As the Fall movie season picks up, NYC residents prepare for another NYFF installment up at Lincoln Center. But for gorehounds and horror aficionados, there’s another annual festival next month more suitable for their tastes across the river: the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF). Earlier this week, the fest announced the full program for their ninth year. And as per usual, it’s full of buzzy foreign horror films getting their North American premieres, the latest scary movies from US indie filmmakers, and restorations of genre classics. Let’s dive into some highlights from this year’s lineup.
TIFF favorite “Dead Mail” serves as BHFF’s Opening Night film this year, which kicks off the fest at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park on October 17. French horror flick “Animale” gets its East Coast premiere as Centerpiece Film this year. And John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush star in the black comedy “The Rules Of Jenny Pen,” which closes out BHFF on October 24, at Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg.
And in between, there are plenty of other screenings to get excited about. This year’s Leviatihan Award goes to indie horror specialist Larry Fessenden, who will be in attendance, with his modern classic “Habit” being screened in his honor. Festival regular Joe Begos will also be back this year with his latest neon-drenched nightmare, “Jimmy & Stiggs,” which screens on October 18. Sidebars this year include “Fear In Focus: Spain,” which features the North American premieres of “Exorcismo,” a doc about post-Franco horror films, and 35mm screenings of “Vampyres” and “The Blood Spattered Bride.” There’s also a vampire sidebar this year, including a screening of the Spanish version of “Dracula,” featuring a live score by The Flushing Remonstrance, as well as a screening of Abel Ferrara‘s “The Addiction.” Also of note: a 4k restoration screening of the 1971 Aussie thriller “Wake In Fright.”
Of course, there’s even more packed into BHFF’s week-long schedule, like the NYC premiere of the buzzy “Gazer,” a short film showcase, a Miskatonic Institute Of Horror Studies lecture, and even a trivia night. Check out the full schedule and film list below. BHFF 2024 runs October 17-24, with all of the screenings at both Nitehawk Cinema locations in Brooklyn.
DEAD MAIL
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 fiance 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 McRae
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’s 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
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.
Exorcismo
North American Premiere
Spain | 2024 | 122 Min. | Dir. Alberto Sedano
EXORCISMO dives into the post-Franco era of Spanish cinema that saw directors freed from censorship and creating some of the most erotically explicit horror and genre films of all-time.
Vampyres – 50th Anniversary
Spain | 1974 | 87 Min. | Dir. José Ramón Larraz
A pair of ravenous femme vampires creep around the British countryside searching for men to bring back to their creepy mansion where they fuck and feed on them.
The Blood Spattered Bride (35mm)
Spain | 1972 | 100 Min. | Dir. Vicente Aranda
Sexually charged horror doesn’t get much better, or kinkier, than this cult classic about a newly married woman who can’t stand her husband and falls for a beautiful, long-dead lady vampire.
Dracula (Spanish Version w/ Live Score)
United States| 1931| 104 Min. | Dir. George Melford
An unsung gem, Universal’s other 1931 Dracula production receives a long-overdue spotlight at this special screening with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.
Fear in Focus: Spain Shorts Program
Brooklyn Horror is proud to dedicate this year’s Fear in Focus sidebar to the amazing genre films of Spain. This special shorts program of new Spanish frights includes tales of merciless revenge, spine-chilling supernatural terrors and gut-wrenching body horror.
Be Right Back, dir. Lucas Paulino, Gabe Ibáñez; Apotemnofilia, dir. Jano Pita; Nap, dir. Javier Chavanel; The Visitor, dir. Tony Morales; Don’t Talk to Strangers, dir. Imanol Ortiz López; Voyager, dir. Pablo Pagán; Berta, dir. Lucía Forner Segarra
NIGHTMARE FUEL
Sleep no more after witnessing the terror on display in this chilling block of purely scary horror, complete with Ouija board mishaps, techie ghouls, and cult rituals gone awry.
Dream Creep, dir. Carlos A.F. Lopez (USA); Pop, dir. Josh Jones (USA); Agonist, dir. Annie Marie Elliot (USA); Cease to Exist, dir. Taylor Nodrick (Canada); The Awakening, dir. Al Campbell (UK); Taboo, dir. Almog Avidan Antonir (USA); Inked, dir. Kelsey Bollig (USA); Mr. Static, dir. Mike Williamson (USA); Transylvanie, dir. Rodrigue Huart (France)
HEAD TRIP
Brooklyn Horror’s signature celebration of genre-bending horror returns with a fresh crop of short-form innovation, including sexual darkness, animalistic transformations, and coming-of-age supernaturalism.
Evil, I, dir. Vanessa Beletic (USA); Izzy, dir. Yfke van Berckelaer (Netherlands); Poppy’s Saturn, dir. Nicole Tegelaar (Belgium); Calf, dir. Jamie O’Rourke (Ireland); Faces, dir. Blake Simon (USA); Kneading, dir. Lulu Syracuse, Augie Syracuse (USA); Tight, dir. Jessica Barr (USA); Femme, dir. Nina Noël Raaijmakers (Netherlands)
SLAYED: LGBTQ Horror Shorts
Presented by Horror Press
Once again, Brooklyn Horror Fest is back with its Slayed shorts block which focuses on LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and themes. And as always, the selection lives up to the name.
Beach Logs Kill, dir. Haley Z. Boston (USA); Lady Parts, dir. Ariel McCleese (USA); Unsettled, dir. Bella Thorne (USA); Dream Factory, dir. Alex Matraxia (UK); Rat!, dir. Neal Suresh Mulani (USA); Stink, dir. Matias Breuer (USA); Girls, dir. Julien Hosmalin
LAUGH NOW DIE LATER
Presented By Teeth: The Musical
What’s better than being scared? Laughing your ass off at the same time, which you’ll do thanks to this batch of raucous horror-comedies featuring personal trainers, home invasions, and sexual dysfunction.
Cheat Meal, dir. Drew Bierut (USA); The Last Thing She Saw, dir. Anthony Cousins (USA); Mean Ends, dir. Émile Lavoie (Canada); Erection and Destruction, dir. Eddie Mullins (USA); Make Me a Pizza, dir. Talia Shea Levin (USA); Roger is a Serial Killer, dir. Don Swaynos (USA); Hold Up, dir. Ori Guendelman (USA)
HOME INVASION #1
Back like we never left, our annual showcase of NYC local shorts returns with a buffet of genre film goodness.
Red Flag, dir. Malin Barr, Cleo Handler; Be Bad, dir. Lauren Hart; By The Window, dir. Case Avron; Wild Animals, dir. David B Jacobs; I Prefer Monsters, dir. Dylan Brown; Tinkerhell, dir. Noah Sterling; Hammer, dir. Alejandra Parody, Ben Sottak; Stigmata, dir. Ben Gordon; Jump Cut, dir. James Martin Morrison
HOME INVASION #2
Round two of our annual local shorts program, just in case you needed a reminder that NYC genre films are built different.
The Sacrifice, dir. Christopher Werener; VHX, dir. Alisa Stern, Scott Ampleford; Accidental Stars, dir. Emily Bennett; The Retreat, dir. Emmett Kerr-Perkinson; The Shadow Wrangler, dir. Grace Rex; Implied Monsters, dir. Christine Nyland; Strange Creatures, dir. Nicholas Payne Santos; Girl With the Grey Eyes, dir. Kara Grace Miller; Don’t F*ck With Ba, dir. Sally Tran
Final Exam Horror Trivia
Presented by Dark Sky Films
Do you think you know more about horror films than the rest of Gotham? Then it’s time to prove it via five blistering rounds of expert level creepy trivia with hosts Ted Geoghegan (director of WE ARE STILL HERE and Shudder’s BROOKLYN 45) and journalist Michael Gingold (of Fangoria)
