Starring: Chris Galust, Laura Benanti, Dylan McTee, Mariel Molino, Germain Arroyo, Brendan Sexton III, Manny Dunn, Charlotte Stickles
World premiere
A malevolent entity that once plagued his older brother is now tormenting Ryan. Already hurting from the tragic loss of their patriarch, the grieving Beckman family must fight like hell to discover the root of this corrosive evil and put an end to a cycle of suffering.
An outstanding debut that does for mental illness what Relic did for dementia, Tyler Chipman’s The Shade gives tangible shape to the darkness that so many suffer from in silence. —Joseph Hernandez
Starring: Mena Massoud, Olivia Scott Welch, Chloe Levine, Gus Kenworthy, Madison Baines, Derek Johns, Laurent Pitre, Georgia Acken
New York premiere
Jenn Wexler gets into the home invasion holiday horror spirit with her sophomore feature film set in the 1970s, The Sacrifice Game. It’s Christamastime at the Blackvale School for Girls and everyone has gone home except for students Samantha and Clara and their teacher Miss Tanner. All are prepared for an uneventful Christmas with their teacher, Rose, at their deserted school when supernatural evil knocks on the door. Like her first feature, The Ranger, Wexler gives revelations in the power of teen girls but in The Sacrifice Game there’s more at play than just the evils of humans. Expect a good old bloody Christmas story…with a demon.
Compelled to follow the trial of a serial killer and the gruesome murders of three little girls, the captivatingly enigmatic Kelly-Anne conducts her own covert search for a crucial piece of missing evidence needed to indict him—a snuff video of one of the victims—recklessly putting her own life and sanity at risk.
A pitch black and stylish blend of unsettling courtroom drama and disturbing cyber-thriller that will rattle you to the bone. Jury award winner of best feature, screenplay, score and performance at Fantasia International Film Festival. —Joseph Hernandez
Starring: Malu Galli, Zuleika Ferreira, Tavinho Teixeira, Samuel Santos, Edilson Silva
New York premiere
On the verge of losing their only source of work and shelter, tensions erupt as a community of exploited farmhands wage bloody rebellion against their employers. Taking the landowner hostage and forcing his wife to blockade herself in their armored smart car, a violent battle of wills ensues in a brilliantly staged depiction of real-world class warfare. Make no mistake, this politically charged survival horror with a body count is as savage and bleak as they come. —Joseph Hernandez
Starring: Masao Inoue, Yoshie Nakagawa, Ayako Iijima
Right up there with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Teinosuke Kinugasa’s fascinating 1926 masterwork A Page of Madness is one of the silent film era’s most distinctive horror films. Long lost and unseen, the film, in which a newly hired janitor in a mental hospital is put through a hallucinogenic and mentally disturbed ringer, is more than worthy of a new fandom. Brooklyn Horror is proud to present a special screening accompanied by a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance. —Matt Barone
Starring: Sidney Flanigan, Frederick Weller, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Ropp, Darius Fraser, Lachlan Watson, Jon Gries
New York premiere
Brea (Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always) regales her tale of a rare coin heist that went horribly sideways to a local sheriff who suspects there’s a lot more to her survival than she’s letting on. Only the Good Survive is a refreshingly unpredictable genre mash-up, skillfully walking a tonal tightrope between comedy, horror and heist film with vibrant abandon. —Joseph Hernandez
For truly scary filmmaking, look no further than this yearly dose of terrifying shorts, with 2023’s batch including new spins on folk horror, home invasions, and Christine-like automotive horror.
Stop Dead, dir. Emily Greenwood (UK)
A Whim to Kill, dir. Tiange Xiang (China)
Leech, dir. George Coley (UK)
Mosquito Lady, dir. Kristine Gerolaga (USA)
Alicia, dir. Tony Morales (Spain)
Ride Baby Ride, dir. Sofie Somoroff (USA)
I Wanna See, dir. Max Friedman (USA)
The Wyrm of Bwlch Pen Barras, dir. Craig Williams (UK)
The Queue, dir. Michael Rich (USA)
My Scary Indian Wedding, dir. Ramone Menon (USA)
Starring: Lily Sullivan
New York premiere
With her career on the ropes, a journalist (Lily Sullivan, Evil Dead Rise) starts up an investigative podcast and happens upon a bizarre mystery involving a black brick destroying the lives of any who come across it. The deeper she digs into this artifact, the more disturbing the discoveries become. Then a package arrives on her doorstep. Contained to a single location and one on-screen actor, this fantastically creepy sci-fi thriller proves Sullivan is one of the most exciting new talents around. —Joseph Hernandez
