Brooklyn Horror 2024: DEAD MAIL And THE RULE OF JENNY PEN Bookend Annual Fest

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces Full 2024 Program

 

Festival opens with Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy’s TIFF hit DEAD MAIL and Honors Larry Fessenden with this year’s Leviathan Award, reveals new poster art

 

Highlights also include FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN sidebar, World Premiere of Izzy Lee’s HOUSE OF ASHES, director Joe Begos’ JIMMY & STIGGS, Jayro Bustamante’s RITA and closing night film THE RULE OF JENNY PEN

 

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF) announces today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s HABIT with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career. 

 

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of DEAD MAIL from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film CUSTOM; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, GENERATION TERROR; and New Zealand director Sasha Rainbow’s film GRAFTED. 

 

The festival will feature the world premieres of Izzy Lee's first feature, HOUSE OF ASHES; the atmospheric ghost story, LILLY LIVES ALONE, and the queer sci-fi adventure PSYCHONAUT. The festival’s other spotlight titles include ANIMALE, the beautiful revenge-fantasy from French director Emma Benestan as the festival’s Centerpiece Film; and THE RULE OF JENNY PEN starring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow as the Closing Night Film. 

 

Additional highlights include the action fueled revenge film SAYARA from Turkey; Joe Begos’s latest neon drenched bloodbath JIMMY & STIGGS; a screening of several episodes of the new horror anthology TALES FROM THE VOID which includes an episode directed by John Adams and Toby Poser; a fantastical time traveling romance from director Alice Lowe, TIMESTALKER; GAZER, the dreamy noir film from Ryan J. Sloan; Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s gory erotic thriller BONE LAKE; and the nightmarish mystery SOMNIUM which premiered at the Chattanooga Film Festival earlier this year. 

 

The festival’s signature sidebar programs return, starting with FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN, which includes the North American premiere of EXORCISMO, a documentary that focuses on the violent and smutty film history of the post-Franco era of Spanish cinema; as well as retro screenings of VAMPYRES and THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE on 35mm; which ties into the Vampire sidebar that features Abel Ferrara’s THE ADDICTION and a screening of the Spanish version of DRACULA with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance. MISKATONIC INSTITUTE OF HORROR STUDIES will also return to host a special lecture by Dr. Leah Richards "Queer Vampires, Queer Liberation, Queer Futurity.

 

Read on for the full list of films below.

 

Festival badges are on sale now here and a limited amount of individual tickets go on sale this Friday at 12PM EST. Full program info is detailed 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 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.

 

 

FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN

 

Fear in Focus is back with a special Spain edition! The festival's perennial sidebar, once again presented by Arrow Video, which celebrates a specific region's exceptional work within horror, turns its eyes to one of the original and most enduring purveyors of the genre.

 

Program highlights include the North American premiere of EXORCISMO, a documentary exploring the post-dictatorship period of Spanish cinema when genre filmmakers were producing the most wildly taboo challenging work the country had ever seen, and repertory screenings of queer vampire essentials THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE, screening on 35mm, and VAMPYRES, celebrating its 50th anniversary. The lesser known–and superior to some–Spanish production of DRACULA, made the same year as the Bela Lugosi classic, will also be screened with a brand new live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.

 

Rounding out the offerings will be a special FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN shorts block, spotlighting an exciting new wave of Spanish horror.

 

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 

 

 

 

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

 

 

SPECIAL EVENTS

 

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 and Rue Morgue fame)! Meet new friends, win amazing prizes, and learn more about horror cinema exclusively at Final Exam!

 

 

Certified Forgotten Podcast

 

Certified Forgotten is a 60-minute bi-weekly horror movie podcast with a focus on underseen films. Hosts Matt Donato and Matt Monagle speak with creators, filmmakers, and critics about their lifelong relationships to the horror genre. Each episode also highlights another unique genre title with ten-or-fewer reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes that’s picked by the guest, letting them champion each episode’s title to their heart’s content.

 

 

Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Lecture: Queer Vampires, Queer Liberation, Queer Futurity with Dr. Leah Richards

 

As any vampire scholar, and most vampire fans, will tell you, the figure of the vampire is inherently queer. John Polidori based Lord Ruthven (“The Vampyre,” 1818) on the indiscriminately licentious Lord Byron; J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (“Carmilla,” 1872) still dominates the lesbian vampire genre; and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Dracula, 1897) tells his three brides that Jonathan Harker “is mine”. Their non-normative reproduction, the pleasure that they take in penetration and feasting, their seduction of victims into voluntary acquiescence, and their capes and ruffles and air of languid dissipation…vampires are queer. But so what?

 

This lecture will first establish cinematic vampires as almost universally queer-coded and explore the significance of this specific intersection of monstrosity and sexuality. The talk will then explore the alignment of vampire cinema with the queer liberation movement of the 1960s-70s, covering films such as Hammer’s Karnstein trilogy (The Vampire Lovers [1970], Lust for a Vampire [1971], and Twins of Evil [1971]) and its much gayer spiritual relatives including Daughters of Darkness (1971), The Blood Spattered Bride (1972), and Vampyres (1974), as well as recent titles like Bit (2019), Thirst (2020), and So Vam (2021).

 

Through the work of queer theorists including Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and José Esteban Muñoz the lecture will explore the ways that vampires can contribute to discourses around queer identity, modes of being, and futurity.

 

 

LEVIATHAN AWARD

 

Presented by Arrow Video

 

The Leviathan Award, Brooklyn Horror’s first and only tribute award, was created in 2023 to honor the luminaries of horror and acknowledge their monstrous contributions to the genre.

 

2024 honors go to the irreplaceable Larry Fessenden whose inspired filmmaking, cherished turns in front of the camera and impactful producorial work as the founder of Glass Eye Pix has helped shepherd and sustain indie horror in New York for three decades and counting. Larry Fessenden is exactly the kind of trailblazing and enduring artist we want to celebrate, one whose distinct mark on the industry and on countless filmmakers is undeniable.

 

 

2024 Brooklyn Horror Jury

 

Features, Dark Matter 

 

Edoardo Vitaletti (Filmmaker, THE LAST THING MARY SAW)

 

Justin DiPietro (MPI, Executive Vice President)

 

Toby Poser (Filmmaker, WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS)

 

 

 

Features, Head Trip

 

Jenika McCrayer (Horror Press, writer)

 

Jim Brunzell (Dark Star Pictures, Director of Festivals)

 

Jacqueline Castel (Filmmaker, MY ANIMAL)

 

 

 

Shorts 

 

Avery Coffey (Unbound and Rewound Horror Podcast, Host & Producer)

 

Nathan Ginter (Filmmaker, THE THIRD EAR)

 

Sophie Carroll (Director of Creative, ALTER & DUST at Gunpowder & Sky)

 

  

 

 

 

BHFF would like to thank their 2024 Sponsors:

 

 

 

Premium Sponsors

 

Arrow Video

 

Dark Sky Films

 

 

 

Supporting Sponsors

 

Adobe Express

 

Cut + Measure

 

Den of Geek

 

Horror Press

 

IFC Films

 

KCBC

 

Teeth: The Musical

 

Yellow Veil Pictures