Japanese horror film New Group will make its North American streaming debut on Shudder on November 6, 2026 - written and directed by Yûta Shimotsu, the 82-minute film follows a high school student caught in a bizarre outbreak of forced conformity involving human pyramids, gymnastics and students who gradually lose their individuality.
A human pyramid becomes a nightmare
The film centers on Ai, played by Anna Yamada, whose ordinary school life changes when a student is found crawling around the playground on all fours, and afew days later, the students arrive at school to find a human pyramid already forming.
Teachers force the students to take part, and those who initially resist soon begin joining in. Ai, transfer student Yu and their friends attempt to escape while the school's staff keep watch, and the strange behaviour eventually spreads beyond the school, turning what initially looks like an isolated incident into a much larger phenomenon.
Anna Yamada leads the cast
Anna Yamada plays Ai, the withdrawn high school student at the centre of the story - Yamada has already built up a substantial horror filmography in Japan, including Misuzu in Misumisou and appearances in J-Horror titles such as Suicide Forest Village.
Yuzu Aoki plays Yu, a transfer student who has returned to Japan from overseas and has difficulty adapting to the emphasis on group behaviour at his new school, while Pierre Taki plays the school's principal, a character whose unsettling attitude becomes increasingly important as the situation develops.
The wider cast includes Ren Komai, Danhi Kinoshita, Arisa Sasaki, Kano Rogers, Jun Hosoi, Ryo Matsumoto, Tomomitsu Adachi, Natsuko Sakakura and Takashi Shimizu.
New Group is also Shimotsu's second feature, following his 2023 horror film Best Wishes to All, where that debut won the Grand Prize at the first Japan Horror Film Award, establishing Shimotsu as a filmmaker interested in using horror to examine problems within Japanese society.
From Japanese cinemas to international festivals
New Group opened in Japan on June 12, 2026, following its earlier festival appearances, where the film screened at genre events including the Fantasia International Film Festival and Sitges Film Festival, while its international festival run also included Nippon Connection in Germany.
At Nippon Connection, the film was presented as a satire built around increasingly disturbing gymnastics formations, with Yamada appearing at the festival alongside Shimotsu, and the film has also picked up strong reactions from genre critics - reviews have focused on its combination of strange imagery and commentary about conformity, with the human pyramid providing the central visual throughout the story.
New Group will be available on Shudder in North America from November 6, 2026.
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