CategoryFilm Festivals
Horror film festivals worldwide — lineups, awards and the titles that break out of the festival circuit.
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Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
In writer/director Sam Fox’s short film Fck’n Nuts, teenager Dan (Vincent Stalba) is crazy in love with Sandy (Maddie Nichols), so much so that he doesn’t heed her initial advice about not meeting her parents (Michele Rossi and William E. Harris). Viewers already have a pretty good idea about the parents being odd thanks to some of their dialogue and Sandy’s remarks, but once Dan steps inside the family’s home, things go absolutely insane. I had a strong feeling that things were going to be bonkers when I saw that auteur Joe Badon (The Wheel of Heaven; The God Inside My Ear; Sister Tempest) was a coproducer on this horror comedy, and my assumption was correct. Fox crafts a fun, surreal short that blends a nostalgic feel with absurd comedy, and there’s a set piece boasting great-looking practical gore effects sure to bring on the heaves for some viewers. You can check out the short’s trailer at https://vimeo.com/845566547/b39329d86e. Fck’n Nuts
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsHoliday HorrorMoviesNewsShudderStreaming TV
RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, along with Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, have acquired the rights to the holiday horror film, It’s A Wonderful Knife which will make its world premiere at Beyond Fest on October 8, 2023. In the film, “a year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality.” Directed by Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls; V/H/S/99), and written by Michael Kennedy (Freaky). Tthe film stars Justin Long (Barbarian), Joel McHale (“Community”), Jane Widdop (“Yellowjackets”), Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), Jess McLeod (“One of Us is Lying”) and
Continue reading →
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Aficionados of high quality independent horror, take note: Los Angeles’s Screamfest® Horror Film Festival has unleashed its first wave of offerings. The fest, which runs October 10, features an outstanding lineup with selections from the gothic to the ghoulish and beyond. Following is the official press announcement. Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, today announced its first-wave lineup of competitive features and shorts for its 23rd edition. Running October 10 through 19 at the TCL Chinese Theater, Screamfest® welcomes horror cinephiles to experience twisted tales and frightening films together on the big screen. Tickets will be on sale soon and can be purchased via the festival website: https://screamfestla.com/ Considered the “Sundance of Horror,” Screamfest® is proud to showcase new work from independent filmmakers from across the globe. This past year the festival screened the following films, which acquired distribution including KillHer, Sung Kang’s Shaky Shivers, 8 Found Dead, and Goldsmith. The
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
DID I? (United States, 2023) When viewers first meet Genevieve (Alexandra Pica), the main character of director Sarah Tice’s DID I?, she wakes up disoriented, disheveled, and mysteriously bruised. She is also having a tough time at work, where she is an editor and aspiring writer. We learn that the relatively mild-mannered and introverted Genevieve is struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and her alter Stevie, who is no fan of Genevieve’s therapist Rachel (Raven Wynn), has a decidedly wild side to her. Tice, who cowrote the screenplay with Zachary Beckler, does an admirable job of focusing on more realistic depictions of DID rather than just presenting the sensational, though naturally any horror or thriller film attempting to tackle mental issues walks a fine line. The third act packs a highly disturbing, harrowing wallop that reveals the reason for Genevieve’s trauma. Tice, who worked with a microbudget, does fine work that belies the film’s meager budget, including digital wizardry, quick
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Director Lindsay Anderson Beer’s Pet Semetary: Bloodlines takes a portion of Stephen King’s novel Pet Semetary and expands it into a feature-length film, resulting in a gory, dread-filled prequel to the book and preceding film adaptations. In 1969, teenaged Jud Crandall (Jackson White) is set to be the first of his family line to leave Ludlow, Maine since the town was founded. He and his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) are about to leave for Peace Corps duty when she is attacked by the dog belonging to Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern), one of Jud’s childhood friends, who has just returned from active duty in Vietnam and whose father Bill (David Duchovny) tries to keep visitors away from the increasingly disturbing Timmy. The attack hospitalizes Norma, keeping the couple in Ludlow longer than they planned, and naturally violent events involving the titular burial grounds occur. Manny (Forrest Goodluck), another longtime friend of Jud’s and Timmy’s, and his sister Donna (Isabella Star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival has a bounty of fear-fare shorts from around the globe on tap. Here is a look at four of the selections that run less than 10 minutes each. Stop Dead (United Kingdom, 2023) Director Emily Greenwood, working from a screenplay by David Scullion, has crafted a highly atmospheric short that sets up an intriguing premise worthy of a feature-length treatment. Police officers Samantha Hall (Sarah Soetaert) and partner Nick Thompson (David Ricardo-Pearce) are stuck on a country road at nighttime because of a flat tire. A young woman (Priya Blackburn) suddenly appears, refusing to heed Hall’s order to stop, telling the officers that if you stop, you die. This supernatural shocker boasts solid production values, good performances, taut direction, and some fast-paced editing that helps the world building and ratchets up the suspense. Merger (United Kingdom, 2022) Working late in a dark office is rarely a good thing to do, but in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
STRANGE DARLING (2023) Do yourself an immense favor and learn nothing more about the plot of writer/director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling than what I am about to tell you. This film absolutely requires being gone into as cold as possible for maximum effect. The film opens with a preamble about a serial killer’s path through the United States, and then cuts to a coke-snorting man (Kyle Gallner) in a pickup truck chasing down a bloodied woman (Willa Fitzgerald) in a Ford Pinto. She totals the car and runs into the woods, with the rifle-toting man following in pursuit. Mollner takes the concepts of a cat-and-mouse thriller and first-date-gone-wrong horror and over the course of six nonlinear chapters, toys with viewer expectations to mind-blowing effect. The film is beautifully shot by actor Giovanni Ribisi in his debut as a director of photography, with several scenes depending on pure, dialogue-free cinema, which he pulls off swimmingly. Fitzgerald and Gallner are both magnificent
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Writer/director Nicholas Tomnay’s What You Wish For caught me off guard several times, and for best results, I recommend going as cold as possible into this horror feature that also serves up social commentary. I certainly won’t spoil any of its intrigue here. Ryan (Nick Stahl), deep in debt to the wrong kind of people to whom to owe large amounts of money, flies to rural Latin America to meet his friend and roommate from their culinary school days, Jack (Brian Groh), after not seeing each other for 12 years. Jack is currently seemingly living the high life as a private chef, being flown from one country to another by his bosses and given lavish places to live as he prepares event dinners for high-end clients. Although Ryan envies Jack’s extravagant lifestyle — including his bank balance, at which Ryan gets a peek — Jack seems to be in a rather gloomy state of mind, and when events lead to
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsShort FilmsThriller
The 14th edition of Austria’s superb SLASH Filmfestival is underway! From September 21 through October 1, this renowned fest screens a selection of incredible short films from around the globe along with its fine feature films. From the terrifying to the hilarious, the SLASH Filmfestival shorts programs are a highlight of the fest. Following is the official press announcement. For more information including a full listing of films scheduled, visit https://slashfilmfestival.com/en/. The programs Five carefully curated programs and various shorts before features bring a total of 48 short films from all corners of the world to Vienna. With over 34 World, International, European or Austrian premieres, the 14th edition of SLASH Filmfestival has its largest short-film lineup ever and sees the festival take new initiatives to celebrate the short form in its own right. In addition to program mainstays Fantastic Shorts Competition Chapters 1 and 2, SLASH is delighted to bring back “My First SLASH” to continue guiding young viewers
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNews
Columbus, Ohio’s Nightmares Film Festival returns this year from October 26–29 and it has something for fear-fare fanatics and genre-film aficionados of every stripe. Boasting 17 feature films and more than 150 short films, along with exciting live experiences, the fest is a can’t-miss experience. Monsters (Cryptids; The Deep Dark) murderers (Departing Seniors; Santa Isn’t Real) and mirth (How to Kill Monsters) abound! Following is the official press announcement. Nightmares Film Festival, FilmFreeway’s #1-ranked genre fest, today revealed its 2023 program of #BetterHorror. In its eighth year, the fest is building even more community beyond the screen with the addition of live experiences to its heralded #BetterHorror film and screenplay slate. The four-day Nightmare program once again delivers a must-see lineup collected from new and beloved genre voices around the world, with highlights including the boundary-smashing queer coming-of-age midnighter The People’s Joker, notoriously pulled from TIFF; the world premiere of Zac Locke’s (#Float) psychological Christmas horror Santa Isn’t Real; the
Continue reading →
More from Film Festivals
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
In writer/director Sam Fox’s short film Fck’n Nuts, teenager Dan (Vincent Stalba) is crazy in love with Sandy (Maddie Nichols), so much so that he doesn’t heed her initial advice about not meeting her parents (Michele Rossi and William E. Harris). Viewers already have a pretty good idea about the parents being odd thanks to some of their dialogue and Sandy’s remarks, but once Dan steps inside the family’s home, things go absolutely insane. I had a strong feeling that things were going to be bonkers when I saw that auteur Joe Badon (The Wheel of Heaven; The God Inside My Ear; Sister Tempest) was a coproducer on this horror comedy, and my assumption was correct. Fox crafts a fun, surreal short that blends a nostalgic feel with absurd comedy, and there’s a set piece boasting great-looking practical gore effects sure to bring on the heaves for some viewers. You can check out the short’s trailer at https://vimeo.com/845566547/b39329d86e. Fck’n Nuts
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsHoliday HorrorMoviesNewsShudderStreaming TV
RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, along with Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, have acquired the rights to the holiday horror film, It’s A Wonderful Knife which will make its world premiere at Beyond Fest on October 8, 2023. In the film, “a year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality.” Directed by Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls; V/H/S/99), and written by Michael Kennedy (Freaky). Tthe film stars Justin Long (Barbarian), Joel McHale (“Community”), Jane Widdop (“Yellowjackets”), Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), Jess McLeod (“One of Us is Lying”) and
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNews
Aficionados of high quality independent horror, take note: Los Angeles’s Screamfest® Horror Film Festival has unleashed its first wave of offerings. The fest, which runs October 10, features an outstanding lineup with selections from the gothic to the ghoulish and beyond. Following is the official press announcement. Screamfest® Horror Film Festival, the largest and longest-running horror film festival in the United States, today announced its first-wave lineup of competitive features and shorts for its 23rd edition. Running October 10 through 19 at the TCL Chinese Theater, Screamfest® welcomes horror cinephiles to experience twisted tales and frightening films together on the big screen. Tickets will be on sale soon and can be purchased via the festival website: https://screamfestla.com/ Considered the “Sundance of Horror,” Screamfest® is proud to showcase new work from independent filmmakers from across the globe. This past year the festival screened the following films, which acquired distribution including KillHer, Sung Kang’s Shaky Shivers, 8 Found Dead, and Goldsmith. The
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
DID I? (United States, 2023) When viewers first meet Genevieve (Alexandra Pica), the main character of director Sarah Tice’s DID I?, she wakes up disoriented, disheveled, and mysteriously bruised. She is also having a tough time at work, where she is an editor and aspiring writer. We learn that the relatively mild-mannered and introverted Genevieve is struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and her alter Stevie, who is no fan of Genevieve’s therapist Rachel (Raven Wynn), has a decidedly wild side to her. Tice, who cowrote the screenplay with Zachary Beckler, does an admirable job of focusing on more realistic depictions of DID rather than just presenting the sensational, though naturally any horror or thriller film attempting to tackle mental issues walks a fine line. The third act packs a highly disturbing, harrowing wallop that reveals the reason for Genevieve’s trauma. Tice, who worked with a microbudget, does fine work that belies the film’s meager budget, including digital wizardry, quick
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Director Lindsay Anderson Beer’s Pet Semetary: Bloodlines takes a portion of Stephen King’s novel Pet Semetary and expands it into a feature-length film, resulting in a gory, dread-filled prequel to the book and preceding film adaptations. In 1969, teenaged Jud Crandall (Jackson White) is set to be the first of his family line to leave Ludlow, Maine since the town was founded. He and his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) are about to leave for Peace Corps duty when she is attacked by the dog belonging to Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern), one of Jud’s childhood friends, who has just returned from active duty in Vietnam and whose father Bill (David Duchovny) tries to keep visitors away from the increasingly disturbing Timmy. The attack hospitalizes Norma, keeping the couple in Ludlow longer than they planned, and naturally violent events involving the titular burial grounds occur. Manny (Forrest Goodluck), another longtime friend of Jud’s and Timmy’s, and his sister Donna (Isabella Star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival has a bounty of fear-fare shorts from around the globe on tap. Here is a look at four of the selections that run less than 10 minutes each. Stop Dead (United Kingdom, 2023) Director Emily Greenwood, working from a screenplay by David Scullion, has crafted a highly atmospheric short that sets up an intriguing premise worthy of a feature-length treatment. Police officers Samantha Hall (Sarah Soetaert) and partner Nick Thompson (David Ricardo-Pearce) are stuck on a country road at nighttime because of a flat tire. A young woman (Priya Blackburn) suddenly appears, refusing to heed Hall’s order to stop, telling the officers that if you stop, you die. This supernatural shocker boasts solid production values, good performances, taut direction, and some fast-paced editing that helps the world building and ratchets up the suspense. Merger (United Kingdom, 2022) Working late in a dark office is rarely a good thing to do, but in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
STRANGE DARLING (2023) Do yourself an immense favor and learn nothing more about the plot of writer/director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling than what I am about to tell you. This film absolutely requires being gone into as cold as possible for maximum effect. The film opens with a preamble about a serial killer’s path through the United States, and then cuts to a coke-snorting man (Kyle Gallner) in a pickup truck chasing down a bloodied woman (Willa Fitzgerald) in a Ford Pinto. She totals the car and runs into the woods, with the rifle-toting man following in pursuit. Mollner takes the concepts of a cat-and-mouse thriller and first-date-gone-wrong horror and over the course of six nonlinear chapters, toys with viewer expectations to mind-blowing effect. The film is beautifully shot by actor Giovanni Ribisi in his debut as a director of photography, with several scenes depending on pure, dialogue-free cinema, which he pulls off swimmingly. Fitzgerald and Gallner are both magnificent
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Writer/director Nicholas Tomnay’s What You Wish For caught me off guard several times, and for best results, I recommend going as cold as possible into this horror feature that also serves up social commentary. I certainly won’t spoil any of its intrigue here. Ryan (Nick Stahl), deep in debt to the wrong kind of people to whom to owe large amounts of money, flies to rural Latin America to meet his friend and roommate from their culinary school days, Jack (Brian Groh), after not seeing each other for 12 years. Jack is currently seemingly living the high life as a private chef, being flown from one country to another by his bosses and given lavish places to live as he prepares event dinners for high-end clients. Although Ryan envies Jack’s extravagant lifestyle — including his bank balance, at which Ryan gets a peek — Jack seems to be in a rather gloomy state of mind, and when events lead to
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNewsShort FilmsThriller
The 14th edition of Austria’s superb SLASH Filmfestival is underway! From September 21 through October 1, this renowned fest screens a selection of incredible short films from around the globe along with its fine feature films. From the terrifying to the hilarious, the SLASH Filmfestival shorts programs are a highlight of the fest. Following is the official press announcement. For more information including a full listing of films scheduled, visit https://slashfilmfestival.com/en/. The programs Five carefully curated programs and various shorts before features bring a total of 48 short films from all corners of the world to Vienna. With over 34 World, International, European or Austrian premieres, the 14th edition of SLASH Filmfestival has its largest short-film lineup ever and sees the festival take new initiatives to celebrate the short form in its own right. In addition to program mainstays Fantastic Shorts Competition Chapters 1 and 2, SLASH is delighted to bring back “My First SLASH” to continue guiding young viewers
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNews
Columbus, Ohio’s Nightmares Film Festival returns this year from October 26–29 and it has something for fear-fare fanatics and genre-film aficionados of every stripe. Boasting 17 feature films and more than 150 short films, along with exciting live experiences, the fest is a can’t-miss experience. Monsters (Cryptids; The Deep Dark) murderers (Departing Seniors; Santa Isn’t Real) and mirth (How to Kill Monsters) abound! Following is the official press announcement. Nightmares Film Festival, FilmFreeway’s #1-ranked genre fest, today revealed its 2023 program of #BetterHorror. In its eighth year, the fest is building even more community beyond the screen with the addition of live experiences to its heralded #BetterHorror film and screenplay slate. The four-day Nightmare program once again delivers a must-see lineup collected from new and beloved genre voices around the world, with highlights including the boundary-smashing queer coming-of-age midnighter The People’s Joker, notoriously pulled from TIFF; the world premiere of Zac Locke’s (#Float) psychological Christmas horror Santa Isn’t Real; the
Continue reading →
