Starring: Paige Gilmour, Shane Quigley Murphy, May Kelly, Chloe Wigmore, Joshua Whincup
World premiere
Dakota has had enough of her unhealthy and toxic relationship with Axel, but the feeling isn’t mutual. As she tries to end things, Axel begins turning into something different, something monstrous.
Both an uncompromising breakup film and a wild new entry into the body horror canon, co-directors Alix Austin and Keir Siewert’s debut feature roars with a punk edge and killer practical effects and soars via dynamite performances from newcomers Paige Gilmour and Shane Quigley-Murphy. —Matt Barone
Starring: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Rie Ino’o, Takashi Shimizu
North American premiere
More than two decades ago, a group of Japanese directors including Hideo Nakata, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takashi Shimizu ushered in a new wave of horror cinema that completely changed the game. Tapping into visceral and subliminal fears inspired by the on-set of a rapid global technological takeover, these are the films that most clearly captured the anxieties of Y2K and created a new scare language that still permeates the genre today. Presented as part of BHFF’s celebration of Japanese horror, Fear in Focus: Japan. —Joseph Hernandez
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
