The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF) announces the full program for its 2023 incarnation, running October 12-19 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unearthly lineup of films and events, including the inaugural Leviathan Award, which will be presented to NYC horror legend William Lustig at a special 35th anniversary screening of MANIAC COP, followed by a post-screening conversation with Lustig.
The Opening Night film is the World Premiere of KILL YOUR LOVER from directors Alix Austin and Kier Siewert, who previously announced themselves to the BHFF audience last year with their short film SUCKER. The 2023 festival boasts the World Premieres of three more exciting new films: GAIA director Jaco Bouwer’s unsettling BREATHING IN, Aimee Kuge’s audacious debut CANNIBAL MUKBANG, and Tyler Chipman’s powerfully creepy debut THE SHADE. The festival’s other spotlight titles include director Pascal Plante’s recently announced Utopia Distribution title RED ROOMS as the festival’s Centerpiece Film, and Jenn Wexler’s ’70s supernatural Christmas horror THE SACRIFICE GAME as the Closing Night Film.
Additional highlights include NYC horror royalty Larry Fessenden’s latest, the werewolf chiller BLACKOUT; the Adams Family’s decade-spanning HELLBENDER follow-up, WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS; SXSW official selection MONOLITH; Brazilian chamber piece PROPERTY; Amanda Kramer’s tech-minded documentary SO UNREAL; Cannes selection TIGER STRIPES; Robert Morgan’s trippy animation/live-action hybrid STOPMOTION; and Jason Yu’s SLEEP, hot off its inclusion as part of TIFF Midnight Madness.
The festival’s signature sidebar programs all return, starting with Slayed: LGBTQ Horror Films (presented by Horror Press), which includes BHFF alum Betrand Mandico’s unclassifiable CONANN, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s confrontational FEMME, Alice Maio Mackay midnighter T-BLOCKERS, and BHFF’s popular Slayed: LGBTQ Horror Shorts block. The Home Invasion sidebar (presented by Cool Hand Movers), meanwhile, shines a spotlight on NYC’s brightest new filmmakers and includes Chris Skotchdopole’s anxiety-inducing debut CRUMB CATCHER, BHFF short film alum Mary Dauterman’s singular feature debut BOOGER, the previously mentioned CANNIBAL MUKBANG, and two shorts blocks.
The Fear In Focus sidebar is also back with a special Japan edition! The festival’s perennial international-cinema-focused sidebar, presented by Arrow Video, will include the 1926 silent masterwork A PAGE OF MADNESS, featuring a live original score from The Flushing Remonstrance; a 35th anniversary presentation of 1988’s forgotten home invasion shocker DOOR; a 25th anniversary screening of 1998’s essential RINGU; the North American premiere of THE J-HORROR VIRUS, a new documentary that delves into the history and lasting impact of this highly influential wave in horror cinema; and a special lecture presented by THE MISKATONIC INSTITUTE OF HORROR STUDIES, with Professor Sigmund Shen highlighting the aforementioned RINGU and GOJIRA as allegories to reckon with a traumatic past. The final sidebar, keeping in line with the festival’s 2023 video store theme (check out the killer poster above), is none other than our Staff Picks section, the majority of which will screen at midnight and include 50th anniversary screenings of a pair of 1973 classics, MESSIAH OF EVIL and TORSO, along with a 40th anniversary screening of 1983’s ANGST.
Festival badges are on sale now and a limited amount of individual tickets go on sale this Friday at 12PM EST here.
