Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Unveils 2024 Lineup (EXCLUSIVE)

Jack Dunn
·11-min read

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 2024 edition, which runs from Oct. 17-24. All films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.

Opening with Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s crime thriller “Dead Mail,” BHFF will feature the North American premieres of Tiago Teixeira’s erotic body horror “Custom,” Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton’s late ’90s horror documentary “Generation Terror” and Sasha Rainbow’s “Grafted” starring Jess Hong.

Films receiving their world premieres at BHFF include Izzy Lee’s directorial debut “House of Ashes,” the queer science fiction adventure “Psychonaut” and “Lilly Lives Alone” starring Jeffrey Combs.

“Fear in Focus” is set to return for BHFF 2024, with this year’s rendition centering around horror films from Spain. The sidebar program will feature a 35mm screening of “The Blood Spattered Bride” and a showing of the Spanish version of “Dracula” with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.

See the full festival lineup below.

“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 McCrae

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.

Fear in Focus Spain:

“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.

Short Films:

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

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