"Michelle and Melissa Macedo Talk New Horror Film Thinestra, Twin Comparisons and More"
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Michelle and her twin sister Melissa sat down ahead of Thinestra's world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain to talk about one of the most personal and daring projects of their careers.
In the film, Michelle plays Penny — a woman quietly at war with her own reflection, whose struggle with body dysmorphia and a dangerous weight loss drug causes her to literally birth an evil doppelgänger, played by Melissa. The sisters spoke candidly about the emotional weight of inhabiting those roles, the importance of showing up for each other on set during such challenging material, and what they hope audiences take away from the story.
For Michelle, the film's message is deeply human: "Would I say that to my best friend? No." She hopes viewers recognize the harshness of their own inner voices — and walk away choosing to be a little kinder to themselves.
Thinestra uses the language of horror to explore body image, diet culture, and the quiet violence of self-criticism — and this interview captures exactly why Michelle and Melissa were the only two people who could have made it.
Thinestra Wins Best Sci-Fi/Horror at Flickers' Vortex Film Festival
After its acclaimed run at Raindance in London and Sitges in Spain, Thinestra returned stateside to receive the Vortex Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror at Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival — one of the most decorated independent film festivals in the United States and the only festival in New England to hold both Academy Award and BAFTA qualifying status.
The Vortex Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Film Festival is RIIFF's dedicated genre showcase — the largest of its kind in New England — held annually in Providence and Newport and drawing over 45,000 attendees. Founded over two decades ago, the Vortex has become a home for the most inventive, daring, and boundary-pushing independent genre cinema in the country, with a legacy that includes world and US premieres from filmmakers across more than 100 countries. Winning here carries real weight: it places Thinestra in a lineage of genre films recognized by serious festival programmers, not just fan audiences.
For Thinestra — a film that uses the body horror genre to excavate the quiet violence of diet culture, self-image, and shame — the recognition felt earned. The Vortex jury responded not just to the film's visceral practical effects and dark comedy, but to the seriousness with which director Nathan Hertz and lead actress Michelle Macedo approached its central character. Penny is not a horror archetype. She is a fully realized, deeply human woman — and the award acknowledged that distinction.
The Vortex win capped a remarkable international festival circuit for the film and set the stage for its North American streaming release via Breaking Glass Pictures on April 14, 2026 — bringing Penny's story to audiences across the continent.
Directed by Nathan Hertz and written by Avra Fox-Lerner, the 87-minute body horror film stars Michelle as Penny — a Los Angeles photo retoucher whose quiet war with her own body image leads her to take a mysterious weight-loss drug called Thinestra, with grotesque and devastating consequences. Michelle's real-life twin sister Melissa plays Penelope, the monstrous doppelgänger Penny literally births — a casting choice that brought an eerie, unmanufacturable authenticity to the film's central horror.
