Horrors from New York to overseas and documentaries on fear favorites are part of the programming.
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival team have unveiled their full roster of features for the 2026 edition, which runs October 15-22 at the Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg. The Opening Night film is Nicky Murphy’s award-winning vampire mock-doc I LOVE PARIS (pictured above, and reviewed here), to be followed by an Opening Night Party presented by Dark Sky Films. There will also be short films, special events (including the presentation of the Leviathan Award to the Adams Family, creators of HELLBENDER, MOTHER OF FLIES and more) and other parties. Festival badges are now on sale here, and a limited number of individual tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET.; for more info on the fest, click here. The complete lineup of features, which includes new movies and revivals, is as follows:
I LOVE PARIS
Opening Night Film, Presented by MUBI
Australia, France | 2026 | 120 Min. | Dir. Nicky Murphy
Aspiring underground singer Paris is bitten and turned into a vampire but, instead of letting her dreams of music stardom die, her hustle only goes harder and bloodier.
SPECIES (SANGUINE)
Centerpiece Film
New York Premiere
France | 2026 | 103 Min. | Dir. Marion Le Corroller
A young intern at a prestigious ER struggles to keep up with the fast-paced environment, and when a strange disease begins appearing in a number of her patients, she starts suffering from her own bodily symptoms.
KICK ON
Closing Night Film
New York Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 91 Min. | Dir. Nick Kozakis
What starts off as a wild night of partying devolves into a brutal fight for survival when four friends cross paths with a mobster’s unhinged son in this gruesome new entry in the single-location siege horror canon.
THE GLORIOUS DEAD
Presented by Arrow Video
Leviathan Award
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 80 Min. | Dir. John Adams, Toby Poser
What should be a typical day in the life of a small-town sheriff quickly turns sinister as people begin to disappear and fleshy creatures begin popping up all around them.
AMERICAN DOLLHOUSE
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 87 Min. | Dir. John Valley
A woman living a drama-riddled life returns to her childhood home for what she hopes can be a clean start but, no thanks to her psychotic and homicidal new neighbor, doesn’t go as planned.
CORPUS
Presented by MUBI
USA | 2026 | 102 Min. | Dir. Corrin Evans
A photographer takes a trip to upstate NY with his longtime friend and unrequited love, but the trip takes a turn when their three mysterious hosts begin to show they have ulterior motives.
THE CYCLE
East Coast Premiere
UK | 2026 | 112 Min. | Dir. Jordan Downey
When her estranged father’s corpse is discovered at a grisly crime scene, Meg is dragged into the investigation to uncover why—when he’s been missing for over three decades.
THE DEN
USA | 2026 | 77 Min. | Dir. Zachary Donohue
While studying the behaviors of webcam users, a sociology student witnesses a murder and becomes the killer’s next target in this early and underrated entry in the “screenlife” horror canon.
ERIE
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 89 Min. | Dir. Alison-Eve Hammersley
Aided by her skeptical older brother, a young girl launches her own investigation into their sister’s mysterious death, connecting it to a string of local suicides whose explanations may or may not be supernatural.
FULL MOON RISING: THE CHARLES BAND STORY
North American Premiere
UK | 2026 | 94 Min. | Sarah Appleton
From his days revolutionizing the home video market to producing classics like FROM BEYOND and RE-ANIMATOR and running the influential Full Moon Features, indie maverick Charles Band’s illustrious career is front and center in this entertaining and inspiring documentary.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE (35mm)
USA | 1993 | 95 Min. | Dir. Rachel Talalay
After he’s killed in a car accident, a serial killer’s soul is uploaded into a computer system, enabling him to find technological ways to try to kill the woman he was targeting before his death.
GODHEAD
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 98 Min. | Dir. Mark H. Rapaport
A pair of oddball, possibly dangerous twins force a priest to make a series of painful and potentially Biblical decisions in this singular blend of pitch-black comedy and surrealist horror. (Reviewed here)
J.D.’S REVENGE (35mm)
USA | 1976 | 95 Min. | Dir. Arthur Marks
Hell-bent on getting some long-overdue revenge, the ghost of a New Orleans gangster inhabits the body of a young black law student in this Blaxploitation horror gem.
LITTLE DOORS
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 77 Min. | Dir. Anthony Oberback
A woman doing her best to survive day to day in an apocalyptic world finds a small door on the side of her body and contemplates opening it to see what’s inside.
MOUNTAIN KING
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 94 Min. | Dir. Gabrielle Christensen
Surprising her boyfriend unannounced at his family home in Scandinavia, Hannah is determined to prove she can be part of the family no matter how increasingly dark their traditions seem to be.
NIGHT AFTER NIGHT
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 86 Min. | Dir. Josh Lobo
When his fellow security guard vanishes, Andy is overwhelmed with paranoia about their enigmatic workplace’s intentions and the disturbing phenomenon kept hidden in the building’s new wing. (Reviewed here)
THE ONLY ONE
World Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 99 Min. | Dir. Michael Shwarz
When her exes are suddenly being murdered one by one, suspicion falls on Zoe and it’s up to her and a ragtag team of old friends to prove her innocence and figure out the identity of the masked Prince Charming killer.
OPI
North American Premiere
Poland | 2026 | 96 Min. | Dir. Marta Giec
Shortly before her 18th birthday, a young woman’s already complicated home life gets upended by the arrival of an aunt and grandmother she’s never met before, triggering her family’s downward spiral into nightmarish folk horror.
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (with live score)
France | 1928 | 81 Min. | Dir. Carl Theodore Dreyer
A towering achievement of the silent-film era, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC equals and oftentimes eclipses the horror of any other masterwork from the 1920s. Live music accompaniment by The Flushing Remonstrance.
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS
USA | 1991 | 103 Min. | Dir. Wes Craven
Two criminals and their teenage accomplice find themselves stuck inside the booby-trap-riddled home of their ghetto neighborhood’s evil landlords in Wes Craven’s massively entertaining marriage of horror-comedy and social commentary.
POSTHUMOUS
East Coast Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 110 Min. | Dir. Josh Tanner
After returning to her childhood home, a troubled woman becomes enamored with VHS birthday tapes left behind by her late mother that gradually reveal a secret family connection to the occult.
ROMA ELASTICA
Presented by MUBI
New York Premiere
France, Italy | 2026 | 107 Min. | Dir. Bertrand Mandico
A struggling French actress travels to Rome to work on a science fiction film which sends her spiraling and threatens to make this the last film she makes.
RUBBERHEAD: THE LIFE & MONSTERS OF STEVE JOHNSON
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 106 Min. | Dir. Nick Taylor
Tracks the spectacular rise and swift fall of practical SFX master Steve Johnson while taking viewers on an impressively candid and revealing overview of the glory days of special effects makeup. (Reviewed here)
SENDER
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 94 Min. | Dir. Russell Goldman
A newly sober woman begins to find a disturbing amount of daily packages she never ordered on her doorstep, setting her off on a paranoid and dizzying investigation to discover her tormentors.
SLAY
East Coast Premiere
Presented by MUBI
USA | 2026 | 89 Min. | Dir. Kyra Elise Gardner
After her friend is brutally murdered, a young social media star heads to a cabin in the woods with friends for what’s meant to be a distracting good time but turns into a bloodbath when a masked killer crashes the party.
SPLIT ROCK
North American Premiere
Canada | 2026 | 98 Min. | Dir. Ryan Glover
A group of geologists discover a strange anomaly in the desert and as they continue their research their thirst for knowledge threatens to put them in grave danger against an ancient horror.
SUNDOWN
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 79 Min. | Dir. Rebekah McKendry
A trio of blood-related women seeking vengeance kidnap a man only to discover that his darkest secret is far worse than what they thought. Screening with: BLOODSUCKERS, dir. Rosie Brear (USA, 10 min.)
TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 118 Min. | Dir. Larry Fessenden
Larry Fessenden’s down-and-dirty, blue-collar universe of Universal-Monster-inspired films (HABIT, DEPRAVED, BLACKOUT) comes to its masterful conclusion in this clash of nightmarish titans set in a small town harboring its own dark past.
TRICK ’R TREAT (35mm) w/SEASON’S GREETINGS
USA | 2007 | 86 Min. | Dir. Michael Dougherty
It’s the ultimate Halloween season event with everyone’s favorite little pumpkin-headed demon, Sam: a special 35mm screening of Michael Dougherty’s classic Samhain-minded omnibus gem TRICK ’R TREAT (2007), preceded by the filmmaker’s handmade animated short that inspired it, SEASON’S GREETINGS (1996), and capped off by a conversation with Dougherty to discuss it all.
WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR
USA | 2021 | 86 Min. | Dir. Jane Schoenbrun
A teen loses her sense of reality as she is drawn into a popular online role-playing game.
Secret Screening
??? | 2026 | > 100 Min. | Dir. ???
Get your best guesses ready, scary movie lovers—Brooklyn Horror is excited to present a mystery film that, trust us, you won’t want to miss! And, sorry, we won’t give any easy-to-solve hints for all of you proud cinema sleuths out there!
