"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 Selected for the 58th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival

Following its celebrated World Premiere at Raindance in London, Thinestra traveled to Spain for a screening at the 58th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia — held October 9–19, 2025, in Sitges, just outside Barcelona. Widely regarded as one of the three most prestigious genre film festivals in the world alongside Fantasia and Fantastic Fest, Sitges has been the launchpad for landmark horror and fantasy cinema since 1968 and is both FIAPF-accredited and recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thinestra screened in the festival's prestigious Brigadoon section, dedicated exclusively to independently produced horror and fantasy features — a fitting home for a film built from the ground up outside the studio system by a team of independent filmmakers. The 58th edition was a landmark year for body horror on the international circuit: the festival opened with Julia Ducournau's Alpha, placing Thinestra in company with some of the most ambitious and provocative genre work being made anywhere in the world.

The official Sitges selection described the film as "a disturbing dystopia about a miracle drug capable of giving you the body of your dreams" — a characterization that speaks to the film's tonal balance between social satire and visceral horror. For Michelle, appearing at Sitges as both lead actress and producer represented a full-circle moment: the festival that has championed transgressive female-driven genre cinema for over five decades was now championing hers.

The Sitges screening capped a remarkable festival run for the film — from London to Spain — and set the stage for the Vortex Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Us Weekly exclusive interview that followed.

World Premiere of Thinestra at the 33rd Raindance Film Festival

Thinestra made its World Premiere on June 20, 2025, at the 33rd Raindance Film Festival in London — the UK's largest independent film festival and one of Variety's top 50 unmissable film festivals in the world, with a history that includes the UK debuts of Pulp Fiction and Memento.

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.

Critics responded strongly. Horror DNA called it a film with a "phenomenal lead performance and enticing, often sumptuous visuals," while Flickering Myth praised both sisters as "excellent in their respective roles," noting the film's skill in capturing the internal horror of self-image. The Movie Waffler highlighted Michelle's ability to portray a deeply relatable insecurity — crediting the film with treating its subject with a seriousness rarely seen in the genre.

While comparisons to The Substance were inevitable, critics consistently noted that Thinestra carves its own space — leaner, more tragic, and more squarely on its protagonist's side. The Raindance premiere launched the film onto the international festival circuit, leading to a screening at Sitges Film Festival in Spain and the Vortex Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.