault to stop the parasite.

Inside the lair, the vigilantes confront the infected. They fight with crowbars and bats, and set the corpses on fire to destroy evidence. Kris is bitten by Adam, becoming a zombie himself, while Sophie wails in grief for the loss and the cost of her actions.

Back home, Sophie smashes her laptop and declares she is quitting, feeling that Betty Palmer’s fate mirrors her own. Spencer helps her see that she is loved and that every victory matters, urging her to persevere.

Sophie and friends attend the alt-right T-Rally, where Adam spreads the parasite to a new victim. The group resolves to stop the spread and executes Adam with a stake, ending his threat as they move forward.

With the parasite defeated, Sophie decides to make Terror from Below 2 to carry on Betty Palmer’s legacy and to warn future generations of what happened. The film frames this as a renewed commitment to storytelling and resistance.

Cryptessa closes the loop with a warning about the unknowable nature of those around us. Sophie and her friends return to the bar for a night of dancing, and they drop Zen in a dumpster, delivering the final rebuke: 'Never fuck with queer filmmakers.'