2026 Films

Opening Night – OBSESSION

Curry Barker | 2025 | USA | 108 min

Hopelessly paralyzed by his unrequited crush on one of his closest friends, a lovelorn 20-something makes a wish on a mysterious novelty toy, only to find out that his dreams are far worse than any nightmare he could imagine in this bone-chilling relationship horror.

Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter

Closing Night – HOKUM

Damian McCarthy | 2026 | USA, Ireland | 101 min

From the director of the 2024 Overlook hit Oddity comes a shocking new vision of folk-horror. Adam Scott stars as a cynical writer who travels to a secluded Irish inn, only to find himself trapped in a labyrinthian nightmare of secrets hidden within the bowels of the hotel.

Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Siox C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle

Centerpiece Film – LEVITICUS

Adrian Chiarella | 2026 | Australia | 86 min

In an ultra-religious, isolated Australian community, two closeted high school lovers struggle to come into their own. But when a fit of jealousy outs them, they are forced into a bizarre form of conversion therapy, unleashing a cunning and deadly threat in this equally terrifying and sensitive coming-of-age tale.

Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

45th Anniversary Screening

2026 Master of Horror Award Recipient Rick Baker in Person

John Landis | 1981 | USA | 97 min

Beware the moon! Witness the most monstrous of monster transformations, one that cemented Rick Baker’s legacy and earned him his first Academy Award, unfurl on the big screen before your very eyes. Chosen by our 2026 Master of Horror recipient Rick Baker, the screening will precede a conversation with the legend himself.

Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine

BLACKOUT

Filmmaker in attendance

Larry Fessenden | 2023 | USA | 103 min

Not your typical werewolf story, Blackout follows a painter, haunted by guilt, who becomes convinced that he is transforming at night and wreaking havoc in his small town in the third of Larry Fessenden’s four part monsterverse series. 

Cast: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, John Speredakos

BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL

Filmmaker in attendance

David Kittredge | 2025 | USA | 112 min

Hot off the success of his genre defining film, Deliverance, John Boorman takes on his biggest challenge yet – a sequel to one of the most successful horror movies in history, The Exorcist. What could go wrong? This insightful documentary delves deep into the making of one of the biggest bombs in horror history.

Cast: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante

CHILI FINGER

Filmmaker in attendance

Edd Benda, Stephen Helstad | 2025 | USA | 100 min

When a down on their luck couple find a gruesome surprise at their favorite fast food chain, they hatch a simple blackmail plot that quickly spins their lives out of control in this bloody, Coen Brothers-esque thriller featuring an all-star cast.

Cast: Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman, Sara Sevigny, Dann Florek

DEPRAVED

Filmmaker in attendance

Larry Fessenden | 2019 | USA | 114 min

The second in Larry Fessenden’s genre-bending four movie monsterverse is a millennial take on the Frankenstein myth in which a PTSD-riddled field surgeon deep in the heart of Brooklyn decides to reconstruct an unsuspecting man out of spare body parts.

Cast: David Call, Joshua Leonard, Alex Breaux, Ana Kayne, Mara Dizzia, Chloe Levine, Owen Campbell, Addison Timlin

DRAG

Raviv Ullman, Greg Yagolnitzer | 2025 | USA | 86 min

Two sisters. One empty house. A simple burglary plan. If only one of them didn’t throw their back out… Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer’s hilarious and twisty horror comedy is a ticking clock crawl to survival as the sibling duo must find a way out or face the dangers of being caught when the owner returns home.

Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Christine Ko

EXIT 8

Genki Kawamura | 2025 | Japan | 95 min

Based on the hit video game, this eerie fright-fest follows a lost commuter trapped in a seemingly repetitious corridor in the bowels of a Japanese subway station. Desperate to escape, he is forced to look for breaks in the pattern that is confining him.

Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu

FACES OF DEATH

Filmmaker in attendance

Daniel Goldhaber | 2026 | USA | 108 min

A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film. Starring Barbie Ferreira, this New Orleans shot slasher is a thrilling twist on the modern remake.

Cast: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Aaron Holliday, Jermaine Fowler, Charli XCX

GOODY GOODY

World Premiere

Filmmaker in attendance

Raymond Creamer | 2026 | USA | 80 min

Lulled into a necessary sense of comfort during a long home birth process, expecting parents and their midwife begin to realize that something may be horribly wrong. As labor complications ensue, a blizzard rages outside trapping the family in their home – sitting ducks for whatever sinister presence might be in there with them. 

Cast: Colleen Foy, Samantha Robinson, Zoe Renee

HABIT

Filmmaker in attendance

Larry Fessenden | 1995 | USA | 112 min

Indie icon Larry Fessenden’s first feature, about an alcoholic New Yorker who falls for a mysterious woman with vampiric qualities, is as groundbreaking now as it was when it debuted over 20 years ago, inspiring generations of young horror filmmakers to this day.

Cast: Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider

THE HOLY BOY

Paolo Strippoli | 2026 | Italy | 122 min

Deep in the Italian mountains lives a village of some of the happiest people on earth. Their serenity is about to be broken by the arrival of the new PE teacher who is haunted by his past and determined to uncover the secret of how all of the townspeople are healed weekly by the touch of a 15-year-old boy with special powers.

Cast: Michele Riondino, Giulio Feltri

NEVER AFTER DARK

Filmmaker in attendance

Dave Boyle | 2025 | Japan | 105 min

A medium for hire, assisted by the spirit of her deceased sister, takes on the case of a grotesque apparition that haunts an isolated country home. As she peels back the layers of the spine-tingling investigation, she realizes that the greatest threats don’t lie in the world of the dead, but rather in with the living people around her.

Cast: Moeka Hoshi, Kento Kaku, Kurumi Inagaki, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Bokuzo Masana, Tae Kimura

NEW GROUP

Yûta Shimotsu | 2026 | Japan | 82 min

From the director of the Overlook 2025 winner for Scariest Feature, Best Wishes to All, comes a terrifying new vision of youth, conformity, and authoritarianism as the students inside a modern high school are violently forced to become part of increasingly disturbing, physically demanding and surreal tasks in order to assimilate. 

Cast: Yuzu Aoki, Pierre Taki

A PAGE OF MADNESS

100th Anniversary Screening

Live Score Composed by Jeff Pagano

Teinosuke Kinugasa | 1926 | Japan | 70 min

A completely original avant-garde masterpiece once thought lost to time for 45 years, Japan’s first ever horror film simply must be seen. A rarity in sight and sound, this work of art will be presented with an original composition from Nola’s own Jeff Pagano (Marigny Opera House) and performed by a six piece orchestra handpicked by the maestro.

Cast: Masao Inoue, Yoshie Nakagawa, Ayako Iijima

PARASOMNIA

Filmmaker in attendance

James Ross II | 2025 | USA | 85 min

When one of her closest friends goes missing, Riley, a young woman haunted by a lifelong battle with debilitating night terrors, must come to terms with the fact that the demonic entity that’s been stalking her dreams since childhood may have followed her home into the real world.

Cast: Jasmine Mathews, RJ Brown, Sally Stewart, Stephen Barrington, Danny Brown

SACCHARINE

Natalie Erika James | 2026 | Australia | 112 min

Looking for a quick weight loss fix, a medical student accepts a mysterious drug, setting her off on a path of unwanted transformation in this goopy, sickening, violent body-horror from the director of Relic.

Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden

TRAUMA, OR MONSTERS ALL

World Premiere

Filmmaker in attendance

Larry Fessenden | 2026 | USA | 118 min

An aspiring author gets more than she bargained for when she writes an article for the local paper about her small town’s dark history, prompting unwanted speculation on what monsters may lie within. Overlook mainstay Larry Fessenden returns with the thrilling conclusion to his quadrilogy, a thoughtful and fiercely independent monster mash that can be enjoyed on its own or marathoned with his three origin stories – Habit, Depraved, and Blackout.

Cast: Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter, Rigo Garay, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, Joshua Leonard

UGLY CRY

Filmmaker in attendance

Emily Robinson | 2026 | USA | 94 min

An actor’s desperate determination to break in Hollywood leads her down a frightening spiral of obsession, delusion and augmentation in this darkly comedic, Repulsion-esque thriller from first time writer-director and star Emily Robinson.

Cast: Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Dominguez, Robin Tunney

SHORTS PROGRAM 1: FERAL

Filmmakers in attendance

Claws are out in this violently carnal collection of femme-forward short films.

MEN (LOK) Dir. Mahmuda Sultana Rima | 2025 | Bangladesh

THE DYSPHORIA Dir. Kylie Aoibheann | 2025 | Australia

HOT WATER Dir. Miles Gunter, Cassie Kramer | 2025 | USA

SCISSORS Dir. Hannah Alline | 2025 | USA 

HICKEYS Dir. Ella Rhodes | 2025 | USA

LAST CALL Dir. Winnie Cheung | 2025 | USA

SPANKED BY A GHOST Dir. Katelyn Douglass | 2025 | USA

HE Dir. Hira Vin | 2025 | Canada

MAN EATING PUSSY Dir. Lee Lawson | 2026 | Canada

99 Min

SHORTS PROGRAM 2: FREAKY

Filmmakers in attendance

Family curses, inexplicable terrors, and dark surrealism combine in freaky ways. 

CAROUSEL Dir. Christopher Kosakowski | 2025 | USA

NAIL-BITER Dir. Joseph Burch | 2025 | USA

BREEDER Dir. Sapphire Sandalo | 2025 | USA

HAINT Dir. Jahmil Eady | 2025 | USA

MOTHER MARY Dir. Playdoh Kolo | 2025 | USA

F**K FACE Dir. Dean Puckett | 2025 | USA

HOMEMADE GATORADE Dir. Carter Amelia Davis | 2025 | USA

HOUSE CAT Dir. Kyle Spleiss | 2026 | USA

STEAK DINNER Dir. Nathan Mark Glinter | 2025 | USA

94 Min

SHORTS PROGRAM 3: STATIC

Filmmakers in attendance

Subtle wavelengths and sinister transmissions from beyond human consciousness.

HAS ANYONE ELSE LOST THEIR BODY? Dir. Randall Snare | 2026 | USA

DARKROOM Dir. Matthew Black | 2025 | USA

IT’S NOT ME Dir. Cameron Veitch, Robert J Kemp | 2025 | Canada

GHOSTSTORY Dir. Alex Jacobs | 2026 | USA 

THE CREATURE OF DARKNESS Dir. Lisa Marie Malloy, Roy Whitaker | 2026 | USA

VLOG CAM Dir. Danilo Rafael Parra | 2025 | USA

BLISTER Dir. Olivia Simon | 2025 | USA

SUPERCONSCIOUS Dir. Christianne Hedtke | 2025 | USA

103 Min