For the second time, Elements of Madness will be covering The Overlook Film Festival and we thought we’d offer up our recommendations of what to check out during the fest or what to keep an eye out for in wider distribution.
**These recommendations are based on a mixture of films previously covered by EoM and intriguing film summaries.**
The Overlook Film Festival runs from Thursday, April 4th, through Sunday, April 7th, in New Orleans, Louisiana. For more information on their full program, head to the official 2024 schedule.
Abigail
Children can be such monsters.
After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.
Arcadian
Nicolas Cage stars as a father desperately trying to take care of his two sons in an equally heartfelt and innovatively terrifying post-apocalyptic vision from director and lauded visual effects artist Benjamin Brewer (The Trust; Everything Everywhere All At Once; Save Yourselves).
Spoiler-free review by EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from Overlook 2024.
Azrael
Survivalist horror is alive and well in this pulse-pounding, dialog-less, post-apocalyptic vision from director E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and writer Simon Barrett (You’re Next) that follows Azrael (Samara Weaving), a desperate woman who is being hunted by a tenacious cult of mutes determined to use her in a sadistic ritual.
Samara Weaving in AZRAEL. Photo courtesy of SXSW.
Birdeater
Engaged couple Louie and Irene are as close as two people could be. So close, in fact, that Irene is attending Louie’s bachelor party, all set for a night of fun and debauchery. But, as uncomfortable details about their relationship start to come to the surface, it becomes clear that Louie’s friends may have other plans in this unnerving and shockingly unforgettable first feature.
Spoiler-free review by EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from Overlook 2024.
Blackout
Not your typical werewolf story, Blackout follows a painter, haunted by guilt, who becomes convinced that he is transforming at night and wreaking havoc in his small town in this genre-bending and often hilarious portrait from the legendary Larry Fessenden (Habit, Wendigo).
Spoiler-free review available from Fantasia International Film Festival 2023.
Cuckoo
Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.
Dead Mail
A dead letter investigator gets in over his head when tracking down the origin of a mysterious blood message sent through the mail in this quirky, twisty, grimey, genre-blending, indie thriller that worms its way under your skin.
Spoiler-free review available from SXSW 2024.
Exhuma
When a mysterious curse threatens a prominent family’s newborn baby, a ragtag group featuring two shamans, a feng shui master, and an undertaker are hired to dig up ancestral remains in the hope of lifting the spell, but what they uncover is something far worse… This box office smash hit from Korea, reverberating with the legacy of imperialism, is a truly thrilling creeper.
Spoiler-free theatrical release review available.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Struggling with her own personal ethics, a teenage vampire makes a pact with a suicidal boy after her family cuts off her blood supply in this sweet and touching tale of friendship and loyalty.
Spoiler-free review by EoM Founder Douglas Davidson from Overlook 2024.
I Saw The TV Glow
Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) returns with a searingly beautiful and evocative story of an awkward teenager whose suburban life is rattled when his classmate introduces him to a strangely absorbing, supernatural TV show that is abruptly canceled.
In A Violent Nature
The story is familiar: a savage, undead monster stalks a group of unsuspecting teenagers in the woods. But filmmaker Chris Nash turns this brutal slasher on its head, following the creature in his relentless pursuit.
Infested
Packed full of jump scares and sure to be every arachnophobes’ worst nightmare, this spine-tingling chiller sees the residents in the French projects go to war with a group of deadly spiders who are rapidly reproducing through each floor of their apartment building.
Spoiler-free review by EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from Overlook 2024.
Look Into My Eyes
The intimate relationship between psychics, their clients, and the loved ones they are trying to contact from the beyond is explored in this hilarious and heartbreaking new documentary from filmmaker Lana Wilson.
A scene from LOOK INTO MY EYES. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival 2024.
New Life
A tense game of cat-and-mouse unfolds as a young woman flees a mysterious facility, evading a savvy agent with nothing to lose, as the stakes rise to apocalyptic proportions in this nasty, genre-bending, and surprisingly intimate thriller.
Spoiler-free review available from Fantasia International Film Festival 2023.
Oddity
A blind medium resorts to desperate measures in an effort to find out the truth behind what happened to her sister in this mystical, terrifying creepfest that will burn its lasting, nightmarish imagery into your brain.
A scene from ODDITY. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival 2024.
Sleep
An expectant wife desperately tries to break her loving husband from his deranged sleepwalking patterns in this cleverly scripted, razor-edged thriller from Bong Joon-ho’s protégé, Jason Yu.
A scene from SLEEP. Photo courtesy of The Overlook Film Festival 2024.
Things Will Be Different
Executive produced by veteran filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, this twisty time travel story that follows two siblings, fresh off a robbery, who hide out on a remote farm in a different time period than their own, only to find themselves reckoning with a mysterious entity that does not like them being there.
Spoiler-free review available from SXSW 2024.
About The Overlook Film Festival
The Overlook Film Festival is a 4-day celebration of all things horror held in America’s most haunted city, New Orleans. Each May, genre fans and cinephiles from the world over convene in the heart of the French Quarter, home to countless apparition sightings, voodoo legends, vampire curses and even some lore related to our namesake, horror fiction’s most frightening creation.
Presenting superior film programming with an expanded focus on experiential events, the festival showcases exciting work in new and classic independent horror cinema alongside the latest in interactive and live shows for a fully immersive weekend. As a summer camp for genre fans, The Overlook is a community event bringing the best of horror in all its forms to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience within an intimate and inspirational environment.
The Overlook has been listed as one of MovieMaker Magazine’s Best Genre Festivals in the world every year. Past guests to our events also include Roger Corman, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Taika Waititi, Ari Aster, Ana Lily Amirpour, Paul Scheer, Roxanne Benjamin, Darren Lyn Bousman, Simon Barrett and Jason Blum in addition to our illustrious advisory board, who include Elijah Wood, Karyn Kusama, Leigh Whannell, Mick Garris, Larry Fessenden and Joe Dante along with industry luminaries from the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Blumhouse Productions, CAA, Endeavor Content, Neon, 30 West, XYZ Films and SpectreVision.
As part of the virtual collaborative initiative NIGHTSTREAM, a digital genre festival created in the wake of the pandemic, The Overlook spearheaded the virtual events component which included John Carpenter, Nia DaCosta, Mike Flanagan, Mary Harron, David Dastmalchian, Ernest Dickerson, John Landis, Issa Lopez, David Lowery, Greg Nicotero, Peaches Christ and many more.
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Categories: Coming Soon, Recommendation
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