Izabel Pakzad makes her feature debut with the girls’ trip-gone-wrong thriller-horror Find Your Friends, which premiered at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival and arrives on Shudder on June 12. The film’s ensemble cast includes Bella Thorne (The Babysitter, Midnight Sun), Chloe Cherry (Euphoria, Roommates), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow, The Wilds), Sophia Ali (Uncharted, The Wilds), Zión Moreno (Gossip Girl: Next Gen, Control Z), Jake Manley (The Order, Infamous), Israel Broussard (Happy Death Day, The Bling Ring), Harrison Sloan Gilbertson (Oppenheimer, The Peripheral), and Chris Bauer (Fellow Travelers, True Blood).
Set against the isolation of the California desert, the story follows five friends as a carefree getaway to Joshua Tree quickly unravels after they encounter a hostile local town. As tensions rise outside the group, resentments begin to surface within it, turning the trip into a volatile fight for survival. What starts as a fun escape soon turns into a violent, revenge-fueled nightmare.
We spoke with Izabel Pakzad and cast members Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, and Sophia Ali to discuss filming Find Your Friends, what drew them to the project, and how the film explores messy female friendships and toxic masculinity.
The story is inspired by real events experienced by writer-director Pakzad during her time in college. “I had this traumatizing girls’ trip to Joshua Tree [where] we ended up in this crazy car chase on the Joshua Tree freeway in the middle of the night where they were trying to crash into [our] car,” she tells us. “I went to a crazy party school; I was kind of was raised by this brat culture, and I was just thinking about [myself] and my friends and how we were stuck in these weird party rituals. I wanted to find a way to marry those two stories, and I was like, this is an interesting way to bring this to life. So that’s sort of how it all got cooking.”
The cast was immediately drawn to the story and script, particularly as it was written by a female and centered on female experiences. “What made me want to be part of it was that it was told from the female perspective and that it included a lot of sexuality, but it was all told from the female perspective,” Cherry says.
“I remember feeling like I hadn’t read a script this good in a long time. I read a lot of scripts and sometimes they just pile on up there. [There isn’t awlays] a lot of interesting, totally authentic [and] different material out there,” Thorne adds.
Thorne also explains that her character was a challenge to play, as Lavinia never believes her friends are in danger, sees them as overreacting, and is mainly focused on having a good time. “The hardest part for me was finding um any sort of like for Lavinia. I just disliked her so much and it took Izabel quite a few conversations with me [to explain] where she was coming [from]. [She explained how] in some of the different dialogue pieces they’re touching on [issues on] a little bit of a deeper level and that was incredibly helpful. Once I was able to to change my brain around on who she was, then I was able to give her some sass [while] still making her likable.”
Watch the full conversation below. *Note that spoilers are discussed.
Find Your Friends streams on Shudder on June 12.
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