What's In Your Burger? Movie Preview & Review

In a world where streaming algorithms constantly serve up the same overcooked sequels and pre-chewed intellectual property, a tiny indie gut-punch has arrived that dares to ask the question we’ve all been too polite to voice: What, exactly, is in that burger? Released today, July 23, 2026, “What’s In Your Burger?” is a 19-minute whirlwind of thrills, chuckles, and full-on dread that proves you don’t need a bloated budget or a Marvel-sized cast to leave a mark. USA Film News sat down with the film’s multi-hyphenate auteur, Lucas Mattox, who wrote, directed, and - in a feat of DIY endurance - plays every single character in the movie.

Release Date & Where to Watch

“What’s In Your Burger?” hits the festival circuit and select digital platforms today, July 23, 2026. While the film is not yet attached to a major streaming giant, it is currently available for purchase or rental on VOD services including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vimeo on Demand. For those who crave a communal experience, keep an eye on the indie horror festival calendars: the short has already been accepted into the Nightmares Film Festival and the Fantasia International Film Festival’s online showcase, with more dates likely to follow. At just 19 minutes, it’s the perfect palate cleanser between features - or the last thing you’ll want to watch before lunch.

Cast & Crew

The credits of “What’s In Your Burger?” are a lean, unsettling marvel. Lucas Mattox plays Everyone. That is not a typo, nor a collective wink at the audience - it is the literal truth. Mattox portrays William, a fast-food superfan who wins a once-in-a-lifetime contest; he also portrays the suspicious franchise manager, the disgruntled grill cook, the cheerful but glassy-eyed cashier, and, most disturbingly, the various “ingredients” that William discovers behind the counter. The voice work is equally chameleonic: Mattox shifts from a giddy teen’s pitch to a dead-eyed monotone with visceral whiplash. This is not a vanity project; it’s a one-man symphony of paranoia, and the seams barely show thanks to clever editing and a brutal, lo-fi practicality. The entire crew, according to the credits, is effectively Mattox and a small, dedicated team of friends who handled lighting and sound design - but the film belongs entirely to its creator.

Story & What to Expect

The premise is deliciously simple. William, a lovable slacker with an unironic obsession with a fast-food chain called “Cluck ’N’ Crunch,” wins a golden ticket to tour their state-of-the-art headquarters. The first few minutes are a sugar rush of beige linoleum, promotional posters, and a tour guide (Mattox, again) whose smile is just a little too wide. Then the doors open into the kitchen. What follows is a masterclass in escalating unease. The documentary-style lighting shifts to sickly fluorescents. The soundtrack - a minimalist drone of humming freezers and distant machinery - becomes a character in itself. William starts noticing inconsistencies: a bucket labeled “Meat” that smells like floor cleaner, a freezer door that won’t open, and a manager who keeps referencing “the special process.”

Without spoiling the third-act reveal, suffice it to say that the “special process” involves ingredients that are neither chicken, beef, nor soy-based. The film channels the paranoid energy of The Stuff and the sweaty, claustrophobic dread of The Beyond, but filtered through a distinctly 2020s lens of fast-food supply chain anxiety. The comedy is bone-dry, landing in awkward pauses and William’s increasingly strained “oh, cool” responses. The horror arrives not with a jump scare, but with a slow pan across a walk-in cooler where the cuts of meat have a strange, human-like grain. Mattox’s performance as the manager, delivering a monologue about “efficiency” and “the customer’s right to affordable protein,” is chillingly banal. The final shot - a close-up of a burger patty that seems to pulse - will make you rethink your next drive-thru order.

Why It’s Worth Watching

In an era where blockbuster budgets are measured in hundreds of millions, “What’s In Your Burger?” is a defiant return to the raw, scrappy energy of underground filmmaking. Lucas Mattox performs a one-man tightrope act, and he never falls. The film’s 19-minute runtime is a blessing; it says its piece, delivers its punchline, and vanishes before the gimmick could wear thin. The technical craft punches above its weight class - the sound design, in particular, uses the low hum of industrial fryers to create a nearly subliminal anxiety that builds long before the first “horror” beat.

But the real reason to watch is the sheer, unsettling fun of it. This is a movie that knows exactly what it is: a short, sharp satire about the opaque food industry, disguised as a buddy-comedy-gone-wrong, and executed by a single actor who clearly had a blast scaring himself. The TMDb rating of 0/10 is, ironically, a perfect review - it’s a film that hasn’t been rated by the public yet, but that score also reflects the film’s punk-rock indifference to conventional appeal. It’s not here to be liked; it’s here to lodge itself under your skin like a stubborn bone fragment.

So, if you have 19 minutes to spare today, do yourself a favor: don’t order a burger. Watch this film instead. You might not want one after.