The 2026 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (BHFF) takes place from October 15-22 with all screenings occurring at Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg. Screening tracks include a “Dark Suburbia” sidebar and returning program staples such as “Slayed,” “Culture Shock” – the official program name for the Festival’s Black horror section, and “Fear in Focus,” this time tackling the dark abyss of Cyber Horror.

Opening night features the U.S. Premiere of Nicky Murphy’s award-winning vampire mockumentary I Love Paris. After the screening an Opening Night Party takes over both levels of the Nitehawk, presented by Dark Sky Films. The 2026 festival lineup also celebrates the world premiere of Michael Schwarz’s throwback slasher The Only One, along with documentaries about genre legends, including Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson and Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story.

The Dark Suburbia sidebar features American Dollhouse, along with the dizzying Sender, whose cast includes Britt Lower and Jamie Lee Curtis, and the absurdist nightmare Little Doors.

The Festival also features a retrospective slate comprised of a 50th Anniversary screening of J.D.’s Revenge on 35mm and a 35th anniversary screening of The People Under the Stairs, both part of this year’s Culture Shock section. Fear in Focus: Cyber Horror takes audiences from an early entry in the sub-genre, Ghost in the Machine on 35mm directed by Rachel Talalay, to 2013 shocker The Den, and up to modern day with Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. The retrospective slate also includes screenings of Trick ‘r Treat on 35mm, preceded by the original Sam short film Season’s Greetings restored in 4K, and followed by a conversation with director Michael Dougherty. Additionally, a screening of the silent-era tragedy The Passion of Joan of Arc features an original live score from The Flushing Remonstrance.

The 2026 Closing Night feature is the drug fueled action horror Kick On from filmmaker Nick Kozakis. Capping off the festival is the Closing Night Halloween Party presented by Alter.

Complete Screening List

I Love Paris
Opening Night Film
Presented by MUBI
Austrialia, France | 2026 | 120 Min. | Director Nicky Murphy
Aspiring underground singer Paris is bitten and turned into a vampire but, instead of letting her dreams of music stardom die, her hustle only goes harder and bloodier.

Species (Sanguine)
Centerpiece Film
New York Premiere
France | 2026 | 103 Min. | Director Marion Le Corroller
A young intern at a prestigious ER struggles to keep up with the fast paced environment, and when a strange disease begins appearing in a number of her patients, she starts suffering from her own bodily symptoms.

Kick On
Closing Night Film
New York Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 91 Min. | Director Nick Kozakis
What starts off as a wild night of partying devolves into a brutal fight for survival when four friends cross paths with a mobster’s unhinged son in this gruesome new entry in the single-location siege horror canon.

The Glorious Dead
Presented by Arrow Video
Leviathan Award
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 80 Min. | Director John Adams, Toby Poser
What should be a typical day in the life for a small town sheriff quickly turns sinister as people begin to disappear and fleshy creatures begin popping up all around them.

American Dollhouse
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 87 Min. | Director John Valley
A woman living a drama-riddled life returns to her childhood home for what she hopes can be a clean start but, no thanks to her psychotic and homicidal new neighbor, doesn’t go as planned.

Corpus
Presented by MUBI
USA | 2026 | 102 Min. | Director Corrin Evans
A photographer takes a trip to Upstate NY with his longtime friend and unrequited love, but the trip takes a turn when their three mysterious hosts begin to show they have ulterior motives.

The Cycle
East Coast Premiere
UK | 2026 | 112 Min. | Director Jordan Downey
When her estranged father’s corpse is discovered at a grisly crime scene, Meg is dragged into the investigation to uncover why—when he’s been missing for over three decades.

The Den
USA | 2026 | 77 Min. | Director Zachary Donohue
While studying the behaviors of webcam users, a sociology student witnesses a murder and becomes the killer’s next target in this early and underrated entry in the “screenlife” horror canon.

Erie
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 89 Min. | Director Alison-Eve Hammersley
Aided by her skeptical older brother, a young girl launches her own investigation into their sister’s mysterious death, connecting it to a string of local suicides whose explanations may or may not be supernatural.

Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story
North American Premiere
UK | 2026 | 94 Min. | Sarah Appleton
From his days revolutionizing the home video market to producing classics like FROM BEYOND and RE-ANIMATOR and running the influential Full Moon Features, indie maverick Charles Band’s illustrious career is front and center in this entertaining and inspiring documentary.

Ghost in the Machine (35mm)
USA | 1993 | 95 Min. | Director Rachel Talalay
After he’s killed in a car accident, a serial killer’s soul is uploaded into a computer system, enabling him to find technological ways to try to kill the woman he was targeting before his death.

Godhead
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 98 Min. | Director Mark H. Rapaport
A pair of oddball, possibly dangerous twins force a priest to make a series of painful and potentially Biblical decisions in this singular blend of pitch-black comedy and surrealist horror.

J.D.’s Revenge (35mm)
USA | 1976 | 95 Min. | Director Arthur Marks
Hell-bent on getting some long-overdue revenge, the ghost of a New Orleans gangster inhabits the body of a young black law student in this Blaxploitation horror gem.

Little Doors
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 77 Min. | Director Anthony Oberback
A woman doing her best to survive day to day in an apocalyptic world finds a small door on the side of her body and contemplates opening it to see what’s inside.

Mountain King
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 94 Min. | Director Gabrielle Christensen
Surprising her boyfriend unannounced at his family home in Scandinavia, Hannah is determined to prove she can be part of the family no matter how increasingly dark their traditions seem to be.

Night After Night
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 86 Min. | Director Josh Lobo
When his fellow security guard vanishes, Andy is overwhelmed with paranoia about their enigmatic workplace’s intentions and the disturbing phenomenon kept hidden in the building’s new wing.

The Only One
World Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 99 Min. | Director Michael Schwarz
When her exes are suddenly being murdered one by one, suspicion falls on Zoe and it’s up to her and a ragtag team of old friends to prove her innocence and figure out the identity of the masked Prince Charming killer.

Opi
North American Premiere
Poland | 2026 | 96 Min. | Director Marta Giec
Shortly before her 18th birthday, a young woman’s already complicated home life gets upended by the arrival of an aunt and grandmother she’s never met before, triggering her family’s downward spiral into nightmarish folk horror.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (with live score)
France | 1928 | 81 Min. | Director Carl Theodore Dreyer
A towering achievement of the silent-film era, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC equals and oftentimes eclipses the horror of any other masterwork from the 1920’s. Live music accompaniment by The Flushing Remonstrance.

The People Under the Stairs
USA | 1991 | 103 Min. | Director Wes Craven
Two criminals and their teenage accomplice find themselves stuck inside the booby-trap-riddled home of their ghetto neighborhood’s evil landlords in Wes Craven’s massively entertaining marriage of horror-comedy and social commentary.

Posthumous
East Coast Premiere
Australia | 2026 | 110 Min. | Director Josh Tanner
After returning to her childhood home, a troubled woman becomes enamored with VHS birthday tapes left behind by her late mother that gradually reveal a secret family connection to the occult.

Roma Elastica
Presented by MUBI
New York Premiere
France, Italy | 2026 | 107 Min. | Director Bertrand Mandico
A struggling French actress travels to Rome to work on a science fiction film which sends her spiraling and threatens to make this the last film she makes.

Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 106 Min. | Director Nick Taylor
Tracks the spectacular rise and swift fall of practical SFX master Steve Johnson while taking viewers on an impressively candid and revealing overview of the glory days of special effects makeup.

Sender
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 94 Min. | Director Russell Goldman
A newly sober woman begins to find a disturbing amount of daily packages she never ordered on her doorstep, setting her off on a paranoid and dizzying investigation to discover her tormentors.

Slay
Presented by MUBI
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 89 Min. | Director Kyra Elise Gardner
After her friend is brutally murdered, a young social media star heads to a cabin in the woods with friends for what’s meant to be a distracting good time but turns into a bloodbath when a masked killer crashes the party.

Split Rock
North American Premiere
Canada | 2026 | 98 Min. | Director Ryan Glover
A group of geologists discover a strange anomaly in the desert and as they continue their research their thirst for knowledge threatens to put them in grave danger against an ancient horror.

Sundown
East Coast Premiere
USA | 2026 | 79 Min. | Director Rebekah McKendry
A trio of blood-related women seeking vengeance kidnap a man only to discover that his darkest secret is far worse than what they thought.
Screening with: Bloodsuckers, Director Rosie Brear (USA, 10min)

Trauma, Or Monsters All
New York Premiere
USA | 2026 | 118 Min. | Director Larry Fessenden
Larry Fessenden’s down-and-dirty, blue-collar universe of Universal-Monster-inspired films (HABIT, DEPRAVED, BLACK OUT) comes to its masterful conclusion in this clash of nightmarish titans set in a small town harboring its own dark past.

Trick ‘r Treat (35mm) with Season’s Greetings
USA | 2007 | 86 Min. | Director Michael Dougherty
It’s the ultimate Halloween season event with everyone’s favorite little pumpkin-headed demon, Sam: a special 35mm screening of Michael Dougherty’s classic Samhain-minded omnibus gem Trick ‘r Treat (2007), preceded by the filmmaker’s handmade animated short that inspired it, Season’s Greetings (1996), and capped off by a conversation with Dougherty to discuss it all.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
USA | 2021 | 86 Min. | Director Jane Schoenbrun
A teen loses her sense of reality as she is drawn into a popular online role-playing game.

Nightmare Fuel Shorts Screening Block
Frightening folktales, body horrors, and monsters in the machine.
Bagman, Director Connor Gaston, Vaughn Gaston (Canada); Stuck, Director Jan van Gorkum (Netherlands); Wax, Director Alexandre Forgues, (Canada); Breeder, Director Sapphire Sandalo (USA); YAOGUAI, Director Mimi Lee (USA); Don’t Go, Director Talon Darren Winsnes, (Norway); Tsume Kill: The Clapper Claw, Director Shinsuke Fujioka (Japan); Ceiling King, Director Mats Udd (Sweden).

Head Trip Shorts Screening Block
Genre-bending terror and fear in everyday things like sewing projects, mancaves, and headphones.
Man Eating Pussy, Director Emily Lawson (Canada); Summer Project, Director Yuki Hara (Japan); Headphones, Director Steven Arriagada (Australia); Rusalka, Director Mykita Bulgakov, Vlad Fishez, Oleg Batrakov (Ukraine); Prosthetika, Director Brandon Chi-Wei Chen (USA); Needle, Sofie Somoroff (USA); Mancave Director Fredrik S. Hana (Norway)

Culture Shock Shorts Screening Block
This section strives to uplift Black filmmakers and aims to be a launchpad for excellence in genre cinema.
The Inheritance, Director Destinee Stewart (USA); Night Feeds, Director Rana Roy (USA); Angels Pull Your Hair, Director Gabby Beans (USA); Dread, Director Loren Loubser, Gabe Gabriel (South Africa, UK); The Keeper, dir Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes (USA); Grampa, dir Justice Smith (USA)

Slayed Shorts Screening Block
Presented by MUBI
Brooklyn Horror explores the gamut of queer experiences in this shorts block, from messy lesbian relationships to taboo sexual experiences.
By Yourself, Director Elaine Frost (USA); Crash Season, Director Audrey Rosenberg (USA); Four Itchy Boys, Director Andrew Hebert (USA); Internet Boy, Director Joseph Demaria (USA); Embrace, Director Matthew Rush (USA); Tooth, Director Max Wren (USA); Mine, Director Jaclyn Moore (USA); Scissors, Director Hannah Alline (USA)

Laugh Now, Die Later Shorts Screening Block
Knitting Club, Director Diogo Abrantes, João Rito (Portugal); Baby Fever, Director Katrina Vergara (USA); Udders!, Director Michael Spencer (USA); CHÄIR, dir Chris McInroy (USA); A Stable Marriage, Director Josephine Decker (USA); Matches, Director Jake Delaney (USA); Open Mic, Director Jano Pita (Spain); Vape Glow, Director Steven Schloss (USA); Gloss, Director Leah Shore (USA); House Cat, Director Kyle Spleiss (USA)

Death Grip Shorts Screening Block
Bruised Sky, Director Gary James Kent (UK); Down the Length, Director Milo Ed (UK); Primus the Robot, Director Max Delagrave (France); Devourer, Director Nirvana Nagi; Living Grounds, Director Émile Lavoie (Canada)

Home Invasion 1 Shorts Screening Block
The Crying Man, Director Emily Bennett; Richard Goes On a Date, Director Johnny Frohman; Imprint, Director Ran Jing; PRIME, Director Meagan Coyle; Viewfinder, Director Clay von Carlowitz; Packages, Director Nick Barat; Crib Club, Director Jordan Freeman Klaja; Walter Wuz Here, Director Ben Duff

Home Invasion 2 Shorts Screening Block
Echelon, Director Sebastian DiNatale; Book U Can Ask ???s, Director Casimir Nozkowski; No Free Brains, Director Ciara Sergi; Behind This Locked Door, Director Matthew Brennan; Carousel, Director Christopher Kosakowski; Hand, Director Jennifer Winterbotham; The Fool, Director Adjahni Dèsirè; In My Blood, Director Alex Bendo

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.

Poster Art by Ripley Ash

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