Filmmaker Darryl Shaw (Android Re-Enactment) has been a resident of Japan for the last several years, and his new project, a serialized microbudget dark comedy web-series called The Hounds of Asterisk, is set to release this week, starting this Friday, March 6, 2026. The five-episode project has been in the works for the last two and a half years and was completed with both on-location and remote shoots and performances featuring Shaw’s friends and family in Japan and abroad.
In The Hounds of Asterisk, “When lonely remote worker Geoff Bream (Nick Rock) decides to ‘ethically’ source an exotic dog off of the internet, what follows is an unreasonable spiral from his most mundane anxieties into a dark and perplexing reckoning.” The story plays out through a series of uncomfortable conversations that Shaw calls “cringe-core.”
The Hounds of Asterisk is a labour of love for Shaw, who enlisted help by way of guest voice roles from Chris Nash (director of In A Violent Nature and its upcoming sequel), that film’s producer Shannon Hanmer, who is a filmmaker herself, and a cameo appearance from Junichi Yamamoto (director of Meat Ball Machine and the upcoming Hellbot). Shaw wrote, edited, directed, did CGI effects, and produced the music on his own, producing The Hounds of Asterisk on a microbudget of less than $5000.
Check out the trailer for The Hounds of Asterisk right here, ahead of the series release on March 6 on YouTube!
