Starring: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay

New York premiere

Suffering a brutal homophobic attack outside of the club where he performs, Jules gives up his drag queen stage show and social life. Finally emerging back into the world, he encounters his attacker (George MacKay, 1917) in a gay sauna and sets out on a complicated road to revenge. Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s propulsive thriller is a downright ferocious feature directorial debut. —Joseph Hernandez

Starring: Keiko Takahashi, Daijiro Tsutsumi, Shiro Shimomoto

New York premiere

Smitten with a lonely housewife, a slighted psycho salesman terrorizes her and her young son in this outrageous home invasion classic with an explosive third act that truly needs to be experienced. Produced by the legendary Japanese indie collective, Director’s Company, and even spawned a later sequel directed by the great Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Unreleased outside of Japan until now, this undiscovered gem celebrating its 35th anniversary is now fully remastered and ready to have some respect put on its name. —Joseph Hernandez

Starring: Rigo Garay, Ella Rae Peck, John Speredakos, Lorraine Farris

New York premiere

Shane and Leah are both in the publishing world, but that seems to be the one thing they have in common. Shortly after they arrive at their already fraught honeymoon at a [naturally] isolated cabin in the woods, they receive an unexpected visit from a self-described inventor and his blowsy wife who arrive with a hackneyed blackmail plan. Both funny and foreboding, the film builds a keen sense of dread that has a considerable payoff.

A Glass Eye Pix production, Crumb Catcher is the feature debut from director Chris Skotchdopole, a frequent Larry Fessenden collaborator; Skotchdopole co-wrote with Fessenden and star Rigo Garay. – Caitlin Hughes

Starring: Elina Löwensohn, Christa Theret, Julia Riedler, Claire Duburcq, Sandra Parfait, Agata Buzek, Nathalie Richard, Françoise Brion, Audrey Bonnet, Christophe Bier

New York premiere

For Brooklyn Horror, a new Bertrand Mandico film is a legit event our fandom traces back to showing his singularly audacious and visually extravagant films Apocalypse After and After Blue (Dirty Paradise) in 2019 and 2021, respectively. And with the unclassifiable She is Conann, the French filmmaker is back in even wilder fashion.

Loosely riffing on the Conan the Barbarian myth with a gender reversal remix, this omnibus-like oddity follows the title character, played by multiple different actresses, from the stone age to 1980s New York City, each new iteration giving Mandico a chance to play with his eye-popping visual skills. The cumulative experience is truly one of a kind. —Matt Barone

Starring: Nate Wise, April Consalo, Clay Von Carlowitz, Madeleine Ours, Diana Cooper, Katheryn Whistler, Myles Linzey, Bradford Thomas

World premiere

Shy and looking for love, Mark quickly becomes smitten with the outgoing and mysterious Ash, who somehow, much to his surprise, reciprocates the attraction. But as his feelings for her intensify, so does his unexpected submersion into Ash’s biggest love: the wild world of mukbanging. And with it, lots of bloodshed.

Delving into a fascinating subculture while never losing focus on her characters, first-timer Aimee Kuge delivers a raucous and bold horror-comedy seeped in romance and gore. —Matt Barone

Starring: Michele Burgers, Jamie-Lee Money, Sven Ruygrok

World premiere

1901, South Africa. As the Second Anglo-Boer War rages on, a wounded General seeks refuge in the small home of a woman and her young daughter. As the hurt man settles in, he begins noticing that something is off about the two women, particularly the daughter, and before long, he’ll learn the real reason for why they’ve invited him and for how they’ve survived on their own for so long.

Adapting the beloved South African play of the same name, Jaco Bouwer (Gaia) delivers a tense single-location chamber piece that steadily ratchets up the tension en route to revealing its ultimate chilling endgame. —Matt Barone

Starring: Grace Glowicki, Garrick Bernard, Marcia DeBonis, Heather Matarazzo, Sofia Dobrushin, David Rysdahl, Richard Perez, Jordan Carlos

U.S. premiere

In her debut feature, Mary Dauterman explores how grief can manifest in the most unlikely ways with Booger. Anna (Grace Glowicki, Strawberry Mansion) has lost her roommate and her cat Booger after it bites her, then jumps out the window. As she starts to slowly withdraw from those around her, she enters into her own world of grieving as her mind, body, and behavior morph into an animalistic way to process the world around her. If touching body horror is a thing, then Booger is it. -Caryn Coleman

Starring: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, John Speredakos, Michael Buscemi, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, Marshall Bell

NYC premiere

Tortured artist Charley (Alex Hurt) tries to numb the pain of his past with booze. As a string of grisly murders rocks his small town, he comes to the realization that he might be the culprit. After nights of heavy drinking, he finds unexplained gore—and manifests gruesome memory flashes through his artwork.

Blackout is the third in Fessenden’s artful take on the classic Universal Monsters, following Habit and Depraved. This film continues his theme of critiquing the monster inside all people and with beautiful practical effects to boot. —Caitlin Hughes

Starring: Olsen Fouéré, Gary Whelan, Nigel O’Neill, Simone Collins, Charlie Maher

East Coast premiere

As part of a secret society dedicated to the belief that modern alchemy can be uncovered through old folk songs, a young couple unwittingly enters a world of supernatural danger and otherworldly powers after they listen to the wrong song sung by the wrong person.

With its disorienting energy and fresh spin on Irish folk horror, writer-director Paul Duane’s first feature instantly casts a hypnotic and unsettling spell over you and never loosens its grip, leading to an unhinged finale that’s unlike anything else out there. —Matt Barone

Warning: Images are not from the movies we’re showing. Trust us, you can’t imagine what we’re showing!

To celebrate the spooky season, Sundays on Fire presents a Grimm Confucian fairy tale, set in a haunted forest full of wolves with glowing eyes and dead beauties flitting through the treetops. This action-horror movie so iconic, so award-winning, and so groundbreaking that its images feel like they’re being branded onto your brain.

Starring one of cinema’s greatest onscreen couples (one of whom happens to be a ghost), this funny, earthy romance feels like nothing you’ve ever seen before. We won’t tell you the title until it appears onscreen, and there’s nothing about this movie that isn’t fun. Visually gorgeous, totally lunatic, even taking a time-out for a musical number based on a Taoist sutra, it’s also anchored by a strong undercurrent of melancholy.