By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
The Salem Horror Fest comes screaming back to New England’s witchiest city in just over a week, and ahead of the festivities, the event’s organizers have shared this year’s jury prize winners exclusively with RUE MORGUE. The top filmmakers of 2025 represent a diverse group of talent, and as RM is a fiercely Canadian publication, we are proud to say that two of the three directors are from The Great White North!
The Rebrand takes Salem Horror Fest’s best feature jury honors. Written and directed by Montreal-based trans lesbian filmmaker Kaye Adelaide. The Rebrand is a found footage thriller/comedy exploring the dark side of online culture. Naomi Silver-Vézina stars as Nicole, a cash-strapped and eight-months pregnant videographer hired by queer infleuncer couple Blaire and Thistle (Andi E McQueen and Nancy Webb) to repair their reputation after being publicly canceled. However, Nicole soon learns her clients’ motives may not be so pure.
An award-winning director of such short films as Don’t Text Back (2020) and MonsterDyke (2022), Kaye Adelaide is an alumnus of GEMS Genre Film Lab and a recipient of The Diversity of Voices Initiative at the BANFF World Media Festival and the SODEC Jeunes Createurs Development Program. The Rebrand is her first feature.
New Hampshire filmmaker Conor Soucy’s supernatural shocker The Conduit takes Salem Horror Fest’s jury award for best interlude (films with a runtime of 15 minutes to 1 hour). Ethan Walker, Hester Wilkinson and Bob Higgins star in this dark tale of a grieving father who faces a sinister force after hiring a shadowy company to contact his dead son.
A founder of the production company Howlin Hounds Pictures, Conor Soucy is best known for his debut feature Dead Whisper, which was released theatrically by Vertical Entertainment in 2024.
Proving terror comes in small black-and-white packages, Bedlamer, an atmospheric folk horror film written and directed by Vancouver’s Alexa Jane Jerrett, wins the jury award for best short. From the official synopsis: “On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men, capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant to be tamed.” Rhiannon Morgan, Gracyn Rowe and Marin Rowe star.
Alexa Jane Jarrett’s original script for Bedlamer won the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts & Letters Awards Senior Dramatic Script Division in 2023.
Salem Horror Fest 8 runs from April 30 through May 4. For tickets and more information, click here.
