Brooklyn Horror Film Festival

‘New Group’ Feels Like A Lost J-Horror Classic That Turns The Human Body Into Abrasive Architecture [BHFF Review]

Daniel Kurland Anna Yamada, BHFF 25, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, J-horror, Junji Ito, New Group, Reviews

Yûta Shimotsu’s sophomore feature is an enlightening social satire about the dangers of conformity and assimilation, brought to life through a chilling body horror experiment. “Japan is the best! Japan is the best!” There is no shortage of uncomfortable imagery and surreal nightmare fuel in American horror movies. However, the chilling visuals that are born […]

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‘Every Heavy Thing’ Is A Manic Murder Mystery Masterpiece [BHFF Review]

Daniel Kurland BHFF 25, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Every Heavy Thing, james urbaniak, Josh Fadem, Mickey Reece, Reviews, Tipper Newton

Mickey Reece creates a one-of-a-kind dream-like descent into danger, death, and delirium that’s as unbelievable as it is unpredictable. “Every heavy thing falls away.” It’s become such a rarity for a movie to genuinely, truly surprise its audience. Cinemagoers can sometimes cynically feel as if they’ve seen everything, only for a film like Mickey Reece’s […]

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‘This Is Not A Test’ Unleashes A YA Zombie Apocalypse That Feels Like Detention [BHFF Review]

Daniel Kurland Adam MacDonald, BHFF 25, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Courtney Summers, Froy Gutierrez, Olivia Holt, Reviews, This is Not a Test, Zombie

The melodramatic adaptation of the Courtney Summers YA novel fails to do anything new with a zombie apocalypse, despite a strong, committed performance by Olivia Holt. “The end of the world is a lonely place.” Film has been exploring zombie stories for close to a century. Zombie stories consistently find an audience and are one […]

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‘Affection’ Is A Macabre Meditation On Memory That Gets Under Your Skin [BHFF Review]

Daniel Kurland Affection, BHFF 25, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, BT Meza, Jessica Rothe, Reviews

Affection is an existential, claustrophobic examination of the self that’s more than its teases, twists, and turns “I know the difference between what’s real and what’s a dream.” Affection is such a rare, ambitious feat on multiple fronts — storytelling, editing, direction — but it’s a film that would absolutely fall apart without the right […]

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‘Tinsman Road’ Is Flawed Found Footage That Trades Frights For Feelings [BHFF Review]

Daniel Kurland BHFF 25, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, found footage, Leslie Banfitch, Reviews, Robbie Banfitch, The Outwaters, tinsman road

Tinsman Road is a grueling emotional gut punch that explores grief, guilt, and the great unknown, but poor pacing and a lack of conflict leave it lost without a compass. “You wanted to do this.” “Yeah, because I believe.” The found footage genre, when properly embraced, can truly be magical. It has the ability to […]

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‘Psychonaut’ Journeys to the Darkest Recesses of the Mind But Gets Lost On the Way Out [Review]

Daniel Kurland BHFF, BHFF 24, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Fiona Dourif, Julia Batelaan, Movies, Psychonaut, Reviews, Thijs Meuwese

Psychonaut begins with a concise definition of its titular concept — a person who explores altered states of consciousness within the human mindscape — only to infinitely double-down on the idea’s most terrifying consequences. Yes, a psychonaut explores altered consciousness, but they’re also subjected to the many dangerous and destructive impulses that flood the human […]

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‘Gazer’ Is Nihilistic Neo-Noir That Runs Cold [Review]

Daniel Kurland Ariella Mastroianni, BHFF, BHFF 24, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Gazer, Movies, neo-noir, Reviews, Ryan J. Sloan

Gazer, at its core, is a film about voyeurism and humanity’s innate compulsion to not just want to be voyeurs, but to understand and make sense of the people who are being spied on. People, by nature, have an urge to act as a storyteller and connect disparate ideas, even if they don’t naturally go […]

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‘Grafted’ Feels Like ‘The Substance’ Meets Takashi Miike [Review]

Daniel Kurland BHFF, BHFF 24, body horror, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Grafted, Joyena Sun, Movies, New Zealand, Reviews, Sasha Rainbow

It’s incredibly human to want to be seen and accepted, warts and all. It’s a deeply vulnerable experience and territory that can be ripe for horror as characters reach troubling breaking points in order to become popular and stop feeling like an outcast. People will do whatever it takes to fit in, even if that […]

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‘Jimmy and Stiggs’ Is a Neon-Soaked, Cocaine-Fueled Alien Assault [Review]

Daniel Kurland Alien, BHFF, BHFF 24, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Jimmy & Stiggs, Joe Begos, Matt Mercer, Movies, Reviews

2020’s COVID-19 pandemic was a weird, isolating time, particularly for filmmakers and natural storytellers. Joe Begos’ Jimmy and Stiggs isn’t about the pandemic or even set during that period, but it’s a movie that was born out of this event and is very much in conversation with this challenging, reflective, isolating time. And it’s DIY […]

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‘Sayara’ Is Harrowing Revenge Horror That’s Ruthless & Relentless [Review]

Daniel Kurland BHFF, BHFF 24, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Can Evrenol, Duygu Kocabiyik, Movies, Reviews, Sayara

Revenge stories are one of horror’s most popular sub-genres that range from arthouse endeavors, to gritty grindhouse fare, to pulpy “torture porn” and everything in between. Turkish filmmaker Can Evrenol, who previously struck gold with the surreal and suffocating Baskin and Housewife, tries his hand in this territory and strikes a rich vein that bleeds […]

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‘Animale’ Is Bold, Gender-Driven Body Horror That Takes the Bull by the Horns [Review]

Daniel Kurland Animale, BHFF, BHFF 24, body horror, Brooklyn Horror, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Emma Benestan, Movies, Oulaya Amamra, Reviews

There’s been an exciting influx of female transformation horror films in recent years, such as The First Omen, Smile 2, The Substance, and Titane. All these movies depict harrowing rebirths, but there are also often transferences of power that allow these characters to penetrate worlds that would otherwise be impossible for them. Animale gets to […]

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The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Is Jam-Packed With Goodies, Including the SCREAMBOX Original Series “Tales From the Void”!

Brad Miska Brooklyn Horror Film Fest, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Jimmy & Stiggs, Movies, Screambox, Tales From the Void

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF) announced today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring […]

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‘Property’ Review – White-Knuckle Home Invasion Horror Locks Audiences in an Armored Car

Daniel Kurland BHFF, BHFF 23, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Daniel Bandeira, Movies, Property, Reviews

Horror is an endlessly broad genre that creates terror from diverse material. The genre’s depth can prompt audiences to question if gore and vicious murders are worse than systemic oppression and an impossibly-balanced class structure where the disenfranchised continually grow more helpless. It’s eerie how a blood-thirsty monster and societal strife can be equally destructive […]

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Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Unveils Massive 2023 Lineup

Meagan Navarro Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Doors, Maniac Cop, Movies

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival announced an impressive full slate of programming for its 2023 edition, running October 12-19 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. From the press release: 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 […]

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‘Repulse’ Review – An Unflinching Tale of Revenge from the Czech Republic

Daniel Kurland BHFF 22, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Emil Krizka, Movies, Repulse, Reviews

Czech Republic’s ‘Repulse’ sinks the audience into an extended exercise in trauma that turns to brevity and non-linear storytelling to amplify its pain. “You can do whatever you want.” “What do I want?” Screams of anguish are the only forms of dialogue that are present in the first ten minutes of Repulse, Emil Krizka’s ode […]

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