The first wave of the 2026 Overlook Film Festival lineup has arrived, with new horror films including Obsession, Leviticus, Hokum, Saccharine, Faces of Death, and Exit 8 among the films heading to New Orleans. The tenth edition of the festival runs April 9–12, with additional titles and events still to be announced in the coming weeks.
Each April, horror cinema gathers in New Orleans. For four days the Overlook Film Festival transforms the Prytania Theatres into a meeting point for the genre’s most adventurous filmmakers and its most devoted audiences. Premieres collide with repertory screenings, immersive theatre and midnight conversations that spill into the streets of the French Quarter. Horror stops being a category and becomes a community.
The festival returns April 9–12 for its tenth anniversary, and the first wave of programming already sketches a strong year. This initial announcement includes 21 features and 26 shorts from seven countries, alongside immersive events and live performances. This first announcement represents only the opening wave of programming, with additional films and events expected to be revealed later in March.
Tentpole screenings
Opening night belongs to Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker. The film follows a lovelorn twenty-something whose wish on a mysterious novelty toy spirals into something far darker than fantasy.
The centerpiece selection is Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus, a coming-of-age horror story about two teenage boys pursued by a violent entity that manifests as the person they desire most.
Closing night brings Hokum, from Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy. Adam Scott plays a novelist who retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes and becomes consumed by stories of a witch haunting the building’s honeymoon suite.
Feature Presentations
Beyond those three marquee screenings, the first-wave lineup reveals a wide spectrum of contemporary horror.
Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death revisits the infamous exploitation title through the lens of online culture as a social media moderator uncovers disturbing videos connected to a cult film myth.
Natalie Erika James returns after the success of Relic with Saccharine, a body-horror story about a medical student who takes a mysterious weight-loss drug and begins to undergo unsettling physical changes.
Raymond Creamer’s Goody Goody traps expecting parents and their midwife inside a house during a blizzard as labour complications coincide with the presence of something sinister inside the home.
James Ross II’s Parasomnia explores the collapse between dreams and waking life as a woman haunted by lifelong night terrors begins to suspect the entity stalking her sleep has entered reality.
Dave Boyle’s Never After Dark follows a medium who investigates a grotesque apparition with the help of her deceased sister’s spirit.
Yûta Shimotsu’s New Group turns a modern high school into a brutal experiment in conformity as students are forced through increasingly disturbing rituals.
Paolo Strippoli’s The Holy Boy unfolds in an Italian mountain village whose serenity revolves around the healing touch of a mysterious teenager. We said it delivered a saint-or-cryptid tale that plays like a Catholic Ari Aster, weaving confession, revelation, and the corrosive value of guilt and pain into a slow-burn horror allegory.
Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8, adapted from the globally popular video game, traps its protagonist in an endless subway corridor where even the smallest anomaly sends him back to the beginning. We reckon it’s a finely made gem, eerie in tone and exact in detail, that turns a looping video game into a quiet, uncanny film about guilt and attention.
Emily Robinson’s Ugly Cry charts the psychological spiral of an actor whose determination to break into Hollywood pushes her toward obsession.
Two more films tilt the programme toward dark comedy: Chili Finger, directed by Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad, begins with a gruesome discovery at a fast-food restaurant and spirals into a bloody blackmail plot, while Drag, from Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer, traps two sisters inside a burglary gone wrong after one of them throws out her back.
Larry Fessenden’s Trauma, or Monsters All will receive its world premiere at the festival, concluding the filmmaker’s loose monster-cycle of independent horror films.
The lineup also includes the documentary Boorman and the Devil, directed by David Kittredge, which revisits the troubled production of Exorcist II: The Heretic and explores how the sequel became one of horror cinema’s most infamous misfires. We said it reframes one of Hollywood’s greatest disasters into a hypnotic study of vision, collapse, and the strange beauty of failure.
Special Screenings and Retrospectives
Overlook has always paired new work with a celebration of the genre’s history.
Legendary makeup artist Rick Baker will receive the festival’s Master of Horror Award, accompanied by a 45th anniversary screening of An American Werewolf in London.
Another historical centrepiece arrives with a centenary screening of A Page of Madness, the avant-garde 1926 Japanese psychological horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Perhaps the first great “wait, I’m only supposed to be visiting this asylum!” horror film, it will be presented with a newly composed live orchestral score.
The festival will also screen three retrospective entries in Larry Fessenden’s monster cycle: Habit, Depraved and Blackout, providing context for the premiere of Trauma, or Monsters All.
Beyond the Screen
The Overlook experience famously extends well beyond cinema.
The festival’s immersive programme returns with three new projects: Eternal, an audio experience confronting the promise of immortality; Hag, a mischievous supernatural eviction scenario inspired by Shakespeare’s witches; and The Mother of Nightmares, a surreal one-on-one encounter with the figure responsible for humanity’s worst dreams.
The weekend begins with the festival’s signature Second Line parade through the French Quarter, where a brass band leads a procession of masked creatures toward opening night.
Nine years since its founding, the Overlook Film Festival has become one of the genre’s most distinctive gatherings. New discoveries premiere alongside established voices, and audiences watch films shoulder to shoulder with the people who made them. And with more titles still to be announced, the 2026 edition has only begun to reveal its secrets…
The full press release:
THE OVERLOOK FILM FESTIVAL KICKS OFF
TENTH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS HORROR
WITH FIRST WAVE LINEUP
Focus Features’ Obsession, NEON’s Leviticus and Hokum Highlight Festival Full of 2026’s Most Eagerly Anticipated Horror Films and New Discoveries
Master of Horror Award to be Presented to the Legendary Rick Baker
With More Surprises to Come!
March 11, 2026 | New Orleans, LA – The Overlook Film Festival, the annual celebration of all things horror, today announced the first wave of the lineup for its momentous, tenth annual edition in New Orleans, Louisiana. Taking place April 9 – April 12 at the Prytania Theatres, the horror festival welcomes audiences back to America’s most haunted city with a terrifying selection of new and classic films as well as the extensive offscreen offerings including interactive events, live performances, immersive programming and special guests for which the annual horror staple has become known.
“It somehow seems appropriate that our tenth year features a plethora of nerve rattling tales, many of which touch upon the theme of identity,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and Director of Film Programming of The Overlook Film Festival. “This program is an equal mix of returning beloved filmmakers and staggeringly talented new voices, showcasing the heart of what we ourselves identify as: an ever-growing community with a shared love of being terrified.”
This packed initial festival lineup includes 47 films (21 features and 26 shorts) from seven countries, as well as immersive experiences, live presentations and horror-themed celebrations, with many more exciting films and surprises to be announced as the festival approaches.
In true New Orleans fashion, the tenth anniversary festivities will kick off on April 9 with the return of the celebratory, horror-themed Second Line Parade through the streets of the city, presented by Shudder, the iconic horror curation and streaming service. Bigger and bolder than ever before, this parade will make its way through the French Quarter featuring a demonic brass band, creepy characters and plenty of surprises!
This will all lead to a screening of the Opening Night film, Obsession, Focus Features’ upcoming story of wish-fulfillment-gone-wrong. Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession tells the story of a lovelorn 20-something whose wish upon a novelty toy turns more terrifying than he could have imagined.
The screenings continue throughout the weekend, including the Centerpiece showing of NEON’s highly anticipated story of terror and desire, Leviticus. From director Adrian Chiarella, Leviticus is an equally terrifying and sensitive coming of age story in which two teenage boys must confront a violent entity that takes the form of what they desire the most: each other.
Bringing the celebration to an end will be the Closing Night screening of Hokum, from returning director Damien McCarthy, whose previous film, Oddity, took home the Overlook Audience Award in 2024. Adam Scott stars as a cynical writer who, upon traveling to an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, finds himself consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite.
Additional festival highlights include the world premiere of Larry Fessenden’s new film, Trauma, or Monsters All, the final film of his personal quadrilogy, bringing together the creatures from the previous films in the horror master’s long and varied career. As part of this premiere showcase, the Overlook will also be screening the first three films from the Fessenden-verse which lead up to his new opus, including previous Overlook inclusions Blackout and Depraved, as well as his 1995 classic Habit.
Other upcoming films include Chili Finger, from directors Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad and starring Judy Greer, Bryan Cranston, Sean Astin and John Goodman, about a blackmail plot that spins out of control in bloody, unpredictable ways; Drag, directed by Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer and starring Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito and John Stamos in a twisty story of a simple burglary gone wrong thanks to a bad back; Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death, filmed locally in New Orleans and starring Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery and Charli XCX, is a thrilling take on the modern remake in which a social media moderator comes across visceral snuff videos which bear a shocking resemblance to a mythical cult film; and David Kittredge’s star-studded documentary, Boorman and the Devil, about director John Boorman’s creation of the maligned sequel to The Exorcist, one of the most ambitious bombs in horror movie history.
Continuing the Overlook’s history of celebrating the films and icons that have elevated horror to where it is today, the legendary Rick Baker will be on hand to receive the festival’s prestigious Master of Horror Award. A self-described “monster kid” who went on to create some of cinema’s most innovative characters, Baker turned his passion into a decades-long career that forever changed the art of movie makeup. The award presentation will include a 45th anniversary screening of An American Werewolf in London. Selected by the master himself, this is the film for which he was presented with the first ever Academy Award for makeup (an award which he has gone on to win a record seven times). Past recipients of the Master of Horror Award include Roger Corman, Ernest Dickerson, Mick Garris, Mike Flanagan, Stuart Gordon and Joe Dante.
There will also be a special, 100th anniversary screening of Teinosuke Kinugasa’s classic horror film, A Page of Madness. Considered the first Japanese horror film ever made, this masterpiece was believed lost for 45 years before being rediscovered by the director within a rice barrel he had kept in storage. The film will be screened with a live score composed by acclaimed New Orleans-based composer and musician Jeff Pagano and performed by a local six-piece orchestra.
“There’s no greater thrill than bestowing our dark carnival in the illustrious city of New Orleans to all the spirits who flock to it each year and bring it to terrifying undead life,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and Executive Director of the Overlook Film Festival. “At a time when it’s become so hard to simply exist in this world, it is truly a gift to be able to gather together in the dark with homespun nightmares and haunted tales with all the people who give this space meaning. We exist because of your dedication, and for that we will repay you in blood, rituals, sacrifices, curses, demons and creatures we dare not name. After all, life’s no fun without a good scare.”
In addition to the films, the Overlook Film Festival’s signature, one-of-a-kind immersive program, featuring interactive projects and experiences, returns this year with three mind-bending presentations. These include Eternal, an immersive audio experience created by Darkfield, where a single person, alone in their bed, is presented with a tempting offer of immortality; Hag, from The Queen’s Fools, where Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters lead a creepy and silly experience that asks audience members to help clear out some squatters by any means necessary; and The Mother of Nightmares, a surreal and darkly comedic one-on-one experience from returning Overlook creators E3W Productions and All of Them Witches, where you’re brought face to face with the mischievous figure who creates all of your worst dreams.
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 current lineup of films, experiences, live events and immersive content is included below, with additional programming to be announced as the festival approaches.
Opening Night Film
Obsession
Director: Curry Barker
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
United States, 2025
Hopelessly paralyzed by his unrequited crush on one of his closest friends, a lovelorn 20-something makes a wish on a mysterious novelty toy, only to find out that his dreams are far worse than any nightmare he could imagine in this bone-chilling relationship horror.
Centerpiece Film
Leviticus
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie
Australia, 2026
Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other.
Closing Night Film
Hokum
Director: Damian McCarthy
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Siox C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle
United States, Ireland, 2026
When novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance forces him to confront dark corners of his past.
Feature Film Presentations
International Titles Presented by MUBI
Boorman and the Devil
Director: David Kittredge
Featuring: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante
United States, 2025
Hot off the success of his genre defining film, Deliverance, John Boorman takes on his biggest challenge yet – a sequel to one of the most successful horror movies in history, The Exorcist. What could go wrong? This insightful documentary delves deep into the making of one of the biggest bombs in horror history.
Chili Finger
Directors: Edd Benda, Stephen Helstad
Cast: Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman, Sara Sevigny, Dann Florek
United States, 2025
When a down on their luck couple find a gruesome surprise at their favorite fast food chain, they hatch a simple blackmail plot that quickly spins their lives out of control in this bloody, Coen Brothers-esque thriller featuring an all-star cast.
Drag
Directors: Raviv Ullman, Greg Yagolnitzer
Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Christine Ko
United States, 2025
Two sisters. One empty house. A simple burglary plan. If only one of them didn’t throw their back out… Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer’s hilarious and twisty horror comedy is a ticking clock crawl to survival as the sibling duo must find a way out or face the dangers of being caught when the owner returns home.
Exit 8
Director: Genki Kawamura
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu
Japan, 2026
Based on the global hit video game, a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?
Faces of Death
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Cast: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Charli XCX
United States, 2026
A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film. Starring Barbie Ferreira, this New Orleans shot slasher is a thrilling twist on the modern remake.
Goody Goody
WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Raymond Creamer
Cast: Colleen Foy, Samantha Robinson, Zoe Renee, Colby Hollman
United States, 2026
Lulled into a necessary sense of comfort during a long home birth process, expecting parents and their midwife begin to realize that something may be horribly wrong. As labor complications ensue, a blizzard rages outside trapping the family in their home – sitting ducks for whatever sinister presence might be in there with them.
The Holy Boy
Director: Paolo Strippoli
Cast: Michele Riondino, Giulio Feltri
Italy, 2026
Deep in the Italian mountains lives a village of some of the happiest people on earth. Their serenity is about to be broken by the arrival of the new PE teacher who is haunted by his past and determined to uncover the secret of how all of the townspeople are healed weekly by the touch of a 15-year-old boy with special powers.
Never After Dark
Director: Dave Boyle
Cast: Moeka Hoshi, Kento Kaku, Kurumi Inagaki, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Bokuzo Masana, Tae Kimura
Japan, 2025
A medium for hire, assisted by the spirit of her deceased sister, takes on the case of a grotesque apparition that haunts an isolated country home. As she peels back the layers of the spine-tingling investigation, she realizes that the greatest threats don’t lie in the world of the dead, but rather in with the living people around her.
New Group
Directors: Yûta Shimotsu
Cast: Yuzu Aoki, Pierre Taki
Japan, 2026
From the director of the Overlook 2025 winner for Scariest Feature, Best Wishes to All, comes a terrifying new vision of youth, conformity, and authoritarianism as the students inside a modern high school are violently forced to become part of increasingly disturbing, physically demanding and surreal tasks in order to assimilate.
Parasomnia
Directors: James Ross II
Cast: Jasmine Mathews, RJ Brown, Sally Stewart, Stephen Barrington, Danny Brown, Simon Longnight
United States, 2025
When one of her closest friends goes missing, Riley, a young woman haunted by a lifelong battle with debilitating night terrors, must come to terms with the fact that the demonic entity that’s been stalking her dreams since childhood may have followed her home into the real world.
Saccharine
Director: Natalie Erika James
Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden
Australia, 2026
Looking for a quick weight loss fix, a medical student accepts a mysterious drug, setting her off on a path of unwanted transformation in this goopy, sickening, violent body-horror from the director of Relic.
Trauma, or Monsters All
WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Alex Breaux, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Barbara Crampton, Aitana Doyle, Larry Fessenden, Rigo Garay, Steve Heller, Laetitia Hollard, Alex Hurt, Cody Kostro, James Le Gros
United States, 2026
An aspiring author gets more than she bargained for when she writes an article for the local paper about her small town’s dark history, prompting unwanted speculation on what monsters may lie within. Overlook mainstay Larry Fessenden returns with the thrilling conclusion to his quadrilogy, a thoughtful and fiercely independent monster mash that can be enjoyed on its own or marathoned with his three origin stories – Habit, Depraved and Blackout.
Ugly Cry
Director: Emily Robinson
Cast: Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Domínguez, Robin Tunney, Andrew Leeds, Heather Morris, Chalia La Tour, Ray Abruzzo, Sophie Von Haselberg, Josh Ruben, and Melinda McGraw
United States, 2026
An actor’s desperate determination to break in Hollywood leads her down a frightening spiral of obsession, delusion and augmentation in this darkly comedic, Repulsion-esque thriller from first time writer-director and star Emily Robinson.
Retrospective Film Presentations
An American Werewolf in London
45th Anniversary Screening
2026 Master of Horror Award Recipient Rick Baker in Person
Director: John Landis
Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine
United States, 1981
Beware the moon! Witness the most monstrous of monster transformations, one that cemented Rick Baker’s legacy and earned him his first Academy Award, unfurl on the big screen before your very eyes. Chosen by our 2026 Master of Horror recipient Rick Baker, the screening will precede a conversation with the legend himself.
Blackout
Directors: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, John Speredakos, Michael Buscemi, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, Marshall Bell
United States, 2023
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 the third of Larry Fessenden’s four-part monsterverse series.
Depraved
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: David Call, Joshua Leonard, Alex Breaux, Ana Kayne, Maria Dizzia, Chloë Levine
United States, 2019
The second in Larry Fessenden’s genre-bending four movie monsterverse is a millennial take on the Frankenstein myth in which a PTSD-riddled field surgeon deep in the heart of Brooklyn decides to reconstruct an unsuspecting man out of spare body parts.
Habit
Director: Larry Fessenden
Cast: Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Aaron Beall
United States, 1995
Indie icon Larry Fessenden’s first feature, about an alcoholic New Yorker who falls for a mysterious woman with vampiric qualities, is as groundbreaking now as it was when it debuted over 20 years ago, inspiring generations of young horror filmmakers to this day.
A Page of Madness
100th Anniversary Screening with Live Score Composed by Jeff Pagano
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Cast: Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa
Japan, 1926
A completely original avant-garde masterpiece once thought lost to time for 45 years, Japan’s first ever horror film simply must be seen. A rarity in sight and sound, this work of art will be presented with an original composition from Nola’s own Jeff Pagano (Marigny Opera House) and performed by a six piece orchestra handpicked by the maestro.
Live Events and Special Presentations
SHUDDER SECOND LINE PARADE
Presented by SHUDDER
The quintessential New Orleans art form returns with our signature horror twist courtesy of the scariest streamer around. Bigger and bolder, this year’s second line will kick off the entire festival on Opening Night. Make your way to our festival headquarters before the screenings begin, strutting through the French Quarter in style behind a demonic brass band, creepy characters both familiar and unknown, and you. We roll at 5pm. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Immersive Presentations
Presented by American Immersion Theater
The festival’s unique interactive live theatrical horror experiences for small audiences return with fresh offerings for the brave and mysterious.
ETERNAL
Creator: Darkfield
You have been chosen and we thank you for your sacrifice. In return we offer you the opportunity for eternal life, but there are conditions. ETERNAL is a 25 minute immersive audio experience for one person, alone in their bed. It explores the temptation of eternal life and wonders what price you would pay to achieve it. ETERNAL was commissioned by the 2020 Bram Stoker Festival, Dublin.
HAG
Presented by Charming Stranger
Creator: The Queen’s Fools
The Weird Sisters have gotten even weirder. You have responded to a Craigslist ad from a disgruntled Landlord needing help clearing out some squatters from his recently purchased property. Pack up their things & do what you’ve gotta do to get ‘em out. Simple. Only, some squatters are better left alone. HAG is a 35-minute spooky & silly immersive experience for four audience members, led through the chaos and charm of Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters.
THE MOTHER OF NIGHTMARES
Creators: E3W Productions and AOTW
Step into the dream world and come face to face with the Mother of Nightmares, the mysteriously mischievous figure who creates and controls all of your worst dreams, as she guides you through this surreal and darkly comedic 1-on-1 experience from returning Overlook creators E3W Productions (IN ANOTHER ROOM). Originally performed as part of ‘The Shape of the Night’, a full-length immersive experience exploring the world of dreams and nightmares created by Overlook veteran group All Of Them Witches (AOTW).
Short Film Presentations
Short films will be presented in three themed programs: Feral, Freaky and Static.
Blister, dir. Olivia Simon, United States, 2025, WORLD PREMIERE
Trapped alone in a haunted room, a paranormal researcher’s experiment goes horrifically wrong.
Breeder, dir, Sapphire Sandalo, United States, 2025, WORLD PREMIERE
A woman on the fence about having kids is hunted in her home by a demonic horse-man.
Carousel, dir. Christopher Kosakowski, United States, 2025
A circus clown celebrating his birthday alone receives a mysterious gift box harboring an antique zoetrope that spins his world into mayhem.
The Creature of Darkness, dir. Lisa Marie Malloy, Roy Whitaker, United States, 2026
Darkness settles over Little Egypt. Brielle, Karri, and Nunu wander among the limestone outcrops and sandstone spires. In a cave that sheltered freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad, their uncle shares a story of a creature that stirs at night.
Darkroom, dir. Matthew Black, United States, 2025
In his home darkroom, a crime scene photographer develops pictures of a gruesome murder, and each new print comes out more unsettling than the last.
The Dysphoria, dir. Kylie Aoibheann, Australia, 2025
A trans woman performs a Satanic ritual to get a vagina, but unwittingly invites a demonic presence into her home which demands a terrible sacrifice.
F**k Face, dir. Dean Puckett, United Kingdom, 2025
A single mother and her child are put through a nightmarish ordeal when a politician knocks on their door.
Ghoststory, dir. Alex Jacobs, United States, 2026
A cursed artifact wrapped in static.
Haint, dir. Jahmil Eady, United States, 2025
When gentrifiers begin to mysteriously die, a Gullah Geechee handywoman who recently lost her home, must decide whether to help them or leave the newcomers to their fate.
Has Anyone Else Lost Their Body?, dir. Randall Snare, United States, 2026, WORLD PREMIERE
The comments on a reluctant influencer’s first viral dance video overflow with people claiming to lose their bodies after watching it.
He, dir. Hira Vin, Canada, 2025
A facility monetizes the ability of a shapeshifting entity to become the lover of their patrons’ dreams. Nancy, a woman desperate for love and affection, jumps into the rabbit hole and meets her fate when she decides not to follow facility rules.
Hickeys, dir. Ella Rhodes, United States, 2025
While performing at her first concert on the hottest day of 1983, a queer runaway is horrified to discover that her bandmates are rapacious vampires preying on her vulnerability.
Homemade Gatorade, dir. Carter Amelia Davis, United States, 2025
A woman embarks on a road trip to deliver her creamy homemade sports drink to a mysterious online buyer.
Hot Water, dir. Miles Gunter, Cassie Kramer, United States, 2025, WORLD PREMIERE
A corrupt kidnapped judge has until a pot of water boils to admit to wrongdoing — or his head goes into the scalding water.
House Cat, dir. Kyle Spleiss, United States, 2026
Living out of her car and hustling gig to gig, a woman takes a last-ditch job house-sitting a cat, only to discover she isn’t there to care for the cat; she is the cat.
It’s Not Me, dir. Cameron Veitch, Robert J Kemp, Canada, 2025
After finding a girl that looks to be her exact double, Hannah decides to take over her life. But a presence seems to threaten Hannah’s ambitions.
Last Call, dir. Winnie Cheung, United States, 2025
A motorcycle rebel spirals deeper into her erotic hallucinations in order to escape the grip of a sultry serpent woman.
Man Eating Pussy, dir. Lee Lawson, Canada, 2026
A dying man seeks comfort in a mysterious sex worker whose monstrous anatomy offers not just pleasure—but the ultimate release.
Men (Lok), dir. Mahmuda Sultana Rima, Bangladesh, 2025
In a very rural village of Bangladesh, men suddenly start to disappear. The villagers start blaming the recluse ‘witch’ of the village who is known to practice black magic. But why is she making these men disappear?
Mother Mary, dir. Playdoh Kolo, United States, 2025
A shadow puppet music video for the song by Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars, blending Creole jazz, spiritual folk imagery, and hand-cut animation.
Nail-Biter, dir. Joseph Burch, United States, 2025, WORLD PREMIERE
On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, anxious nail-biter Amy Heller confronts her mother about their so-called family curse, just as the monster arrives to claim her as its next victim.
Scissors, dir. Hannah Alline, United States, 2025
A slasher with a grudge meets his match when a group of queer friends on a weekend getaway turns his killing spree into a bloody night he never saw coming.
Spanked by a Ghost, dir. Katelyn Douglass, United States, 2025
Alone in her home, a woman is spanked by an unseen entity, awakening a force she cannot control.
Steak Dinner, dir. Nathan Mark Ginter, United States, 2025
Casey’s attempted surprise dinner date gets derailed when Taylor, her girlfriend, reveals she has brought home a strange, wounded creature she intends to nurse back to health.
Superconscious, dir. Christianne Hedtke, United States, 2025
Amidst a simmering Cold War and the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, Cybil G. journeys to a far-flung human potential center to join a scientific study on so-called “psi energy.”
Vlog Cam, dir. Danilo Rafael Parra, United States, 2025
New to the city and searching for connection, May stumbles upon a discarded vlog camera in the park.
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Important Dates
March 25: Additional Titles Announced + Schedule Goes Live; Advance Reservations Begin For Final Girl Pass Holders
March 28: Advance Reservations Begin For Camper Pass Holders
March 31: Individual tickets on sale
April 9: Festival starts
April 13-15: Lagniappe
Film stills and festival artwork available to download atwww.overlookfilmfest.com/press
To keep up to date with The Overlook Film Festival, visit overlookfilmfest.com.
2026 Overlook Film Festival partners include OFFICIAL SPONSORS American Immersion Theater, IFC Films, Shudder; PREMIERE SPONSORS Charming Stranger, MUBI; SIGNATURE SPONSORS Bywater Wonderland, SAGIndie; Vinegar Syndrome PATRON SPONSORS Louisiana Office of Tourism; EVENT SPONSORS Daily Dead, Full Armor Films; VENUE SPONSORS Canal Place, Prytania Theatres, Toulouse Theatre; MEDIA SPONSORS Antigravity, FANGORIA, Where Y’At SIGNATURE HOTEL SPONSOR International House Hotel. PATRON HOTEL SPONSORS Hotel Theo, Wyndham Garden Baronne Plaza New Orleans, Additional sponsors can be found on our website. More to be announced.
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About The Overlook Film Festival
The Overlook Film Festival is a 4-day celebration of all things horror held in haunted, historic & iconic venues throughout New Orleans. Presenting superior film programming with an expanded focus on experiential events, the festival showcases exciting work in new and classic 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 storytelling to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience within an intimate and inspirational environment. Evoking the spirit of the Overlook hotel, horror’s most infamous fictional haunt, the 2026 Overlook Film Festival runs from April 9 – April 12, headquartered at the Prytania Theatres at Canal Place in Downtown New Orleans and Prytania Theatres Uptown. The festival advisory board includes Joe Dante (Filmmaker – Gremlins, The Howling), Karyn Kusama (Filmmaker – Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation), Ryan Turek (VP of Feature Film Development, Blumhouse Productions), Leigh Whannell (Actor / Writer / Filmmaker – Saw, Insidious), Diana Williams (CEO & Co-Founder, Kinetic Energy Entertainment), Elijah Wood (Founding Partner, SpectreVision), and more.
Whitlock&Pope 