“Gale: The Yellow Brick Road” director says his vision of L. Frank Baum’s fantasy realm is “a world shaped by decay, memory, and emotional fracture.”

Dorothy’s granddaughter braves the Yellow Brick Road in wickedly dark *Wizard of Oz *horror reimagining (exclusive)

"Gale: The Yellow Brick Road" director says his vision of L. Frank Baum's fantasy realm is "a world shaped by decay, memory, and emotional fracture."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on January 8, 2026 1:13 p.m. ET

We are definitely not in Kansas anymore, folks.

** can exclusively premiere the full-length trailer for *Gale: Yellow Brick Road*, a new horror film inspired by L. Frank Baum's *The Wizard of Oz*.

The trailer features narration from Emily Gale (Chloë Crump), the young granddaughter of Dorothy Gale (Karen Swan), who sees visions of the fantasy world that her grandmother described decades prior. We see glimpses of nightmarish versions of classic Oz characters, including the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and at least one wicked witch.

'Gale: Yellow Brick Road'.

"*Gale: Yellow Brick Road* was inspired by the darker themes already embedded in L. Frank Baum’s original Oz novels, which have only ever been lightly explored," executive producer Dane Petrali tells EW. "And by a desire to respectfully expand that material into a deeper and more unsettling vision of Oz than audiences have seen before."

In the trailer, Emily explains that she was told that Oz was "just a story — a fairy tale my grandmother dreamed up after the storm." (Though it's not seen in the trailer, it's safe to assume that the storm in question is the tornado that swept Dorothy into Oz in Baum's original story.)

The young protagonist explains that her mother denied Oz's existence, calling Dorothy's obsession with it "family madness."

'Gale: Yellow Brick Road'.

But Oz seemingly persists despite the best intentions of Emily's mother. "You can't hide from something that knows your name," Emily says. "She said she saved me by hiding Oz, abandoning it. Leaving it to die so that I might live."

Emily describes her visions. "I see the same yellow brick road, the same shadows, voices calling from behind the wind," she says. "Now Oz is awake again, and whatever began with my grandmother is coming back to finish with me."

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Over the course of the trailer, we see various pieces of haunting imagery: a burning scarecrow,  a muddy yellow brick road, an elderly Dorothy desperately clicking her heels together, a murder of crows, and a silver slipper (oh my?). The final shot of the trailer appears to be the Tin Man wielding an ax, though the blade of his weapon is out of frame.

Filmmaker Daniel Alexander first entered Oz with his short *Gale – Stay Away From Oz* in 2023. The director widened the project to a feature-length film to create *Yellow Brick Road*.

'Gale: Yellow Brick Road'.

"Expanding *Gale: Yellow Brick Road* into a feature meant preserving its emotional core while deepening Oz into a darker, more immersive world," he tells EW. "Oz in *Gale: Yellow Brick Road *draws from realism rather than fantasy, presenting a world shaped by decay, memory, and emotional fracture."

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Alexander's film is part of a larger Oz horror saga that could include two sequels. "*Gale: Yellow Brick Road* is the first film in a planned trilogy, with future chapters revealing more of Oz and its characters," Petrali says.

*Gale: Yellow Brick Road* hits theaters via Fathom Entertainment for one night only on Feb. 11. The film will feature an exclusive making-of featurette offering a glimpse behind the curtain.**

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Source: “EW Horror”