Larry Fessenden to Receive 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Career Honor with Leviathan Award
Larry Fessenden’s career in horror films will be honored at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF).
The indie filmmaker, who launched his career with a Frankenstein story in 1991’s “No Telling,” will be celebrated with the Leviathan Award to mark his cinematic achievements. A special screening of Fessenden’s 1996 film “Habit” will also be part of the ceremony. Fessenden will participate in a Q&A with BHFF alum Jenn Wexler.
More from IndieWire
The Leviathan Award, Brooklyn Horror’s first and only tribute award, was created in 2023 to honor the luminaries of horror and acknowledge their monstrous contributions to the genre.
Fessenden is credited by the festival for being an “irreplaceable” voice in filmmaking. Fessenden is the founder of Glass Eye Pix, which has sustained indie horror in New York for three decades and counting.
“Larry Fessenden is exactly the kind of trailblazing and enduring artist we want to celebrate, one whose distinct mark on the industry and on countless filmmakers is undeniable,” a representative for the festival stated.
The 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival will take place from October 17 through 24 at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. The festival will open with the New York premiere of “Dead Mail” from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy, and close with “The Rule of Jenny Pen” starring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow.
Emma Benestan’s “Animale” is the Centerpiece Film.
Programming highlights include the world premieres of Izzy Lee’s first feature “House of Ashes,” “Lilly Lives Alone,” and queer sci-fi adventure “Psychonaut.”
The festival’s signature sidebar programs also return, starting with “Fear in Focus: Spain” which includes the North American premiere of documentary “Exorcismo,” as well as retrospective screenings of “Vampyres” and “The Blood Splattered Bride” on 35mm.
Abel Ferrara’s “The Addiction” and the Spanish version of “Dracula” will screen with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.
The Brooklyn Horror Jury includes filmmakers Edoardo Vitaletti and Toby Poser, as well as Executive Vice President of MPI Justin DiPietro.
Check out the full lineup below.
DEAD MAIL
OPENING NIGHT FILM
New York Premiere
US | 2024 | 106 Min. | Dir. Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy
A blood-stained note arrives at a county post office, leading its experienced “dead letter” mailroom clerk and his associates down a perilous path to discover its origins. Meanwhile, an entrepreneurial synthesizer engineer enters a precarious partnership with an overbearing investor. Perfectly capturing an authentic retro aesthetic, Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s indie horror-synth thriller is a total gem and should launch this directing team into the stratosphere.
ANIMALE
CENTERPIECE FILM
East Coast Premiere
France | 2024 | 98 Min. | Dir. Emma Benestan
As a French town’s annual bull racing competition approaches, a string of grisly murders committed by a wild bull ignites the community into a frenzy.
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
East Coast Premiere
New Zealand | 2024 | 103 Min. | Dir. James Ashcroft
John Lithgow vies for “Best Villain of the Year” honors playing a deranged nursing home resident terrorizing a new fellow resident (played by Geoffrey Rush) in this twisted and mean-spirited gem.
HABIT
LEVIATHAN AWARD
Presented by Arrow Video
United States | 1995 | 112 Min. | Dir. Larry Fessenden
On a drunken downward spiral following a breakup and the recent death of his father, Sam’s troubles only multiply when he meets the enigmatic Anna who just might be a vampire. This special screening of HABIT will be followed by the Leviathan Award presentation and Q&A w/ Larry Fessenden, moderated by BHFF alum Jenn Wexler.
BIRDEATER
East Coast Premiere
New Zealand | 2023 | 113 Min. | Dir. Jack Clark, Jim Weir
Louie invites his fiance Irene to join him at his bachelor party, but as alarming details of their relationship emerge, the night free falls into full-on madness.
BLACK EYED SUSAN
NYC Premiere
United States | 2024 | 85 Min. | Dir. Scooter McRae
In a world increasingly relying on AI technology, one company experiments with BDSM sex dolls to offer to their most violent clients.
BONE LAKE
New York Premiere
United States | 2024 | 94 Min. | Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Hoping to get out of their romantic rut, a couple rents out a scenic cabin, but their plans are disrupted when they find another couple has also rented the same cabin.
CUSTOM
North American Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 76 Min. | Dir. Tiago Teixeira
A couple produce their own erotic films for money but when they take on a new client they become embroiled in something dark and sinister.
DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY
New York Premiere
Taiwan R.O.C. | 2024 | 106 Min. | Dir. John Hsu
To avoid getting kicked out of the underworld, a ghost joins a small haunting talent agency and sets out to become the scariest urban legend of them all.
THE DEAD THING
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 95 Min. | Dir. Elric Kane
Disillusioned by empty hookups, Alex finally connects with a charismatic guy who seems worth her time, only to learn that he’s harboring a nightmarish secret.
GAZER
NYC Premiere
United States | 2024 | 114 Min. | Dir. Ryan J. Sloan
An ingenious and challenging marriage of noir and horror, this singular feature debut finds a young mother with a time-distorting mental condition forced to pull off a heist to provide for her daughter.
GENERATION TERROR
North American Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 100 Min. | Dir. Phillip Escott, Sarah Appleton
Generation Terror looks at the global effects of the turn of the millennium had on horror and the slew of films it ushered in.
GRAFTED
North American Premiere
New Zealand | 2024 | 96 Min. | Dir. Sasha Rainbow
Body horror gets an extreme, bubblegum-poppy makeover in this funny and gruesome feature debut, in which a college student’s research into skin diseases helps her achieve popularity in the most perverse way imaginable.
HOUSE OF ASHES
World Premiere
United States | 2024 | 95 Min. | Dir. Izzy Lee
While under house arrest, a grieving widow questions whether she’s losing her mind or if she’s the victim of something supernatural after an old friend moves in to help curb her loneliness.
JIMMY & STIGGS
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 80 Min. | Dir. Joe Begos
Trapped in a Los Angeles apartment, two best friends guzzle booze and lay waste to a small army of relentless extraterrestrials in Joe Begos’s latest dose of unadulterated, modern-day grindhouse carnage.
THE LAST SACRIFICE
East Coast Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 92 Min. | Dir. Rupert Russell
Part film history and part true crime documentary, this riveting and unsettling doc examines an infamous 1945 murder in England that inspired your favorite British folk horror films and remains draped in mystery.
LILLY LIVES ALONE
World Premiere
United States | 2024 | 93 Min. | Dir. Martin Melnick
The 10-year anniversary of a tragic accident sends a guilt-ridden woman over the edge, plunging her into a drug and booze fueled fever dream of conspiring townsfolk and supernatural terrors.
PSYCHONAUT
World Premiere
Netherlands | 2024 | 87 Min. | Dir. Thijs Meuwese
With the help of a futuristic healing machine, Maxime must traverse into the dark recesses of her dying girlfriend’s mind in order to locate the “essential memory” that could save her life.
RITA
United States Premiere
Guatemala | 2024 | 107 Min. | Dir. Jayro Bustamante
A young girl runs away from her abusive father only to end up in a safe house, where she finds the fantasy and horrors that await her.
SAYARA
East Coast Premiere
Turkey| 2024 | 98 Min. | Dir. Can Evrenol
Brooklyn Horror alum Can Evrenol (Housewife, 2017) combines his personal brand of extreme horror with brutal martial arts action in this tale of blood-soaked revenge, following a woman’s mission to avenge her sister’s murder.
SOMNIUM
New York Premiere
United States| 2024 | 92 Min. | Dir. Racheal Cain
Gemma moves to LA in the hopes of making it as an actress but when she takes a job at a mysterious sleep clinic it has strange effects on her.
THE SOUL EATER
East Coast Premiere
France, Belgium | 2024 | 108 Min. | Dir. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Jump-started by a perplexing murder scene of absolute carnage and a group of missing children, two investigators from different departments are sent down the same dark and unforgiving trail.
TALES FROM THE VOID (Season 1 Episodes 4-6)
World & New York Premieres
United States | 2024 | 79 Min. | Dir. Maritte Lee Go, Francesco Loschiavo, John Adams and Toby Poser
Fans of short-form horror are in for a treat with this trio of episodes from Screambox’s new Reddit-derived anthology series, two of which are BHFF World Premieres and the third directed by indie horror stalwarts John Adams and Toby Poser.
TIMESTALKER
Presented by The Future of Film is Female
New York Premiere
United Kingdom | 2024 | 96 Min. | Dir. Alice Lowe
A karmic journey that sees the hapless heroine Agnes reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man.
WHO’S WATCHING
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2024 | 86 Min. | Dir. Tim Kasher
Cursive frontman Tim Kasher delivers an impressively nihilistic directorial debut with this seedy look at a mentally disturbed social misfit who takes his infatuation with a female co-worker to disturbing heights.
WAKE IN FRIGHT (4K Restoration)
East Coast Premiere
Australia | 1971 | 109 Min. | Dir. Ted Kotcheff
A masterwork of pure cinematic madness, Ted Kotcheff’s wild and disturbing Wake in Fright, which follows a schoolteacher as he loses his mind amidst drunken Aussie locals, receives a glorious 4K restoration.
THE ADDICTION
United States | 1995 | 82 Min. | Dir. Abel Ferrara
In this ’90s cult classic from New York director Abel Ferrara, a doctoral student becomes a vampire and attempts to adapt to her new lifestyle and thirst for blood.
FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN
Fear in Focus is back with a special Spain edition! The festival’s perennial sidebar, once again presented by Arrow Video, which celebrates a specific region’s exceptional work within horror, turns its eyes to one of the original and most enduring purveyors of the genre.
Program highlights include the North American premiere of EXORCISMO, a documentary exploring the post-dictatorship period of Spanish cinema when genre filmmakers were producing the most wildly taboo challenging work the country had ever seen, and repertory screenings of queer vampire essentials THEBLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE, screening on 35mm, and VAMPYRES, celebrating its 50th anniversary. The lesser known–and superior to some–Spanish production of DRACULA, made the same year as the Bela Lugosi classic, will also be screened with a brand new live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.
Rounding out the offerings will be a special FEAR IN FOCUS: SPAIN shorts block, spotlighting an exciting new wave of Spanish horror.
Exorcismo
North American Premiere
Spain | 2024 | 122 Min. | Dir. Alberto Sedano
EXORCISMO dives into the post-Franco era of Spanish cinema that saw directors freed from censorship and creating some of the most erotically explicit horror and genre films of all-time.
Vampyres – 50th Anniversary
Spain | 1974 | 87 Min. | Dir. José Ramón Larraz
A pair of ravenous femme vampires creep around the British countryside searching for men to bring back to their creepy mansion where they fuck and feed on them.
The Blood Spattered Bride (35mm)
Spain | 1972 | 100 Min. | Dir. Vicente Aranda
Sexually charged horror doesn’t get much better, or kinkier, than this cult classic about a newly married woman who can’t stand her husband and falls for a beautiful, long-dead lady vampire.
Dracula (Spanish Version w/ Live Score)
United States| 1931| 104 Min. | Dir. George Melford
An unsung gem, Universal’s other 1931 Dracula production receives a long-overdue spotlight at this special screening with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.
Fear in Focus: Spain Shorts Program
Brooklyn Horror is proud to dedicate this year’s Fear in Focus sidebar to the amazing genre films of Spain. This special shorts program of new Spanish frights includes tales of merciless revenge, spine-chilling supernatural terrors and gut-wrenching body horror.
Be Right Back, dir. Lucas Paulino, Gabe Ibá?ez; Apotemnofilia, dir. Jano Pita; Nap, dir. Javier Chavanel; The Visitor, dir. Tony Morales; Don’t Talk to Strangers, dir. Imanol Ortiz López; Voyager, dir. Pablo Pagán; Berta, dir. Lucía Forner Segarra
SHORT FILMS
NIGHTMARE FUEL
Sleep no more after witnessing the terror on display in this chilling block of purely scary horror, complete with Ouija board mishaps, techie ghouls, and cult rituals gone awry.
Dream Creep, dir. Carlos A.F. Lopez (USA); Pop, dir. Josh Jones (USA); Agonist, dir. Annie Marie Elliot (USA); Cease to Exist, dir. Taylor Nodrick (Canada); The Awakening, dir. Al Campbell (UK); Taboo, dir. Almog Avidan Antonir (USA); Inked, dir. Kelsey Bollig (USA); Mr. Static, dir. Mike Williamson (USA); Transylvanie, dir. Rodrigue Huart (France)
HEAD TRIP
Brooklyn Horror’s signature celebration of genre-bending horror returns with a fresh crop of short-form innovation, including sexual darkness, animalistic transformations, and coming-of-age supernaturalism.
Evil, I, dir. Vanessa Beletic (USA); Izzy, dir. Yfke van Berckelaer (Netherlands); Poppy’s Saturn, dir. Nicole Tegelaar (Belgium); Calf, dir. Jamie O’Rourke (Ireland); Faces, dir. Blake Simon (USA); Kneading, dir. Lulu Syracuse, Augie Syracuse (USA); Tight, dir. Jessica Barr (USA); Femme, dir. Nina No?l Raaijmakers (Netherlands)
SLAYED: LGBTQ Horror Shorts
Presented by Horror Press
Once again, Brooklyn Horror Fest is back with its Slayed shorts block which focuses on LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and themes. And as always, the selection lives up to the name.
Beach Logs Kill, dir. Haley Z. Boston (USA); Lady Parts, dir. Ariel McCleese (USA); Unsettled, dir. Bella Thorne (USA); Dream Factory, dir. Alex Matraxia (UK); Rat!, dir. Neal Suresh Mulani (USA); Stink, dir. Matias Breuer (USA); Girls, dir. Julien Hosmalin
LAUGH NOW DIE LATER
Presented by Teeth: The Musical
What’s better than being scared? Laughing your ass off at the same time, which you’ll do thanks to this batch of raucous horror-comedies featuring personal trainers, home invasions, and sexual dysfunction.
Cheat Meal, dir. Drew Bierut (USA); The Last Thing She Saw, dir. Anthony Cousins (USA); Mean Ends, dir. émile Lavoie (Canada); Erection and Destruction, dir. Eddie Mullins (USA); Make Me a Pizza, dir. Talia Shea Levin (USA); Roger is a Serial Killer, dir. Don Swaynos (USA); Hold Up, dir. Ori Guendelman (USA)
HOME INVASION #1
Back like we never left, our annual showcase of NYC local shorts returns with a buffet of genre film goodness.
Red Flag, dir. Malin Barr, Cleo Handler; Be Bad, dir. Lauren Hart; By The Window, dir. Case Avron; Wild Animals, dir. David B Jacobs; I Prefer Monsters, dir. Dylan Brown; Tinkerhell, dir. Noah Sterling; Hammer, dir. Alejandra Parody, Ben Sottak; Stigmata, dir. Ben Gordon; Jump Cut, dir. James Martin Morrison
HOME INVASION #2
Round two of our annual local shorts program, just in case you needed a reminder that NYC genre films are built different.
The Sacrifice, dir. Christopher Werener; VHX, dir. Alisa Stern, Scott Ampleford; Accidental Stars, dir. Emily Bennett; The Retreat, dir. Emmett Kerr-Perkinson; The Shadow Wrangler, dir. Grace Rex; Implied Monsters, dir. Christine Nyland; Strange Creatures, dir. Nicholas Payne Santos; Girl With the Grey Eyes, dir. Kara Grace Miller; Don’t F*ck With Ba, dir. Sally Tran
SPECIAL EVENTS
Final Exam Horror Trivia
Presented by Dark Sky Films
Do you think you know more about horror films than the rest of Gotham? Then it’s time to prove it via five blistering rounds of expert level creepy trivia with hosts Ted Geoghegan (director of WE ARE STILL HERE and Shudder’s BROOKLYN 45) and journalist Michael Gingold (of Fangoria and Rue Morgue fame)! Meet new friends, win amazing prizes, and learn more about horror cinema exclusively at Final Exam!
Certified Forgotten Podcast
Certified Forgotten is a 60-minute bi-weekly horror movie podcast with a focus on underseen films. Hosts Matt Donato and Matt Monagle speak with creators, filmmakers, and critics about their lifelong relationships to the horror genre. Each episode also highlights another unique genre title with ten-or-fewer reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes that’s picked by the guest, letting them champion each episode’s title to their heart’s content.
Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies Lecture: Queer Vampires, Queer Liberation, Queer Futurity with Dr. Leah Richards
As any vampire scholar, and most vampire fans, will tell you, the figure of the vampire is inherently queer. John Polidori based Lord Ruthven (“The Vampyre,” 1818) on the indiscriminately licentious Lord Byron; J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (“Carmilla,” 1872) still dominates the lesbian vampire genre; and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Dracula, 1897) tells his three brides that Jonathan Harker “is mine”. Their non-normative reproduction, the pleasure that they take in penetration and feasting, their seduction of victims into voluntary acquiescence, and their capes and ruffles and air of languid dissipation…vampires are queer. But so what?
This lecture will first establish cinematic vampires as almost universally queer-coded and explore the significance of this specific intersection of monstrosity and sexuality. The talk will then explore the alignment of vampire cinema with the queer liberation movement of the 1960s-70s, covering films such as Hammer’s Karnstein trilogy (The Vampire Lovers [1970], Lust for a Vampire [1971], and Twins of Evil [1971]) and its much gayer spiritual relatives including Daughters of Darkness (1971), The Blood Spattered Bride (1972), and Vampyres (1974), as well as recent titles like Bit (2019), Thirst (2020), and So Vam (2021).
Through the work of queer theorists including Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and José Esteban Mu?oz the lecture will explore the ways that vampires can contribute to discourses around queer identity, modes of being, and futurity.
Best of IndieWire
Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See
'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie
The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
