The Overlook Film Festival is a 4-day celebration of all things horror held in America’s most haunted city, New Orleans. Each spring, 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.
The Overlook Film Festival, the annual celebration of all things horror, announced March 6, the first wave of the lineup for its 2025 edition. Taking place April 3 – April 6 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Prytania Theatres, the horror festival will welcome 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 that the annual horror staple has become known for.
“No matter how many years this festival runs, every time we get to re-open the gates of our spectral summer camp feels like a miracle,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and executive director of the Overlook FIlm Festival. “For all wayward souls and monster kids who gravitate to the macabre, we have something to satisfy your ghoulish cravings thanks to the brilliance of our artists, the passion of our tireless team, our incredible partners and this beautiful haunted city. Hell, we even have our first audio-animatronic this year.”
This wide-ranging first wave festival lineup includes 47 films (25 features and 22 shorts) from 10 countries, as well as five live presentations and three immersive experiences, with many more exciting surprises to be announced as the festival approaches.
Kicking off the festivities as the Opening Night film will be Universal Pictures’ upcoming thriller Drop from Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes. Director Christopher Landon will be on hand, returning to New Orleans where he shot Happy Death Day and We Have a Ghost, to present his new, nerve-wracking whodunit. Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar and Violett Beane, Drop follows a widowed mother who, on her first date in years, arrives at an upscale restaurant where she meets her handsome suitor. But their chemistry begins to curdle when she is terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone.
Following the screening, festival-goers and special guests will make their way to an unmissable party celebrating both the start of the festival and the tenth anniversary of Shudder, the iconic horror curation and streaming service. Hosted by Shudder, this one-of-a-kind event will kick off with a horror-infused second line and will include some very special guest performances. Honoring the company’s history and enduring influence on the genre as a whole, the party will feature many surprises from the streaming service’s extensive horror catalogue.
Highlighting the lineup of new and upcoming films is The Shrouds, the latest body horror exploration from the legendary director David Cronenberg. Starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce, the film digs into Cronenberg’s classic obsessions, following a bereaved businessman who invents a technology allowing the living to monitor their dearly departed’s corpses. Other notable features include Hallow Road, director Babak Anvari’s pulse-pounding thriller starring Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike as desperate parents; R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres starring Danielle Deadwyler in a post-apocalyptic, cannibal-ravaged genre mashup; and Shudder’s upcoming slasher film Clown in a Cornfield, directed by Eli Craig, where a smiling menace wreaks havoc on a small town.
“I feel like we are standing at the crossroads of horror history,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of The Overlook Film Festival. “This year really showcases the old and new guard coming together. We have astounding debuts from exciting newcomers. We have veteran masters that keep reinventing themselves with new work. And we’re just getting started so stay tuned for more.”
As a celebration of horror’s history, as well as its future, the festival will once again feature a selection of retro screenings of classic films. Those include a 30th Anniversary screening of Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight, from director Ernest Dickerson, who will be on hand to receive the festival’s Master of Horror Award. Past recipients of this award include Roger Corman, Mick Garris, Mike Flanagan, Stuart Gordon and Joe Dante.
There will also be a screening of the brand new 40th anniversary 4K restoration of cult director (and founding Overlook advisory board member) Stuart Gordon’s masterpiece Re-Animator, overseen by Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures. The retro lineup will round out with a 100th anniversary screening of 1925’s monumental The Phantom of the Opera, starring the legendary “man of a thousand faces” Lon Chaney, which will be accompanied by a live score from New Orleans’ own Think Less, Hear More.
As the Overlook’s inaugural Guest Curator, Flying Lotus, the acclaimed filmmaker and Grammy-winning musician, will be programming an additional retro film section of personal favorites and genre classics. This unique program, which will include in-person introductions from FlyLo himself, will be made up of The Descent, Neil Marshall’s terrifying journey into the earth; Death Becomes Her, Robert Zemeckis’ camp classic starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as rivals who won’t let death get in the way of their feud; and, in tribute to the recently departed auteur, David Lynch’s surreal neo-noir masterpiece Lost Highway, featuring one of the filmmaker’s all-time scariest sequences as well as a predictably incredible soundtrack worked on by Trent Reznor.
The section will be rounded out with a special screening of Flying Lotus’ own film, Ash, the mind-shredding sci-fi nightmare starring Eiza González and Aaron Paul as they work to survive the neon-splattered horrors of the cosmic unknown.
In addition to the films and special guests, the Overlook Film Festival will once again be packed with the live presentations and signature immersive programming it is known for.
The Overlook’s selection of live events and special presentations will include programming such as A Conversation with Joe Hill, a wide-ranging discussion with the acclaimed horror author of works such as Horns, NOS4A2 and The Fireman as he dives into the inner-workings and inspirations of his spine-tingling oeuvre; Museum of Home Video VJ Bret Berg returns to the festival for a third time with Danger Stories, a found footage remix for stoners, seekers, archivists and drinkers; a surreal blend of art, horror, hilarity and sadness, Everything Is Terrible’s Memory Hole presents their latest anti-humanity work, “Animals Are Over,” interwoven with a live performance/score; and Witchcraft For Wayward Girls – Live!, a journey with bestselling author Grady Hendrix to celebrate his latest book and investigate the world of witchcraft in books and movies while witnessing an army of broomstick-brandishing, curse-hurling, penis-stealing, baby-eating, world-renouncing, unkillable, unstoppable, unbeatable witches!
The Overlook Film Festival’s one-of-a-kind immersive program, featuring interactive projects and experiences, returns this year with three mind-bending presentations. These include the World Premiere of Spooky Tales with Cowboy Dale, an up-close sit-down with the cordialest cowpoke in the West from director/performer Jason Woliner (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Paul T. Goldman); Odyssey Adventure Co. and Ferryman Collective’s award-winning The Severance Theory: Welcome to Respite, where upon visiting your family’s home after your mom’s passing, you are whisked into a forgotten childhood memory; and the US Premiere of The Manikins: A Work in Progress from the Deadweight Theatre, a psychedelic thriller for a single audience member where dream and reality collide. The immersive program is sponsored by the American Immersion Theater.
The festival is programmed by Co-Founders Landon Zakheim & Michael Lerman; Programming Manager Daniel Crooke; Short Film Programmer Katie Rife; and Festival Director Sheryl Santacruz.
The current lineup of films, experiences, live events and immersive content is included below, with additional programming to be announced as the festival approaches.
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WORD Editor, Reviewer Gregg W. Morris