The Overlook Film Festival, the annual celebration of all things horror, announced today the full schedule for its 10th anniversary edition, including a surprise new film section and live events.
Taking place April 9 – April 12 in America’s most haunted city, New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Prytania Theatres, the horror festival announced fifteen additional films, nearly doubling the size of its features lineup, as well as new immersive events, presentations and parties. The full festival schedule can be found on their website.
The new additions to the lineup bring the festival total to 62 films (36 features and 26 shorts) from 10 countries, as well as 10 live events and six immersive experiences, making this the largest and most varied Overlook lineup in the festival’s history.
Highlighting the additions is a brand new film section, Side Shows. In a first for The Overlook, this section will feature upcoming genre films which may fall outside of horror but still feel tailor-made for the world of the Overlook. Those include IFC’s Over Your Dead Body, the latest work from comedic mastermind Jorma Taccone (The Lonely Island), who will be on hand to present this action-comedy in which a married couple (Jason Segel and Samara Weaving) use a romantic getaway as an excuse to plot each other’s murder; Magnolia’s Normal, an action thriller, from genre-bending director Ben Wheatley, about a small town sheriff (Bob Odenkirk) who, following a local bank robbery, uncovers a web of dark dealings in the place he calls home; and Lionsgate’s The Furious, from director Kenji Tanigaki, in which a desperate father teams up with a street-smart journalist as they fight their way through an international criminal network in a desperate bid to save his daughter.
“Over the years, as the Overlook has grown, we’ve been looking at ways to incorporate other genres into the program,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and Director of Film Programming of The Overlook Film Festival. “Obviously, the heartbeat of the festival is horror, but we wanted to showcase some films that may fall outside that description but include the same kinds of thrills and chills, the same amounts of tension and gore and artistry that you can expect from anything in the Overlook program. We truly love these movies, and we think the audience will too.”
Other exciting additions to the packed film lineup include Affection, in which a woman tries to adjust to life back home after a brutal accident which causes her memory to reset; American Dollhouse, where an unsuspecting woman becomes the object of her psychotic neighbor’s obsession; the darkly hilarious Buddy, straight from the unique mind of writer/director Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks), in which a girl and her friends must escape from a magical tv show mascot when he can no longer keep his murderous tendencies to himself; Simon Glassman’s cutting-edge creepshow Buffet Infinity, which tells the story of rival restaurants competing for their town’s business, told entirely through fake commercials; Capturing Bigfoot, an investigation into the most analyzed and debated 59 seconds of film in history; the gory and campy CRAMPS! A Period Piece, our Local Spotlight film from Overlook alum (and previous Grand Jury Award-winner) Brooke H. Cellars, which depicts a young woman whose quest to defy her family is upended when her menstrual cramps manifest themselves as actual monsters; Flush, a gross-out festival favorite about a well intentioned drug addict who finds himself with his head stuck in a toilet; Grind, a hilarious and terrifying anthology featuring four distinct stories examining modern work culture; Mārama, a bone-chilling kiwi gothic horror in which a Māori teacher travels to the manor of a wealthy whaler in search of buried truths about her family; The Restoration at Grayson Manor, where, after a freak accident leaves him handless, the proprietor of the titular manor is given a set of prosthetics controlled by his subconscious; and Suffocation, a chilling Taiwanese twist on J-horror tropes which follows a group of elite high school swimmers who find themselves cursed by a mysterious evil.
In addition to these upcoming features, a thrilling new retrospective showing of Demon Lover Diary was announced. Often considered a prototype for films like American Movie, the Overlook is proud to present an extremely rare 4k screening of this hilarious and horrifying portrait of ambition gone off the rails from the late pioneering cinema verité filmmaker Joel DeMott. The film’s subject, Jeff Kreines, will be on hand for this unique experience.
Of course it wouldn’t be the Overlook without live celebrations as well, and this year’s 10th anniversary lineup features no shortage of them. Making their triumphant return to the Overlook will be The Boulet Brothers, who will be kicking off their new tour with The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans Tour, a live show combining shocking performances, cinematic visuals and incredible monsters into an unforgettable combination that only they could create.
Wrapping up the festival will be the Closing Night Party: Théâtre des Vampires. 50 years ago to the exact date, on April 12th, 1976, Anne Rice published the New Orleans classic and global phenomenon Interview With The Vampire, and forever changed the lore, mythos, history and perception of the Vampyre. This party will celebrate the endless oblivion of eternal night with an evening that recreates the city’s ethereal relationship with vampires in all their forms.
“It’s been such a thrill to host some of the most innovative and bizarre screenings and events each year at the Overlook, but it’s truly special to be able to help re-introduce one of the all-time great works of American cinema, with this extremely rare showing of Demon Lover Diary,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and Executive Director of the Overlook Film Festival. “It’s an honour to welcome back The Boulets as they kick off their new tour right here, and to hold our annual carnival of horrors during the exact date that Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire turns 50, all feels like it was meant to be. New Orleans is a magical place, and we’re lucky that all of the wild events that make up our circus get to be part of the magick.”
The festival’s acclaimed immersive program, presented by American Immersion Theater, has expanded with three new additions; a remounted edition of an acclaimed thriller from 2023, Claws is a terrifying interactive experience for an audience of one where you must choose whether to help the monster in your closet; The Pumpkin Pie Show Presents: One-On-Ones is another returning favorite, this one created by acclaimed writer Clay McLeod Chapman (The Restoration at Grayson Manor), which takes one audience member on a sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking ride through the domestic horrors of the everyday; and Rebozo, an extremely limited series of audio performances told over six phone calls that occur over the course of two days, which only a lucky select few at the Overlook will get to experience.
Among the panels and live events at the festival will be U R Hell: Techno Terrors in the 21st Century, a discussion on how horror and genre fans connect today in an age where the way we consume media has completely changed; Fear Factors: Alt-Horror Experiences, in which some of the boldest voices in their mediums celebrate the ways horror can venture beyond the screen into daring new art forms; and The Boulet Brothers’ House of Horror Hosts: Past, Present, and Undead, where Dragula creators Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet give a haunting and hilarious deep dive into the art of horror hosting as they prepare to embark on their Dragula: Titans Tour.
Finally, the jury members who will be determining the film prizes at this year’s Overlook were announced. The Features Jury is made up of Vera Drew, the multi-hyphenate whose debut film, The People’s Joker, was released in 2024, garnering acclaim and a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination; Jongsuk Thomas Nam, whose roles include that of festival programmer for the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, curator of AFTER DARK at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and managing director of the Network of Asian Fantastic Films; and Jen Yamato, the award-winning journalist, formerly with the Los Angeles Times, where she reported on the movie beat, contributed film criticism and co-hosted and co-created the Asian Enough podcast. The Shorts Jury is comprised of author and film critic Payton McCarty-Simas, whose writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Fangoria, Little White Lies and others; award-winning playwright, podcaster and writer Sharai Bohannon, who is one half of the Blerdy Massacre podcast team also hosts A Nightmare on Fierce Street and serves as co-EIC at Horror Movie Blog; and writer/director Jenn Wexler whose directorial debut, The Ranger, premiered at SXSW and was released by AMC Shudder.
The festival is programmed by Co-Founders Landon Zakheim & Michael Lerman; Programmer Daniel Crooke; Short Film Programmer Katie Rife; and Programming Manager Cameron Asharian.
The full lineup of films, experiences, live events and immersive content is included below, with additional programming to be announced as the festival approaches.
Bloody Flicks 