Wolves - Encore
Inspired by true events. When a young social recluse stumbles onto a series of unsolved cold cases, he finds himself pulled deeper into society’s dark underside and must face his own demons to learn the truth.
The Forest Hills
Weekend Two • Official Selection
A man is tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill woods.
Directed by Scott Goldberg
United States, 80 minutes
New England Premiere
Pou (Peacock)
POU (PEACOCK) is a South African gothic horror following the psychosexual journey of a young woman into the dark recesses of the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past.
Maya
After a childhood incident leaves her without any memories, Maya is adopted by an elderly couple, along with another orphan, Kalika, who she forms a sisterly bond with. Through feverish nightmares and unsettling events, Maya travels to Karachi and rediscovers her traumatic childhood through the grips of jinn (demonic) possession.
Saint Drogo - Encore
A gay couple, Caleb and Adrian, begin having similar, unsettling dreams concerning Caleb's ex, who had been working in Provincetown for the summer. Under the guise of taking an impromptu respite, Caleb convinces Adrian to trek to PTown in the winter only to find that his ex appears to be missing. As Caleb's dreams and hallucinations continue plaguing him, he becomes more determined to find his ex. But the longer he persists in his search, the sooner he nears the sinister secret the town is hiding.
HeBGB TV
A retro-horror TV cable box infiltrates a neighborhood and curates nostalgic killer content to its audience. Drawing on television themes throughout the decades, this feature is jam packed with fun shorts, scary songs, and creepy characters all for a cheap laugh. A movie about watching TV!
Swallowed
After a drug run goes bad - two childhood friends must survive a horrific night in a backwoods hell of drugs, bugs, and obscene intimacy in this queer horror nightmare.
Stag - Encore
Jenny, an urban loner, must fight for redemption at her estranged BFF’s bachelorette party. This film, the director’s horror-comedy feature debut, is a female-friendship saga that examines loss, gaslighting, and betrayal, and asks Can you overcome the past? In the words of the director, “My film is for women of all ages, and especially college and high school students. It’s for the girl I was then, and the woman I am now.”
Bliss of Evil
Isolated and stalked, a band must attempt to escape the recording studio where they’re trapped before they fall prey to a mysterious intruder in Josh Morris‘s soon-to-be-classic Aussie slasher.
Guys at Parties Like It
A jaded party girl finds herself engrossed in a dangerous game of survival when a ritualistic fraternity party spins out of control and descends into madness.
Follow Her
In this psychosexual thriller, Jess Peters, a struggling actress and live streamer, has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote cabin. Once there, the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This client isn’t what he seems, and even though the money is great… the real payment here could cost her life.
The Weird Kidz
Weekend Two • Official Selection • Filmmaker Q&A
On a weekend campout, a dark monster terrorizes a group of campers who fall prey to an ancient legend and conspiring local townsfolk. For preteen Dug, Mel and Fatt, and Dug’s older brother and girlfriend, a night out in the desert becomes a survivalist horror adventure. Zach Passero’s heartfelt coming-of-age tale about growing up and surviving a night of terrors juggles frights, laughs, and an amputated arm in this unique hand-animated joy ride of a creature feature.
Directed by Zach Passero
United States, 80 minutes
Massachusetts Premiere
The Ones You Didn't Burn - Encore
A young man returns to his family home after his father’s death. He meets two women who claim his father’s land was stolen from their ancestors after they were accused of being witches. He soon finds himself the center of an occult conspiracy that led to his father’s suicide and now threatens to destroy him.
Saint Drogo
A gay couple, Caleb and Adrian, begin having similar, unsettling dreams concerning Caleb's ex, who had been working in Provincetown for the summer. Under the guise of taking an impromptu respite, Caleb convinces Adrian to trek to PTown in the winter only to find that his ex appears to be missing. As Caleb's dreams and hallucinations continue plaguing him, he becomes more determined to find his ex. But the longer he persists in his search, the sooner he nears the sinister secret the town is hiding.
T Blockers
Ancient parasites that thrive on hatred rise from beneath a small town and take the most fearful and susceptible as hosts. A young trans filmmaker, who is struggling to transition in increasingly hostile times for LGBTQ+ people, realizes that only she can sense the possessed and must rally the resistance before the horror escapes and spreads.
In a Dark, Dark Room
Weekend One • Official Selection
In a small town, misfit teens discover an ominous site of pagans, awakening a dark force that is fought by a mysterious biker – a history teacher by day and a witch hunter by night.
Directed by Denis Sobolev
Ukraine, 83 minutes
Ukrainian with English Subtitles
East Coast Premiere
Your Love Is Mine
A sudden tragedy threatens the relationship of Violet (Sene Priti) and Sam (Lester Ellis Jr). One of them goes to unthinkable lengths to preserve their union.
Summoners
Jessica Whitman isn’t a witch. Not anymore, at least. She left it behind when she left her hometown almost ten years ago. But when a childhood friend needs her help performing a dark spell, she finds herself questioning her sense of right and wrong, and grappling with her late mother’s secrets.
Bury the Bride
Weekend One • Official Selection
Bride-to-be June’s bachelorette weekend turns deadly when her blood thirsty fiancé and his friends show up to crash the party.
Directed by Spider One
United States, 83 minutes
East Coast Premiere
Stag
Jenny, an urban loner, must fight for redemption at her estranged BFF’s bachelorette party. This film, the director’s horror-comedy feature debut, is a female-friendship saga that examines loss, gaslighting, and betrayal, and asks Can you overcome the past? In the words of the director, “My film is for women of all ages, and especially college and high school students. It’s for the girl I was then, and the woman I am now.”
Pendulum
A witch anthology. A young girl, Olivia, seeks out Miss Rosewood, an infamous local witch, for training. But first, Olivia must join Miss Rosewood’s coven. Miss Rosewood shares the story of each member of her evil sisterhood.
The Ones You Didn't Burn
A young man returns to his family home after his father’s death. He meets two women who claim his father’s land was stolen from their ancestors after they were accused of being witches. He soon finds himself the center of an occult conspiracy that led to his father’s suicide and now threatens to destroy him.
No More Time
A couple seeks refuge in a remote mountain town to escape a mysterious disease that makes some people disappear and others turn into hateful murderers. Strange figures emerge from the surrounding forest, and it’s unclear if they are helping or harming. As the stakes grow higher and the dangers draw closer, the couple must decide who to trust and what they are willing to do to survive.
Wolves
Inspired by true events. When a young social recluse stumbles onto a series of unsolved cold cases, he finds himself pulled deeper into society’s dark underside and must face his own demons to learn the truth.
Satan Wants You
This is the previously untold story of the genesis of the Satanic Panic in the 1980s ignited by Michelle Remembers, a lurid memoir by psychiatrist Larry Pazder and his patient Michelle Smith. Supported by the Catholic Church, the bestselling book relied on recovered-memory therapy to place the blame for Michelle’s childhood abduction on baby-stealing Satanists. Amplified by US law enforcement and the daytime TV boom, satanic rumors spread through panic-stricken communities worldwide, leaving destruction and wrongful convictions in their wake. This film digs deep into the roots of moral panics and cult conspiracies, showing how these events still affect and distort our reality today.