By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The 10th annual event showcases a number of highly anticipated fright films.
The first wave of films has been announced for the 2026 Overlook Film Festival, which takes place Thursday, Sunday, April 9-12 at New Orleans’ Prytania Theaters. Among the highlights is the world premiere of TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL, in which writer/director Larry Fessenden unites the creatures from his previous HABIT, DEPRAVED and BLACKOUT. The opening-night film is Curry Barker’s OBSESSION, the Centerpiece showing is Adrian Chiarella’s LEVITICUS and the Closing Night screening is Damian McCarthy’s HOKUM. The festivities begin with the horror-themed Second Line Parade through the streets of New Orleans, presented by Shudder, and legendary makeup artist Rick Baker will be given the Master of Horror Award. The complete first lineup of features is:
Opening Night Film
OBSESSION
Director: Curry Barker
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
United States, 2025
Hopelessly paralyzed by his unrequited crush on one of his closest friends, a lovelorn 20-something makes a wish on a mysterious novelty toy, only to find out that his dreams are far worse than any nightmare he could imagine in this bone-chilling relationship horror.
Centerpiece Film
LEVITICUS
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie
Australia, 2026
Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most—each other.
Closing Night Film
HOKUM
Director: Damian McCarthy
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Sioux C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle
United States, Ireland, 2026
When novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance force him to confront dark corners of his past.
Feature Film Presentations
International Titles Presented by MUBI
BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL
Director: David Kittredge
Featuring: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante
United States, 2025
Hot off the success of his genre defining film, DELIVERANCE, John Boorman takes on his biggest challenge yet—a sequel to one of the most successful horror movies in history, THE EXORCIST. What could go wrong? This insightful documentary delves deep into the making of one of the biggest bombs in horror history.
CHILI FINGER
Directors: Edd Benda, Stephen Helstad
Cast: Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman, Sara Sevigny, Dann Florek
United States, 2025
When a down-on-their-luck couple find a gruesome surprise at their favorite fast food chain, they hatch a simple blackmail plot that quickly spins their lives out of control in this bloody, Coen Brothers-esque thriller featuring an all-star cast.
DRAG
Directors: Raviv Ullman, Greg Yagolnitzer
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Christine Ko
United States, 2025
Two sisters. One empty house. A simple burglary plan. If only one of them didn’t throw their back out… Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer’s hilarious and twisty horror comedy is a ticking-clock crawl to survival as the sibling duo must find a way out or face the dangers of being caught when the owner returns home.
EXIT 8
Director: Genki Kawamura
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu
Japan, 2026
Based on the global hit video game, a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?
FACES OF DEATH
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Cast: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Charli XCX
United States, 2026
A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film. Starring Barbie Ferreira, this New Orleans-shot slasher is a thrilling twist on the modern remake.
GOODY GOODY
World Premiere
Director: Raymond Creamer
Cast: Colleen Foy, Samantha Robinson, Zoe Renee, Colby Hollman
United States, 2026
Lulled into a necessary sense of comfort during a long home birth process, expecting parents and their midwife begin to realize that something may be horribly wrong. As labor complications ensue, a blizzard rages outside trapping the family in their home—sitting ducks for whatever sinister presence might be in there with them.
THE HOLY BOY
Director: Paolo Strippoli
Cast: Michele Riondino, Giulio Feltri
Italy, 2026
Deep in the Italian mountains lives a village of some of the happiest people on earth. Their serenity is about to be broken by the arrival of the new PE teacher who is haunted by his past and determined to uncover the secret of how all of the townspeople are healed weekly by the touch of a 15-year-old boy with special powers.
NEVER AFTER DARK
Director: Dave Boyle
Cast: Moeka Hoshi, Kento Kaku, Kurumi Inagaki, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Bokuzo Masana, Tae Kimura
Japan, 2025
A medium for hire, assisted by the spirit of her deceased sister, takes on the case of a grotesque apparition that haunts an isolated country home. As she peels back the layers of the spine-tingling investigation, she realizes that the greatest threats don’t lie in the world of the dead, but rather in with the living people around her.
NEW GROUP
Directors: Yûta Shimotsu
Cast: Yuzu Aoki, Pierre Taki
Japan, 2026
From the director of the Overlook 2025 winner for Scariest Feature, BEST WISHES TO ALL, comes a terrifying new vision of youth, conformity, and authoritarianism as the students inside a modern high school are violently forced to become part of increasingly disturbing, physically demanding and surreal tasks in order to assimilate.
PARASOMNIA
Directors: James Ross II
Cast: Jasmine Mathews, RJ Brown, Sally Stewart, Stephen Barrington, Danny Brown, Simon Longnight
United States, 2025
When one of her closest friends goes missing, Riley, a young woman haunted by a lifelong battle with debilitating night terrors, must come to terms with the fact that the demonic entity that’s been stalking her dreams since childhood may have followed her home into the real world.
SACCHARINE
Director: Natalie Erika James
Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden
Australia, 2026
Looking for a quick weight loss fix, a medical student accepts a mysterious drug, setting her off on a path of unwanted transformation in this goopy, sickening, violent body-horror from the director of RELIC.
TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
World Premiere
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter, Micheál Neeson, Rigo Garay, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Barbara Crampton, Joshua Leonard, James Le Gros
United States, 2026
An aspiring author gets more than she bargained for when she writes an article for the local paper about her small town’s dark history, prompting unwanted speculation on what monsters may lie within. Overlook mainstay Larry Fessenden returns with the thrilling conclusion to his quadrilogy, a thoughtful and fiercely independent monster mash that can be enjoyed on its own or marathoned with his three origin stories—HABIT, DEPRAVED and BLACKOUT.
UGLY CRY
Director: Emily Robinson
Cast: Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Domínguez, Robin Tunney, Andrew Leeds, Heather Morris, Chalia La Tour, Ray Abruzzo, Sophie Von Haselberg, Josh Ruben, and Melinda McGraw
United States, 2026
An actor’s desperate determination to break in Hollywood leads her down a frightening spiral of obsession, delusion and augmentation in this darkly comedic, REPULSION-esque thriller from first time writer-director and star Emily Robinson.
Retrospective Film Presentations
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
45th Anniversary Screening
2026 Master of Horror Award Recipient Rick Baker in Person
Director: John Landis
Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine
United States, 1981
Beware the moon! Witness the most monstrous of monster transformations, one that cemented Rick Baker’s legacy and earned him his first Academy Award, unfurl on the big screen before your very eyes. Chosen by our 2026 Master of Horror recipient Rick Baker, the screening will precede a conversation with the legend himself.
BLACKOUT
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, John Speredakos, Michael Buscemi, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton,
James Le Gros, Marshall Bell
United States, 2023
Not your typical werewolf story, BLACKOUT follows a painter, haunted by guilt, who becomes convinced that he is transforming at night and wreaking havoc in his small town in the third of Larry Fessenden’s four-part monsterverse series.
DEPRAVED
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: David Call, Joshua Leonard, Alex Breaux, Ana Kayne, Maria Dizzia, Chloë Levine
United States, 2019
The second in Larry Fessenden’s genre-bending four-movie monsterverse is a millennial take on the Frankenstein myth in which a PTSD-riddled field surgeon deep in the heart of Brooklyn decides to reconstruct an unsuspecting man out of spare body parts.
HABIT
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Aaron Beall
United States, 1995
Indie icon Larry Fessenden’s first feature, about an alcoholic New Yorker who falls for a mysterious woman with vampiric qualities, is as groundbreaking now as it was when it debuted over 20 years ago, inspiring generations of young horror filmmakers to this day.
A PAGE OF MADNESS
100th Anniversary Screening with Live Score Composed by Jeff Pagano
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Cast: Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa
Japan, 1926
A completely original avant-garde masterpiece once thought lost to time for 45 years, Japan’s first-ever horror film simply must be seen. A rarity in sight and sound, this work of art will be presented with an original composition from Nola’s own Jeff Pagano (Marigny Opera House) and performed by a six-piece orchestra handpicked by the maestro.
There will also be short film blocks, immersive experiences and more. For more info and to order passes, head over to the Overlook’s official website.
