Your one-stop shop for the best in local genre shorts, this annual program is an ever-impressive showcase for the boundless talent and twisted imaginations of NYC filmmakers.

Florence in Customer Care, dir. Jordan Sommerlad, Corey Stonebrook
hArmless, dir. Elizabeth Cappuccino
Beneath Cracked Pavement, dir. Marcus Fahey
All Your Women Things, dir. Madison Bloom
Mercury, dir. Clara Dubau
Rejoice in the Lamb, dir. Will Carington, Courtney Bush, Jake Goicoechea
Ties, dir. Esteban Bailey

Back to annihilate your senses with all things creepy, psychological, soul crushing and satirical, these shorts play all over the horror sandbox to really screw you up.

Oddities, dir. Tyler Savage
Catching Spirits, dir. Vanessa Beletic
Every House is Haunted, dir. Bryce McGuire
I Could Just Die, and That Would Be All Right, dir. A.K. Espada
Pruning, dir. Lola Blanc
The Influencer, dir. Lael Rogers
Meadowville, dir. Phillip Clark Davis

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