By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Terror of all kinds from all over the world will be on view at New York City’s top fright showcase.
The 2023 edition of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival will take place October 12-19 at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. In addition to the long lineup of movies, the fest will host a number of events, including the presentation of the inaugural Leviathan Award to veteran horror director William Lustig at a 35th-anniversary screening of the original MANIAC COP. The new features to be screened are:
KILL YOUR LOVER (pictured)
Opening Night Film; World Premiere
UK | 2023 | 77 Min. | Dir. Alix Austin, Keir Siewert
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.
RED ROOMS
Centerpiece Film; East Coast Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 118 Min. | Dir. Pascal Plante
A serial killer is put on trial for the gruesome murders of three little girls while an enigmatic stranger searches for the missing snuff video needed to indict him.
THE SACRIFICE GAME
Closing Night Film; East Coast Premiere
USA | 2023 | 97 Min. | Dir. Jenn Wexler
Yuletide terror invades a Catholic school as two teenagers spend the holidays with their teacher.
ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH
East Coast Premiere
Ireland | 2023 | 91 Min. | Dir. Paul Duane
A secret organization seeking out obscure songs unleashes a series of supernatural events when they come across the wrong tune in this uniquely creepy work of Irish folk horror.
BLACKOUT
NYC Premiere
USA | 2023 | 103 Min. | Dir. Larry Fessenden
After a string of grisly murders rocks his small town, tortured artist Charley (Alex Hurt) starts to suspect that he transforms into a werewolf during his frequent drinking binges.
BOOGER
U.S. Premiere
USA | 2023 | 78 Min. | Dir. Mary Dauterman
A woman undergoes a strange transformation following the sudden death of her roommate and best friend.
BREATHING IN
World Premiere
South Africa | 2023 | 105 Min. | Dir. Jaco Bouwer
GAIA director Jaco Bouwer returns with a moody, quietly unsettling chamber piece, adapted from a South African play, in which a wounded general at the turn of the 20th century looks for help inside the wrong home.
CANNIBAL MUKBANG
World Premiere
USA | 2023 | 100 Min. | Dir. Aimee Kuge
An introverted nerd finds himself dangerously deep inside the crazy world of mukbanging after he falls head over heels for a mysterious woman.
CONANN
NY Premiere
Belgium/France/Luxembourg | 2023 | 105 Min. | Dir. Bertrand Mandico
Genre cinema’s incomparable auteur Bertrand Mandico returns to Brooklyn Horror with his craziest work yet, a time-jumping and visually wild riff on the Conan the Barbarian story.
CRUMB CATCHER
NYC Premiere
USA | 2023 | 105 Min. | Dir. Chris Skotchdopole
Shane and Leah’s already fraught honeymoon takes quite the turn for the worse when they are bombarded with an unexpected visit from an ill-intentioned inventor and his wife.
FEMME
NY Premiere
UK | 2023 | 99 Min. | Dir. Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
After suffering a brutal homophobic attack, drag queen Jules emerges back on the scene in this propulsive and ferocious revenge thriller, co-starring George MacKay (1917).
THE J-HORROR VIRUS
North American Premiere
UK | 2023 | 95 Min. | Dir. Sarah Appleton, Jasper Sharp
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.
MONOLITH
NY Premiere
Australia | 2022 | 94 Min. | Dir. Matt Vesely
With her career on the ropes, a journalist (Lily Sullivan, EVIL DEAD RISE) happens upon a disturbing mystery involving a black brick destroying the lives of those who come across it.
ONLY THE GOOD SURVIVE
NYC Premiere
USA | 2023 | 92 Min. | Dir. Dutch Southern
A burglary gone horribly sideways leaves one survivor to tell the tale in this refreshingly unpredictable and vibrant genre mash-up of horror, comedy and heist film.
PROPERTY
NY Premiere
Brazil | 2023 | 101 Min. | Dir. Daniel Bandeire
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.
SATAN WANTS YOU
NY Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 88 Min. | Dir. Steve J. Adams, Sean Horlor
The shocking true story of how one book released in 1980 sowed the seeds for an unimaginable fear and sparked the Satanic Panic.
THE SHADE
World Premiere
USA | 2023 | 132 Min. | Dir. Tyler Chipman
Following the tragic loss of their patriarch, the Beckman family must fight like hell against a corrosive malevolent entity and put an end to a cycle of suffering.
SLEEP
NY Premiere
South Korea | 2023 | 95 Min. | Dir. Jason Yu
Increasingly disturbing sleepwalking behavior puts a pregnant wife and her loving husband at hellish odds when his nocturnal affliction threatens their unborn child.
SO UNREAL
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2023 | 95 Min. | Dir. Amanda Kramer
Transgressive narrative filmmaker Amanda Kramer switches to documentary for this fascinating and comprehensive look back at the age of cyber cinema, narrated by Debbie Harry.
STOPMOTION
East Coast Premiere
UK | 2023 | 93 Min. | Dir. Robert Morgan
With its powerful blend of haunting stop-motion animation and devastating woman-on-the-edge storytelling, short film veteran Robert Morgan’s feature debut follows a young animator who’s losing her mind and succumbing to homicidal urges.
T BLOCKERS
Australia | 2023 | 74 Min. | Dir. Alice Maio Mackay
Transphobia spreads as a parasitic infection in a small Australian town in which two filmmakers lead the fight against this pervasive, and ever-present, enemy.
TIGER STRIPES
Malaysia/Taiwan/France/Germany/Netherlands/Indonesia | 2023 | 95 Min. | Dir. Amanda Nell Eu
The confusion from her first period leads to a 12-year-old girl’s transformation into something monstrous in this creative and lively coming-of-age horror fairy tale.
VINCENT MUST DIE
East Coast Premiere
France | 2023 | 108 Min. | Dir. Stephan Castang
Vincent is an unassuming man whose life is drastically altered when people start to violently attack him for no apparent reason.
WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS
NY Premiere
USA | 2023 | 93 Min. | Dir. Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, John Adams
A murderous family of sideshow performers happen upon the key to eternal life, which boosts their act…but naturally has gruesome consequences.
WILDER THAN HER
NYC Premiere
USA | 2023 | 88 Min. | Dir. Jessica Kozak
A reunion camping trip for three friends, following the death of their bestie, leads to an entertaining and subtly unnerving examination of dysfunctional relationships and unspoken resentments.
There will also be a Fear In Focus: Japan sidebar, presented by Arrow Video, with a screening of the 1926 silent film A PAGE OF MADNESS (with a live original score by The Flushing Remonstrance), a 35th-anniversary showing of the forgotten 1988 home-invasion shocker DOOR and a 25th-anniversary screening of Hideo Nakata’s classic RINGU, along with a session from the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies with Professor Sigmund Shen exploring classic Japanese genre cinema as allegories. Staff Picks will introduce or reacquaint audiences with past gems including Gerald Kargl’s ANGST (40th anniversary), the aforementioned MANIAC COP, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz’s MESSIAH OF EVIL (50th anniversary) and Sergio Martino’s TORSO (50th anniversary). There will also be several short film blocks, a live Certified Forgotten podcast with Matt Donato and Matt Monagle exploring obscure cinema and (full disclosure) a Final Exam live horror trivia event hosted by filmmaker Ted Geoghegan (BROOKLYN 45) and yours truly. More details can be found at the festival’s official website, where badges and multi-ticket packages are now on sale; individual tickets will be available this Friday at 12 noon EST.
