Fans of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, starring Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Zendaya, will feel right at home with Shudder's latest horror film, Bloody Tennis. Challengers followed two professional tennis players as they worked to make it big while simultaneously juggling a budding love triangle. That passionate portrayal of Tennis and their intense drive to become stronger athletes carries over to the new movie Bloody Tennis, which is streaming on Shudder.
Bloody Tennis is a supernatural sports body-horror story that follows Sandra Guldberg Kampp's Sophie, an American tennis player who goes away to a remote tennis academy in Southern Europe. Unluckily for her, Sophie's academic journey takes a dark, twisted dive into unexpected madness.
At Fantastic Fest, The Direct caught up with Bloody Tennis director Nikias Chryssos to discuss how Bloody Tennis is similar yet vastly different from the iconic tennis movie Challengers.
For more of The Direct's coverage of Fantastic Fest 2026, make sure to read our interview with the directors of Sam Richardson's new alien abduction horror-comedy, Into the Sky.
'Bloody Tennis' Is 'Challengers' if It Were a Horror Film
There Are Similarities Between the Two, But There Are Key Differences As Well
- The Direct: "I feel like this is like a horror version of 'Challengers.' Do you feel that is an apt comparison, and how is this movie similar or on the same wavelength as that one?"
Nikias Chryssos: That's a very good question because I was thinking recently about the movies by Luca Guadagnino, and you know that he made almost back-to-back. He made 'Suspiria.' He made 'The Bones and All,' the cannibal movie, and then he made 'Challengers.' And I mean, I have all these elements in my film 'Bloody Tennis,' so it feels a little bit like I have to watch what he's doing next. So maybe my next film will also be about artificial intelligence, or I think he did something about Sam Altman, or I don't know.
"Both films are pretty colorful" and "bold," the director noted, adding that the big difference is that Bloody Tennis is about athletes before they gain fame and their journey reaching that point:
Chryssos: But I think what they have in common is a certain, let's say, pop quality to the topic. And I mean, both films are pretty colorful. They're bold in a way, and I mean they're also really about the physical presence of the actors, you know, the bodies, and also how they are worshiped, or athletes are worshiped in our society, especially in 'Challengers.' You know, you have them big on the billboard, and I mean, in my film, that's, I think a difference, is that they are on their way of becoming that. They're not there yet. They go out into the world to make it, and I think these are some of the similarities and differences.
- The Direct: "When you first started this whole journey, what would you say was the mission statement behind the film? What did you want to accomplish at the end of the day?"
Chryssos: At the very beginning, for me, it was just kind of an image I fell in love with. Was this juxtaposition of the beautiful outside world of tennis, the, at the time, the white dresses, classical, the sunny tennis academy, and a little bit of the underbelly of that? The kind of darkness of the ambition and the drive, and I thought just this contrast would make an interesting horror movie. And at the beginning, it was just this weird idea. And I think I had the first idea when the first notes were made around 2010, so I was much younger. It was a long time ago... It just went back and forth from time to time and [kept] developing.
The Direct's full interview with Bloody Tennis director Nikias Chryssos can be seen below:
