The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival returns to bring the best and most provocative of horror cinema to local screens and we’re thrilled to announce wave one of our program today! Join us October 11th - 18th in venues across Brooklyn as we screen films from around the globe, along with our brand new HEAD TRIP block spotlighting films that push the boundaries and expectations of the horror genre as part of our most expansive and diverse curation yet.
“It’s an amazing time to love horror, with the genre being as diverse and challenging as it’s ever been, and our programming this year exemplifies the best of where the genre is currently at as well as the daring new directions in which it’s heading,” says Matt Barone, BHFF’s senior programmer. “Our mission remains to buck the genre’s conventions with forward-thinking films. Ranging fromKnife + Heart’s modernization of classic slasher vibes toLuz’s reinvention of exorcism tropes, not to mentionTower.A Bright Day’s singular approach to the occult andThe Cannibal Club’s melding of gore and social commentary, our biggest lineup yet represents horror at its boldest.”
This years decadent and deadly poster is designed by New York-based creative duo Kelsey and Rémy Bennett (aka The Bennett Sisters). About the design, the sisters say, “The photo stories we created for the poster design are an ode to the 1970s golden age of horror, inspired particularly by the 1973 Brian De Palma New York set psycho sexually voyerurist exploitation film Sisters, which starred the recently deceased actress Margot Kidder, an icon of 70s slasher genre.”
Yann Gonzalez’s ravishing, Cannes selected slasherKnife + Heartopens and Perry Blackshear’s latest concludes our festival week with his haunting and intimate sophomore featureThe Rusalkaas part of our new Head Trip program!
Knife + Heart(NY Premiere)
France, Mexico, Switzerland | 2018 | 100 Min | Dir. Yann Gonzalez
Known for productions likeAnal FuryandHomocidal, successful gay porn producer Anne (Renowned French actress and model Vanessa Paradis) takes her skin flicks as seriously as the most greatness-minded auteur would his or her own prestige dramas. But Anne isn’t the only one who’s infatuated with her company’s films-one by one, and in an exceedingly brutal fashion, someone is butchering Anne’s actors. As she tracks down the killer, Anne begins recreating the murders as part of an elaborate new project, all while losing track of what’s real, who’s dead, and who’s next on the chopping block.
Shot on 35mm and featuring a killer retro score from M83, Yann Gonzalez’sKnife + Heartis an ultra-stylish and blood-soaked ode to ’70s-era De Palma, Argento, and Friedkin. The kills are impeccably staged and gruesome, the performances are campy and spot-on, and the whodunit twists are relentless. Take note, slasher and giallo fans: This will be your new obsession.
The Rusalka (North American Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 80 Min | Dir. Perry Blackshear
Looking for some peace and quiet, Tom rents out a small and isolated lakehouse, one marked by a local legend of a woman who, after drowning, haunts the surrounding woods and drowns anyone she encounters. That myth particularly intrigues Tom’s new neighbor, Al, who’s mourning the recent death of his boyfriend. Starting off rather friendly, Tom and Al’s rapport slowly changes as the former befriends a mysterious woman named Nina, for whom Al can’t shake his negative suspicions.
Back in 2015, Perry Blackshear turned heads with his creepy lo-fi breakoutThey Look Like People; for his follow-up, the NY-based filmmaker reunites the same cast and tells a story that’s different in scope and tone yet just as subtly powerful. Equal parts supernatural romance and intimate tragedy,The Rusalkaflips the conventions of star-crossed soul-mates fiction into a lyrical and genre-infused look at the darker side of love.
Writer/Director Perry Blackshear and Lead Actress Margaret Ying Drake in attendance.
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival invades BK with our first wave of films, events, and frights for 2018!
Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (World Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 95 Min | Dir. Michael Laicini & David Amito
There’s a reason why you haven’t seenAntrum: because you’d be dead. This occult-heavy horror film shot back in the ’70s focuses on a pair of young siblings who head into the woods to grieve over a dead pet and unwittingly discover a literal Hell on Earth. The film has achieved notoriety due to it’s troubled lifespan: A theater in Budapest screened it in 1988 and burned to the ground; several film festival programmers attempted to play it before mysteriously dying; and a violent and blood-drenched San Francisco riot followed a mid-’90s revival effort. Believed to be cursed,Antrumhas since been untouched-until now.
Bookending the original 35mmAntrumprint with an all-new documentary about the film’s legend, filmmakers Michael Laicini and David Amito have packaged a truly singular viewing experience, one part catnip for film historians and a much bigger part experientially demonic cinema.
Directors Michael Laicini & David Amito in attendance.
BOO!(World Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 91 Min | Dir. Luke Jaden
Married with two kids, James and Elyse are struggling to keep it together. Along with the couple’s own rifts, their daughter, Morgan, is hiding her own suicidal thoughts, while younger son Caleb channels his suppressed emotions through troublingly macabre artwork. One night, their true test arrives: a strange Halloween game left on their doorstep that, legend has it, leaves a curse on those who choose not to play. Unfortunately, that’s the choice this family makes-and evil spirits of all kinds are ready to make them pay.
Back in 2015, Detroit-raised teenage filmmaker Luke Jaden made waves with the proficiently made and brutal short KING RIPPLE, starring a then-unknown Lakeith Stanfield. Three years later, withBOO!, the now-22-year-old filmmaker has delivered on that potential, crafting a supernatural chiller that’s big in scope yet intimate in character. Leading up to a whopper of a spook-show climax, Jaden’s debut feature is the real deal.
Director Luke Jaden in attendance.
The Cannibal Club(North American Premiere)
Brazil | 2018 | 81 Minutes | Dir. Guto Parente
Life is a dream for Octavio and Gilda. Residing on Brazil scenic waterfront coast, the rich-as-all-hell couple spends their non-work hours sipping fancy drinks, basking in the sun, and eating the finest of meats. The only problem? That’s human meat, pulled from the bodies of young, financially strapped victims that Gilda lures into their home. They’re part of a secret society of wealthy flesh-eaters, all of whom answer to a charismatic yet dangerous leader. And when Gilda starts getting cold feet about eating, well, cooked limbs, she and Octavio’s marriage, as well as their lives, are put in jeopardy.
The goriest satire of 2018 so far, Brazilian up-and-comer Guto Parente’sThe Cannibal Clubis the best kind of, pun intended, food for thought, a razor-sharp indictment of classism that’s also raucous and viscera-laden. Politically charged and gruesomely shocking, it’s proof that horror remains the best channel through which to bomb the hierarchical system.
Field Guide To Evil(NY Premiere)
Various Countries | 2018 | 117 Min | Dir. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Peter Strickland, Agnieszka Smoczynska, Katrin Gebbe, Can Evrenol, Calvin Reeder, Ashim Ahluwalia, Yannis Veslemes
No matter where you’re from, two things are universal: fear and death. To exemplify that in the most horror-minded way possible, the minds behind theABCs of Deahfilms have assembledThe Field Guide to Evil, an anthology of eight shorts that explore nightmare-geared legends specific to the filmmaker’s own native country. The sights include an Austrian ghoul known as the Trud (viaGoodnight Mommydirectors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala), a Polish heart-eating ritual (The Lure’s Agnieszka Smoczynska), a Turkish djinn (Baskinhelmer Can Evrenol), and backwoods American mongoloids (The Rambler’s Calvin Reeder).
Keeping its culture-fueled mission at the forefront,The Field Guide to Evilseparates itself from the recent wave of horror omnibuses through its uniquely measured vibe. There are scares, for sure, but its segments thrive more on Gothic unease and patient folk-tale creepiness than any supercharged shocks. The result is one of the most ambitious, diverse, and altogether fascinating horror anthologies you’ll ever see.
House of Sweat and Tears(East Coast Premiere)
Spain | 2018 | 104 Min. | Dir. Sonia Escolano
An older woman known only as “She” leads a religious cult using violent methods of control and forcing painful punishments unto her followers in order to prove their devotion. When a mysterious man arrives claiming to be the messiah, the followers are offered another way of life beyond the path of pain. A deadly struggle for power ensues as all hell breaks loose.
Claustrophobic dread drips through the narrow halls and dim candlelit rooms of theHouse of Sweat and Tearswhile moments of brutal intensity are captured by cinematographer Pepe de la Rosa’s unforgiving close up frames. Director Sonia Escolano’s atmospheric horror show sneaks up on you and leaves you gripping your chest by its shocking conclusion.
Luz(NY Premiere)
Germany | 2018 | 70 Min. | Dir. Tilman Singer
On an otherwise nondescript night, taxi driver Luz walks into a police station, claiming that she’s been assaulted. Nearby in a bar, a mysterious woman named Nora is working her magic on Dr. Rossini, recounting how her lover recently jumped out of a taxi. As both situations transpire, the connections between Luz and Nora set the stage for a demonic night from hell for those unfortunate souls who’ve encountered the two women on this particular evening.
Mind-blowingly enough, Tilman Singer’sLuzwas made as a student thesis film and is the most audacious and flat-out impressive horror debut in years, a disorienting descent into madness that’s shot on 16mm and genuinely feels like an unearthed ’70s movie somehow rediscovered and unleashed onto the genre scene. Think Lucio Fulci if he’d moved to Germany and totally lost his already deranged mind and you’ll just be scratching the surface of Singer’s incredibly assured breakthrough gem.
Piercing (NY Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 80 Min | Dir. Nicolas Pesce
The stress of parenthood is seemingly too much for Reed (Christopher Abbott), who, as a soul-cleansing ritual, meticulously plans the perfect murder. But as his plan unfolds, he realizes that meticulous planning has nothing to do with execution as Reed’s cat-and-mouse game quickly becomes a visually arresting, strange, S&M-infused battle between he and a mysterious call girl named Jackie (Mia Wasikowska).
Based on Ryū Murakami’s novel, Nicolas Pesce’s sophomore film (the follow-up to his 2016 black-and-white shockerThe Eyes of My Mother) is a remarkably unusual experience, infused with colorful visuals and an intoxicating score. An Argento/De Palma homage hidden behind the facade of a dark comedy about stabbing,Piercingcements Pesce as one of the boldest and brightest new directors in the genre.
Tower. A Bright Day.(East Coast Premiere)
Poland | 2018 | 106 Min. | Dir. Jagoda Szelc
To celebrate her daughter’s Holy Communion, Mula invites her estranged and mentally unstable pagan sister Kaja to stay with her family. She condemns Kaja from being alone with the child and insists she must never find out the truth that Kaja is her actual birth mother. Tensions instantly flare among the family while an ominous sense of danger surrounds the home leaving Mula to wonder if her paranoia is unfounded or has she invited a terrible evil into her home.
In her feature debut, Polish writer-director Jagoda Szelc crafts a spell-binding mystery with two commanding central performances by Anna Krotosca and Malgorzata Szczerbowska (Mula and Kaja, respectively). Their back and forth battle over the daughter crackles with urgency and dire desperation. Completely unpredictable and powerfully transfixing,Tower. A BRIGHT DAY. is one of the more exciting genre discoveries in recent memory.
