FEATURES
BLACK LAKE : DIRECTOR’S CUT
Directed by K/XI
Whilst house-sitting in a secluded home in Scotland, Aarya, an expressionist painter, is gifted a red scarf sent by her aunt from Pakistan, and becomes haunted by a Churail - a demonic and malevolent South-Asian Witch.
United Kingdom | 90 minutes
CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS
Directed by Alice Maio Mackay
When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again. Lola must solve the case before her community is slaughtered. She's up against not only a psychotic killer, but also a town haunted by secrets.
Australia | 70 minutes
CAT PEOPLE (1942)
w. Faculty of Horror
Directed by Jacques Tourneau
Irena Dubrovna, a New York City--based fashion designer who hails from Serbia, begins a romance with marine engineer Oliver Reed. After the couple gets married, Oliver becomes concerned about Irena's notion that she is cursed and may transform into a large cat in the heat of passion. Confiding in his beautiful assistant, Alice Moore, about his marital issues, Oliver unwittingly triggers Irena's curse, with tragic results.
United States | 73 minutes
Followed by Faculty of Horror
SECRET SCREENING
w. Cinematic Void
From out of the mouth of cinemadness comes Cinematic Void Up All Night. Originating as the online extension of the Los Angeles based film screening series, the Cinemandess Movie is hosted by James Branscome and features Deanna Rooney (Mystery Science Theater 3000). Harkening back to gonzo late night TV of the 80s and 90s, this cult film odyssey features a mystery movie with vintage commercial breaks and host segments and sketches.
For this exclusive Salem Horror Fest presentation, the featured mystery film not only has ties to not only the city of Salem but its very history.
Salem MA | 88 minutes
Followed by Cinematic Void
DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)
Directed by George A. Romero
As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack of the undead, but neither cities nor the countryside prove safe. In Pennsylvania, radio-station employee Stephen and his girlfriend, Francine, escape in the station helicopter, accompanied by two renegade SWAT members, Roger and Pete. The group retreats to the haven of an enclosed shopping center to make what could be humanity's last stand.
United States | 127 minutes
DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)
Directed by George A. Romero
Trapped in a missile silo, a small team of scientists, civilians and trigger-happy soldiers battle desperately to ensure the survival of the human race, but tension inside the base is reaching breaking-point, and the zombies are gathering outside.
United States | 100 minutes
FACELESS AFTER DARK
Directed by Raymond Wood
Following her breakout success as the star of a killer clown horror flick, Bowie now finds herself struggling to capitalize on its success. But when she is suddenly held hostage by an unhinged fan posing as that same killer clown, horror becomes her reality as she fights to survive the night and escape before he completes his sinister plan to recreate the film’s fatal plot.
United States | 86 minutes
GEORGE A. ROMERO’S RESIDENT EVIL
Directed by Brandon Salisbury
A documentary that brings to light the vision that director George A. Romero had for an adaptation of Resident Evil, using newly filmed interviews with those who were there, and unravels the secrets behind why it was never produced.
United States | Special Presentation
GHOST GAME
Directed by Jill Gevargizian
Participating in an internet challenge that requires breaking into homes and living undetected alongside the residents, a thrill-seeking couple target an infamous haunted house and endure a series of chilling incidents as they witness a family descending into madness.
United States | 90 minutes
THE GRUDGE (2004)
w. Horror Queers
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Matthew Williams, his wife, Jennifer, and mother, Emma, are Americans making a new life in Tokyo. Together they move into a house that has been the site of supernatural occurrences in the past, and it isn't long before their new home begins terrorizing the Williams family as well. The house, as it turns out, is the site of a curse that lingers in a specific place and claims the lives of anyone that comes near.
United States | 100 minutes
Followed by Horror Queers
HOCUS POCUS (1993)
Directed by Kenny Ortega
After moving to Salem, Mass., teenager Max Dennison explores an abandoned house with his sister Dani and their new friend, Allison. After dismissing a story Allison tells as superstitious, Max accidentally frees a coven of evil witches who used to live in the house. Now, with the help of a magical cat, the kids must steal the witches' book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal.
United States | 96 minutes
IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
Directed by Rachel Kempf, Nick Toti
This found footage horror film incorporates nearly 20 years of archival video and blends fact and fiction. When filmmakers Nick Toti and Rachel Kempf buy an abandoned duplex to shoot their next indie horror film in, they are delighted to find random strangers are drawn to the building, gathering outside to stare at it in a zombie-like trance. What begins as an effort to document the cult quickly escalates into an increasingly ecstatic quest to see just how scary their real-life horror movie can get.
United States | 83 minutes
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE
Directed by DW Medoff
After being released from prison, a brooding man with a dark past is forced to stay in a haunted house to clear it of spirits. If he leaves, he goes back to prison, but the witch-ghost may be more punishment than he can withstand.
United States | 95 minutes
IT’S NOT PAINT
Directed by Matthew Osubor
After the death of her estranged uncle, a woman inherits a haunted painting made by a troubled artist.
United States |
THE JUDGMENT
Directed by Marwan Mokbel
An Egyptian gay couple return from the U.S. to Egypt for a family emergency and have to force themselves back into the closet and pretend to be just friends. When they fall prey to witchcraft as punishment for their “homosexual sins,” one of them falls into religious terror and exposes his unhealed past.
Egypt | 110 minutes
LAND OF THE DEAD
Directed by George A. Romero
Zombies have taken over the world and those left alive are confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpse corps. As anarchy rules the streets, a group of scavengers must thwart an attempt to overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving creatures into more advanced creatures.
United States | 92 minutes
LIMINAL
Directed by Andrew Hawkes
A trans paranormal investigator and their team search for the connection between the queer and the strange as they explore the mysterious and magical world of the rural south.
United States | 83 minutes
LIVESCREAMERS
Directed by Michelle Iannantuono
In this screenlife found footage film, a popular group of streamers who face a lesson in teamwork when a cursed video game kills them one by one.
United States | 90 minutes
LORDS OF SALEM (2012)
Directed by Rob Zombie
A radio DJ in Salem, Mass., is plagued by nightmarish visions of vengeful witches after she plays a record by a mysterious group known only as "The Lords."
United States | 101 minutes
Heidi Hawthorne House • Weekend I • Weekend II
MELTDOWN : A NUCLEAR FAMILY’S ASCENSION INTO MADNESS
Directed by Colton Van Til
In the picture-perfect 1950s, a seemingly flawless nuclear family hosts an important dinner party, but when an unexpected LSD spiking alters the course of the evening, buried truths resurface, shattering everyone’s facades and forcing them to confront their darkest fears.
United States | 84 minutes
THE MONKEY
Directed by Spencer Sherry
After a near-fatal accident, soon-to-be father Pete Shelburn begins to suspect that his past has come back to haunt him. With his own father at death's door and his brother refusing to make amends with him, he's forced to save his family by confronting a nightmare from his childhood: a cursed cymbal-clapping toy monkey.
United States | 60:00
MY MOTHER’S EYES
Directed by Takeshi Kushida
A mother and daughter literally share a single vision of the universe through use of a new, futuristic contact lens device with built-in camera inserted into the eyes and set up together with VR goggles. This psychological fantasy weaves together the lives of the mother and daughter with their shared vision as they ultimately find a true bond while transcending the boundaries of body and mind.
Japan | 94 minutes
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
A disparate group of individuals takes refuge in an abandoned house when corpses begin to leave the graveyard in search of fresh human bodies to devour. The pragmatic Ben does his best to control the situation, but when the reanimated bodies surround the house, the other survivors begin to panic. As any semblance of order within the group begins to dissipate, the zombies start to find ways inside -- and one by one, the living humans become the prey of the deceased ones.
United States | 97 minutes
Introduction by Suzanne Romero-Desrocher
THE PEOPLE’S JOKER
Directed by Vera Drew
A law-breaking comedian who is grappling with her gender identity forms a new anti-comedy troupe with a friend and finds herself battling a fascistic caped crusader.
92 minutes
Peabody Essex Museum • Weekend II
Sunday, May 5 • 4:00 pm • Tickets
PURGATORY JACK
Directed by Brett Butler, Jason Butler
This neo-noir mystery thriller is set in the afterlife, a dangerous landscape that’s run by a bloodthirsty, limb-collecting gang and populated with outlaws and outcasts. The latest case for musician turned grizzled private detective, Jack Marlin, is helping new arrival Viv Vacious, a punk pop star who overdosed, stay safe as she races against time to find her mother who committed suicide twenty years earlier. While navigating the treacherous terrain of hells waiting room, these two musicians from clashing eras unlock a murderous conspiracy and discover why blood is more than a drug in Purgatory.
Canada | 101 minutes
SIGIL
Directed by Jacob Perrett
Two girls unknowingly conjure a witch during their anniversary retreat to the countryside.
Canada | 110 minutes
SINS OF THE FATHER
Directed by Vanessa M. H. Powers
After the death of his father, Aden and his mother Sarah find themselves responsible for the sale of his family home -- a place they thought they’d left behind. As they clear out the house, they uncover secrets in Sarah’s past and the sinister nature of the cultivated community Aden was raised in... And his father’s family is not so eager to let the sins of the past go unpunished.
United States | 102 minutes
SWEET RELIEF
Directed by Nick Verdi
Parents and teachers are in a panic over kids playing Sweet Relief, an online murder challenge where the player must nominate someone they'd like to see die. Three teenagers play the game as a joke, unaware of the dire consequences. Meanwhile, Jess has mysterious and dangerous inclinations of her own, finding her way into a deadly situation when she meets Gerald, a confidential police informant and sadistic child killer.
Western MA | 87 minutes
TALES FROM THE CRYPT :
DEMON KNIGHT (1995)
w. Girl, That’s a Massacre
Directed by Ernest Dickerson
Ex-soldier Frank Brayker is the guardian of an ancient key that can unlock tremendous evil; the sinister but charming Collector is a demon who wants the key so he can initiate the apocalypse. On the run from wicked mercenaries for almost 90 years, Brayker finally stops in at a boarding house in New Mexico where -- with the help of its quirky residents -- he plans to face off against the Collector and his band of ghouls, preventing them from ever seizing the key.
United States | 92 minutes
Followed by Girl, That’s a Massacre
THE VIZITANT
Directed by Edmund Milligan Marcus
A mysterious Entity offers a brilliant, defeated politician the power to change the world.
Western MA | 89 minutes
WELCOME WEEK : A COLLEGE HORROR ANTHOLOGY
Directed by Jack McDermott, Ethan Gomez-Zahnley, Ryan Ranc, Blake Douglas, Léonidas Ibarra, Cory McCullough
This college-themed horror anthology follows Andrew Cross, a college freshman whose four siblings all died in their first weeks of college, and his roommate Josh as they attempt to save their friend from a masked killer. Each sibling’s death is depicted in a terrifying short film from four different college filmmakers.
Boston MA | 89 minutes
YOUNG BLONDES, STALKED AND MURDERED
Directed by Nick Funess
A struggling actress starts to believe a serial killer is after her.
United States | 66 minutes
May 3 - May 5, 2024
Grants access to all screenings, lectures, podcasts, parties and more. All sales final. Includes official SHF 2024 lapel pin.