2024 Overlook Film Festival Will Scare Lucky Audiences with ‘Abigail,’ ‘Cuckoo,’ ‘I Saw the TV Glow,’ and More

The Overlook Film Festival, billed as “the annual celebration of all things horror,” announced today the initial lineup for its 2024 edition.

Taking place April 4 through 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Prytania Theatres, the horror fest is ready to bring audiences back to “America’s most haunted city” with a selection of both new and classic films, including 2024 releases like Sundance smash hit “I Saw the TV Glow” from director Jane Schoenbrun, Tilman Singer’s opening night pick “Cuckoo,” closing night offering “Abigail” from the Radio Silence team, plus offscreen offerings including interactive events, live performances, immersive programming, special guests and much, much more.

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“We are finally able to see the fruits of post-pandemic productions and it’s a sight to behold,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of the Overlook Film Festival, in an officials statement. “This year’s lineup is full of bigger, scarier, more personal, more bombastic fever dreams that are sure to haunt you for the rest of 2024.”

This first look at the festival lineup includes 45 films (22 features and 23 shorts) from 11 countries, as well as four live presentations and five immersive experiences. That list also includes a number of retrospective features, including Mike Flanagan’s “Oculus” and Lucio Fulci’s “The Beyond,” thanks to a world premiere screening of a brand new 4K restoration, plus screenings of Brian De Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise,” a 70th-anniversary screening of “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and a 100th-anniversary screening of “The Hands of Orlac.”

“This festival has always been as much about horror’s history as it is about its future,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and executive director of the Overlook Film Festival, in his own statement. “The expanded retrospective screenings, with some of our favorite heroes once again joining in person, allow us to celebrate what drew our community together in the first place, while our signature live shows and interactive experiences show us where we can go.”

The festival is programmed by co-founders Landon Zakheim and Michael Lerman; program manager Keith Garcia; short film programmer Katie Rife; and associate director of programming Sheryl Santacruz.

The 2024 Overlook Film Festival is dedicated to the memory of the festival’s friend and colleague Doug Jones (1970-2023). The current lineup of Overlook’s films, experiences, live events, and immersive content is included below (with all synopses provided by the festival), with additional programming to be announced as the festival approaches.

Opening Night Film

Cuckoo

Director: Tilman Singer
Cast: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick
Germany, United States, 2024
When 17-year-old Gretchen reluctantly moves with her family to a resort in the German Alps, she finds herself the subject of terrifying visions and aggressive stalking by a mysterious woman who may or may not be linked to the town’s past. Featuring audacious performances from Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick, this beautiful and terrifying Giallo-esque nightmare is sure to make you think twice about going into the woods at night.

Closing Night Film

Abigail

Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud and Giancarlo Esposito
United States, 2024
From Radio Silence, the filmmaking team behind Ready or Not, 2022’s Scream and Scream VI comes a brash, blood-thirsty new vision of the vampire flick, about a group of criminals who get more than they bargained for when they kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure. As they watch Abigail overnight in an isolated mansion, the captors discover that they’re locked inside with no ordinary little girl.

Feature Film Presentations

International Titles Presented by MUBI

All You Need is Death

Director: Paul Duane
Cast: Simone Collins, Charlie Maher, Olwen Fouéré, Gary Whelan
Ireland, 2023
Set in the world of Irish folk ballads and brimming with lure, this creepy tale follows a young couple who collect rare songs. Hired by a mysterious man to track down and translate an ancient, taboo tune, they unlock something that was best left undisturbed.

Azrael

Director: E.L. Katz
Cast: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Katariina Unt, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sebastian Bull Sarning
United States, 2024
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.

Birdeater

Director: Jack Clark, Jim Weir
Cast: Mackenzie Fearnley, Shabana Azeez
Australia, 2023
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.

Blackout

Director: 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 this genre- bending and often hilarious portrait from the legendary Larry Fessenden (Habit, Wendigo).

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Director: Ariane Louis-Seize
Cast: Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Patrick Hivon, Marc Beaupré
Canada, 2023
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.

I Saw the TV Glow

Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Cast: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, with Fred Durst and Danielle Deadwyler
United States, 2023
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

Director: Chris Nash
Cast: Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Lauren Taylor
Canada, 2023
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

Directors: Sébastien Vaniček
Cast: Théo Christine, Sofia Lesaffre, Jérôme Niel, Lisa Nyarko, Finnegan Oldfield, Marie- Philomène Nga, Mahamadou Sangaré, Abdellah Moundy
France, 2023
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.

Kill Your Lover

Directors: Alix Austin, Keir Siewert
Cast: Paige Gilmour, Shane Quigley Murphy, May Kelly, Chloe Wigmore, Joshua Whincup United Kingdom, 2023
Breaking up is hard to do, but when Dakota finally decides to end her relationship with Axel, the toxicity she is trying to escape begins to manifest in insidious ways, threatening to consume her as well, in this devastatingly relatable monster movie that highlights the struggle between love and destruction.

Look Into My Eyes

Directors: Lana Wilson
United States, 2024
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.

New Life

Director: John Rosman
Cast: Sonya Walger, Hayley Erin, Tony Amendola
United States, 2023
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.

Oddity

Director: Damian Mc Carthy
Cast: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Tadhg Murphy, Caroline Menton, Steve Wall, Johnny French, Joe Rooney, Shane Whisker, Ivan de Wergifosse
Ireland, 2023
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.

Red Rooms

Director: Pascal Plante
Cast: Juliette Gariépy
Canada, 2023
Canadian auteur-in-the-making Pascal Plante presents a disturbingly engaging tale of a model’s obsession with a child murderer who is on trial and her dark web search for evidence of his innocence.

Sleep

Director: Jason Yu
Cast: Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun
South Korea, 2023
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.

Things Will Be Different

Director: Michael Felker
Cast: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe Skoczen, Justin Benson, Sarah Bolger United States, 2023
Executive produced by veteran filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, this twisty time travel story 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 being there.

Retrospective Film Presentations

The Beyond

World Premiere of 4K Restoration
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Katherine MacColl, David Warbeck, Sarah Keller, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar Italy, 1981
Lucio Fulci, the Giallo maestro himself, sets his sights on the bayou with his propulsive, brain- melting nightmare of psychedelia. Shot entirely in and around New Orleans, and driven by one of the all-time great Fabio Frizzi scores, Grindhouse Releasing’s brand new restoration is mandatory big-screen viewing.

Creature From the Black Lagoon 3-D

70th Anniversary Screening in 35mm
Director: Jack Arnold
Cast: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Ben Chapman, Ricou Browning
United States, 1954
Not since the beginning of time, has the world known terror like this. Science couldn’t explain it, but there it was: the last of the old Universal movie monsters. An inspiration to countless generations of fans and filmmakers, don’t miss this absolute classic as it was meant to be seen, in its original 3-D and on 35mm!

The Hands of Orlac

100th Anniversary Screening with New Live Score by Think Less, Hear More
Director: Robert Wiene
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina, Fritz Kortner, Carmen Cartellieri, Fritz Strassny, Paul Askonas
Austria, 1924
From the director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari comes this expressionist-tinted pulp tale of the macabre starring the sinister somnambulist himself, Conrad Veidt (The Man Who Laughs). Watch in horror as a concert pianist’s hands are replaced by those of a murderer and hear the all new score by returning NOLA artists Think Less, Hear More.

Phantom of the Paradise

50th Anniversary Screening
Actor, Composer and Music Producer Paul Williams in Person
Preceded by Swan Archives Lecture
Presented by FANGORIA
Director: Brian de Palma
Cast: Paul Williams, William Finley, George Memmoli, Harold Oblong, Archie Hahn, Jeffrey Comanor, Gerrit Graham, Jessica Harper
United States, 1974
The Swan Archives and its Principal Archivist Ari Kahan will introduce a very special screening of Brian De Palma’s faustian, fantastical opera of rock and roll composed by, and starring, the legendary Paul Williams (The Muppet Movie, Bugsy Malone) that has rightfully taken its place as one of the genre’s finest cult masterpieces. See it as you never have before!

Oculus

10th Anniversary Screening
Mike Flanagan in person
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane
United States, 2014
Before he took on Hill House, Bly Manor, the House of Usher and the halls of King, there was the supernatural thrawl of the Lasser Glass. Adapted from his own short film of the same name, auteur Mike Flanagan cemented his reputation as a modern master of the art of the scare with his breakthrough second film.

Live Event Presentations

Presented by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Gun Interactive

FASTERPIECE THEATER

Presented by The Museum Of Home Video

Creator/Host: Bret Berg

LOOKING OVER THE GARDEN WALL: A 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Panelists: Patrick McHale, Nick Cross

SCREAM DREAMS: THE NIGHTMARES THAT SHAPED US

Presented by AMP

Hosts: Catherine Corcoran, Barbara Crampton
Creators: Catherine Corcoran, James A Janisse, Barbara Crampton
Venture into the shadows with Catherine Corcoran and Barbara Crampton as they dive into the real nightmares of the best minds in genre entertainment in this special live episode recording of the Scream Dreams podcast where the subconscious of a festival filmmaker will be revealed. You have been warned!

THE SWAN ARCHIVES

Presented by FANGORIA

Host: Ari Kahan
Join Ari Kahan, Principal Archivist at the Swan Archives, as he takes you on a wild and fascinating journey through the tumultuous history behind the making and release of Brian De Palma’s iconic collaboration with Paul Williams that resulted in the creation of one of horror’s most exalted works. This presentation will precede a 50th anniversary screening of Phantom Of The Paradise.

Immersive Presentations

The festival’s unique interactive live theatrical horror experiences for small audiences return with fresh offerings for the brave and mysterious.

THE DARK SÉANCE

Presented by The Academy of Magical Arts

Creator: Zabrecky
Stray into the darkness with notorious séance medium Zabrecky: he will attempt to part the veil and manifest the dead, whose messages may bring solace, silence, or terrifying signals from unknown reaches. Success is not guaranteed, but there is one simple rule to the séance: if you believe, you will receive.

A FREAK ENCOUNTER

Presented by The Academy of Magical Arts

WORLD PREMIERE
Creator: Todd Robbins
Book a therapy session with the iconic Todd Robbins and let a very strange stranger into your subconscious. Venture as deep into hypnosis as you’re willing to go, but be ready to encounter the darkest corners of your own mind… some things there you may rather forget, but they must be confronted right now, because it’s later than you think.

THE GRAND HALL

Presented by Escape My Room

SNEAK PREVIEW
Creators: Cyrus Cooper, Rachel Dunphy, Sam Moodey, Andrew Preble, Kali Russell

THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA

Presented by The Academy of Magical Arts

WORLD PREMIERE Creator: Mark Calabrese

REGRETS FROM THE DEAD

Presented by The Academy of Magical Arts

WORLD PREMIERE Creator: Jared Kopf

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