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The director and producer of Bottom, Frisk, and now Behind the Open Door sheds light on his new feature as well as his thoughts on film-making in 2026.
Todd Verow is happy to admit that his work has always had a shock factor to it, though “that’s never been my intention,” he says. The director and producer continues this unintentional trend in his latest work, Behind the Open Door, a fly on the wall documentary exploring the world of cumdumps.
It’s not new territory for Verow; he explored it in 2012’s Bottom, a “much darker film” in his own verdict now. And his interest in cumdumps, a slang term for a kink where someone who receives semen from (usually) multiple men in a single session, forms part of a larger curiosity in exploring how gay men specifically have sex, often with multiple partners, including cruising, bathhouses, and cottaging.
However, in the fourteen years since Bottom things have changed in the world of sex and sexual health, especially for gay and queer men, hence Verow found himself wanting to revisit the topic.
Behind the Open Door poster. (Provided)“When I made Bottom, it was a much more transgressive and, some would say, even self-destructive act to have all this anonymous, unsafe sex,” Verow tells me after Behind the Open Door’s UK debut at The Arzner Cinema in London in March. “But the whole world has changed with PrEP and Doxy-PEP and Undetectable = Untransmittable, it’s pretty much a free-for-all now, and relatively safe. So, I thought it’s an interesting time to revisit that.”
PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a medication that lowers the risk of acquiring HIV by 99% according to the NHS. Doxy-PEP (Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively newer tool that is taken after sex to reduce the chances of acquiring syphilis and chlamydia. The UK’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported in 2024 that more than 13,000 cases of syphilis were diagnosed, the highest ever figure with a high concentration of cases among gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men.
Despite concerns over a developing an antibiotic resistance as a result of new vaccines and Doxy-PEP, thesedevelopments have contributed towards a greater sexual confidence and removed the stigma associated with sex, which for people of Verow’s generation was unimaginable at one time. Having come of age during the AIDs crisis, when having a lot of sex with different men equated to death, contextualises Verow’s interest in exploring the world of sex.
And while this confidence has been labelled by some, playfully or not, as “peak gay sluttiness”, queer men are seemingly enjoying a new era of sexual freedom, cumdumping being a niche part of that. Verow believes interest in cumdumping has “exploded” in recent years, which he’s wanted to document. Anecdotally users of apps like Grindr and Sniffies have supported Verow’s view with users often organising large group sex events.
Behind the Open Door focuses on Corey Hudsonn, who was inspired by Verow’s 2012 documentary about another cumdump in New York. The two connected on social media with the film-maker later asking Hudsonn about making a follow-up, which the latter was up for it. The film follows Hudsonn as he prepares for, undergoes, and recovers from a cumdump session. It’s a lot to observe as a viewer, even for the less prudish among us. Verow was there filming all night, capturing a three-hour long interview with Hudsonn before observing the entire session.
Todd Verow. (Steven Menendez)“[Hudsonn] was a little apprehensive about the interview,” Verow shares. “He didn’t want it to be portrayed as this dark, destructive thing.” Both men wanted something sex-positive. But when it came to the interview Hudsonn was “very relaxed and very open, no holds barred.”
What surprised Verow was the intimacy between Hudsonn and the other men. “I expected him to think of them as sort of disposable, transactional.” The intimacy stands out in the film. As men come and go there are simpler, more conventional moments of intimacy between Hudsonn and the men involved in the session.
During a Q&A after the film’s UK premiere, Verow mentioned wanting to show sex authentically. Elaborating here, he says, “it’s really frustrating because so much of the sex in feature films and documentaries is more talked about than shown. And when it is shown everything is sanitised, and also not realistic. I find it incredibly bizarre because we all have sex and we all know what it is. And the idea that we can’t portray it as it really is, is ridiculous to me.”
But Behind the Open Door’s sexual content has made it difficult to screen the film more widely. Despite being submitted for numerous film festivals, including “every queer film festival in the United States,” it’s not been picked once. However, of the screenings that have taken place, these have been sold out and followed by “really involved” Q&As. “I think it’s ridiculous that anything that portrays sex in a realistic and graphic way is automatically classified as pornography,” offers Verow, who goes on to say, “To me, porn is something where the goal is to arouse you. That’s not the goal of this film. If that is a consequence, I’m fine with that, but that wasn’t the goal either for myself or Corey. It was more to show this world realistically.”
And of course, there’s the double standard between queer sex and non-queer sex, the former subjected to harsher, more restrictive ratings, sending a message that it’s inherently dirtier, and not for the mainstream. Sadly, some attitudes are harder to change. “I think queer people want to see more realistic sex in films and documentaries because we’ve been suppressed for so many years. We don’t want to see some sanitised version of what we do,” Verow adds.
A still from Bottom. (Provided)The director belongs to the ‘New Queer Cinema’ movement that emerged in the 80s and 90s alongside people such as Greg Araki, Todd Haynes, and Jennie Livingston. It’s an era Verow is “proud” to be a part of due to the conditions such film-makers had to work in.
“It was a really interesting time because queer film-makers were making films with whatever resources they could get and not compromising their visions and experimenting and really going out there and not thinking about commercial prospects and things like that,” Verow says.
He says that not caring about the money is one piece of advice he shares to any aspiring film-maker. “I always tell them, stay true to yourself and do what you want to do, and don’t spend years and years chasing after money. Make a movie with your iPhone, with whatever resources you have, with your friends, and just keep making films. And that’s what I do.”
The international rollback of LGBTQ+ rights of recent years has been reflected in culture and entertainment with numerous LGBTQ+ shows being cancelled. In 2025, GLAAD, the LGBTQ media advocacy organisation, reported that there were 489 LGBTQ+ characters recorded in programmes between 1 June 2024 and 31 May 2025 (an increase of 21 characters from the previous year). However, due to shows being cancelled, 201 of those characters would not be returning to the small screen. Add in economic pressures, shrinking funding pools and budgets, as well as the threat of Artificial Intelligence, and it seems we could be back to the circumstances that led to the New Queer Cinema.
That said, Verow thinks this could be a good thing. “It’s like we’re back to New Queer Cinema again where film-makers are like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to get any money, no one’s going to give me any money to make this movie, so I’m just going to make it myself. And I’m going to make it even more transgressive than I would have.’ It’s a really exciting time in that sense. And I think you see that especially in a lot of the trans film-makers. I think it’s really exciting what they’re doing. As an artist, your goal shouldn’t be to make a lot of money anyway. Your goal should be to make your art.”
Todd Verow is a film-maker, producer, director and writer.
