By MICHAEL GINGOLD
New York City’s best horror-movie showcase has a wide range of screen frights on tap for next month.
The ninth annual Brooklyn Horror Film Festival takes place October 17-24 at the Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations, and includes a Leviathan Award Ceremony honoring local genre mogul Larry Fessenden. The complete lineup of movies is as follows:
DEAD MAIL (reviewed here)
Opening Night Film; New York Premiere
US | 2024 | 106 Min. | Dir. Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy
A blood-stained note arrives at a county post office, leading its experienced “dead letter” mailroom clerk and his associates down a perilous path to discover its origins. Meanwhile, an entrepreneurial synthesizer engineer enters a precarious partnership with an overbearing investor. Perfectly capturing an authentic retro aesthetic, Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s indie horror-synth thriller is a total gem and should launch this directing team into the stratosphere.
ANIMALE
Centerpiece Film; East Coast Premiere
France | 2024 | 98 Min. | Dir. Emma Benestan
As a French town’s annual bull racing competition approaches, a string of grisly murders committed by a wild bull ignites the community into a frenzy.
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN
Closing Night Film; East Coast Premiere
New Zealand | 2024 | 103 Min. | Dir. James Ashcroft
John Lithgow vies for “Best Villain of the Year” honors playing a deranged nursing home resident terrorizing a new fellow resident (played by Geoffrey Rush) in this twisted and mean-spirited gem.
HABIT
Leviathan Award, Presented by Arrow Video
United States | 1995 | 112 Min. | Dir. Larry Fessenden
On a drunken downward spiral following a breakup and the recent death of his father, Sam’s troubles only multiply when he meets the enigmatic Anna who just might be a vampire. This special screening of HABIT will be followed by the Leviathan Award presentation and Q&A w/ Larry Fessenden, moderated by BHFF alum Jenn Wexler.
BIRDEATER
East Coast Premiere
New Zealand | 2023 | 113 Min. | Dir. Jack Clark, Jim Weir
Louie invites his fiancée Irene to join him at his bachelor party, but as alarming details of their relationship emerge, the night free falls into full-on madness.
BLACK EYED SUSAN
NYC Premiere
United States | 2024 | 85 Min. | Dir. Scooter McCrae
In a world increasingly relying on AI technology, one company experiments with BDSM sex dolls to offer to their most violent clients.
BONE LAKE
New York Premiere
United States | 2024 | 94 Min. | Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Hoping to get out of their romantic rut, a couple rents out a scenic cabin, but their plans are disrupted when they find another couple has also rented the same cabin.
CUSTOM
North American Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 76 Min. | Dir. Tiago Teixeira
A couple produce their own erotic films for money, but when they take on a new client they become embroiled in something dark and sinister.
DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY
New York Premiere
Taiwan R.O.C. | 2024 | 106 Min. | Dir. John Hsu
To avoid getting kicked out of the underworld, a ghost joins a small haunting talent agency and sets out to become the scariest urban legend of them all.
THE DEAD THING
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 95 Min. | Dir. Elric Kane
Disillusioned by empty hookups, Alex finally connects with a charismatic guy who seems worth her time, only to learn that he’s harboring a nightmarish secret.
GAZER
NYC Premiere
United States | 2024 | 114 Min. | Dir. Ryan J. Sloan
An ingenious and challenging marriage of noir and horror, this singular feature debut finds a young mother with a time-distorting mental condition forced to pull off a heist to provide for her daughter.
GENERATION TERROR
North American Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 100 Min. | Dir. Phillip Escott, Sarah Appleton
GENERATION TERROR looks at the global effects of the turn of the millennium had on horror and the slew of films it ushered in.
GRAFTED
North American Premiere
New Zealand | 2024 | 96 Min. | Dir. Sasha Rainbow
Body horror gets an extreme, bubblegum-poppy makeover in this funny and gruesome feature debut, in which a college student’s research into skin diseases helps her achieve popularity in the most perverse way imaginable.
HOUSE OF ASHES
World Premiere
United States | 2024 | 95 Min. | Dir. Izzy Lee
While under house arrest, a grieving widow questions whether she’s losing her mind or if she’s the victim of something supernatural after an old friend moves in to help curb her loneliness.
JIMMY & STIGGS
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 80 Min. | Dir. Joe Begos
Trapped in a Los Angeles apartment, two best friends guzzle booze and lay waste to a small army of relentless extraterrestrials in Joe Begos’ latest dose of unadulterated, modern-day grindhouse carnage.
THE LAST SACRIFICE
East Coast Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 92 Min. | Dir. Rupert Russell
Part film history and part true crime documentary, this riveting and unsettling doc examines an infamous 1945 murder in England that inspired your favorite British folk horror films and remains draped in mystery.
LILLY LIVES ALONE
World Premiere
United States | 2024 | 93 Min. | Dir. Martin Melnick
The 10-year anniversary of a tragic accident sends a guilt-ridden woman over the edge, plunging her into a drug- and booze-fueled fever dream of conspiring townsfolk and supernatural terrors.
PSYCHONAUT
World Premiere
Netherlands | 2024 | 87 Min. | Dir. Thijs Meuwese
With the help of a futuristic healing machine, Maxime must traverse into the dark recesses of her dying girlfriend’s mind in order to locate the “essential memory” that could save her life.
RITA
United States Premiere
Guatemala | 2024 | 107 Min. | Dir. Jayro Bustamante
A young girl runs away from her abusive father only to end up in a safe house, where she finds the fantasy and horrors that await her.
SAYARA
East Coast Premiere
Turkey | 2024 | 98 Min. | Dir. Can Evrenol
Brooklyn Horror alum Can Evrenol (HOUSEWIFE, 2017) combines his personal brand of extreme horror with brutal martial arts action in this tale of blood-soaked revenge, following a woman’s mission to avenge her sister’s murder.
SOMNIUM
New York Premiere
United States | 2024 | 92 Min. | Dir. Racheal Cain
Gemma moves to LA in the hopes of making it as an actress, but when she takes a job at a mysterious sleep clinic it has strange effects on her.
THE SOUL EATER
East Coast Premiere
France, Belgium | 2024 | 108 Min. | Dir. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Jump-started by a perplexing murder scene of absolute carnage and a group of missing children, two investigators from different departments are sent down the same dark and unforgiving trail.
TALES FROM THE VOID (Season 1, Episodes 4-6)
World & New York Premieres
United States | 2024 | 79 Min. | Dir. Maritte Lee Go, Francesco Loschiavo, John Adams and Toby Poser
Fans of short-form horror are in for a treat with this trio of episodes from Screambox’s new Reddit-derived anthology series, two of which are BHFF World Premieres and the third directed by indie horror stalwarts John Adams and Toby Poser.
TIMESTALKER
Presented by The Future of Film is Female; New York Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 96 Min. | Dir. Alice Lowe
A karmic journey that sees the hapless heroine Agnes reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man.
WHO’S WATCHING (pictured above)
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 86 Min. | Dir. Tim Kasher
Cursive frontman Tim Kasher delivers an impressively nihilistic directorial debut with this seedy look at a mentally disturbed social misfit who takes his infatuation with a female co-worker to disturbing heights.
WAKE IN FRIGHT (4K Restoration)
East Coast Premiere
Australia | 1971 | 109 Min. | Dir. Ted Kotcheff
A masterwork of pure cinematic madness, Ted Kotcheff’s wild and disturbing WAKE IN FRIGHT, which follows a schoolteacher as he loses his mind amidst drunken Aussie locals, receives a glorious 4K restoration.
THE ADDICTION
United States | 1995 | 82 Min. | Dir. Abel Ferrara
In this ’90s cult classic from New York director Abel Ferrara, a doctoral student becomes a vampire and attempts to adapt to her new lifestyle and thirst for blood.
There will also be a Fear in Focus: Spain section featuring the North American premiere of Alberto Sedano’s documentary EXORCISMO (read more about that one here) and screenings of THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE, VAMPYRES and the alternative 1931 Spanish-language DRACULA; several short film blocks; a Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies special lecture on queer vampire cinema by Dr. Leah Richards; a Certified Forgotten live podcast with Matt Donato and Matt Monagle; and a special edition of Final Exam Horror Trivia, hosted by (full disclosure) yours truly and filmmaker Ted Geoghegan. Festival badges can now be purchased here, and individual tickets go on sale this Friday, September 20 at 12 p.m. ET; hit up the festival’s official website for more info.
