By Mo Moshaty
NightTide Mag is jazzed (get it?) to get back to New Orleans for The Overlook Film Fest’s 2026 season. Its raukus, its gross out, and its fucking terrifying…and we are SAT!!! Here are the dirty dozen from the first wave we can’t wait to get in our eyeballs!
OBSESSION
Curry Barker | 2025 | USA | 108 min
Hopelessly paralyzed by his unrequited crush on one of his closest friends, a lovelorn 20-something makes a wish on a mysterious novelty toy, only to find out that his dreams are far worse than any nightmare he could imagine in this bone-chilling relationship horror.
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
HOKUM
Damian McCarthy | 2026 | USA, Ireland | 101 min
From the director of the 2024 Overlook hit Oddity comes a shocking new vision of folk-horror. Adam Scott stars as a cynical writer who travels to a secluded Irish inn, only to find himself trapped in a labyrinthian nightmare of secrets hidden within the bowels of the hotel.
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Siox C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle
LEVITICUS
Adrian Chiarella | 2026 | Australia | 86 min
In an ultra-religious, isolated Australian community, two closeted high school lovers struggle to come into their own. But when a fit of jealousy outs them, they are forced into a bizarre form of conversion therapy, unleashing a cunning and deadly threat in this equally terrifying and sensitive coming-of-age tale.
Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie
BOORMAN AND THE DEVIL
Filmmaker in attendance
David Kittredge | 2025 | USA | 112 min
Hot off the success of his genre-defining film, Deliverance, John Boorman takes on his biggest challenge yet – a sequel to one of the most successful horror movies in history, The Exorcist. What could go wrong? This insightful documentary delves deep into the making of one of the biggest bombs in horror history.
Cast: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante
CHILI FINGER
Filmmaker in attendance
Edd Benda, Stephen Helstad | 2025 | USA | 100 min
When a down-on-their-luck couple finds a gruesome surprise at their favorite fast food chain, they hatch a simple blackmail plot that quickly spins their lives out of control in this bloody, Coen Brothers-esque thriller featuring an all-star cast.
Cast: Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman, Sara Sevigny, Dann Florek
EXIT 8
Genki Kawamura | 2025 | Japan | 95 min
Based on the hit video game, this eerie fright-fest follows a lost commuter trapped in a seemingly repetitious corridor in the bowels of a Japanese subway station. Desperate to escape, he is forced to look for breaks in the pattern that is confining him.
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu
GOODY GOODY
World Premiere
Filmmaker in attendance
Raymond Creamer | 2026 | USA | 80 min
Lulled into a necessary sense of comfort during a long home birth process, expecting parents and their midwife begin to realize that something may be horribly wrong. As labor complications ensue, a blizzard rages outside, trapping the family in their home – sitting ducks for whatever sinister presence might be in there with them.
Cast: Colleen Foy, Samantha Robinson, Zoe Renee
FACES OF DEATH
Filmmaker in attendance
Daniel Goldhaber | 2026 | USA | 108 min
A moderator at a social media platform gets thrown face-first into a macabre mystery when she uncovers a series of visceral snuff videos bearing resemblance to a mythical 1978 cult film. Starring Barbie Ferreira, this New Orleans-shot slasher is a thrilling twist on the modern remake.
Cast: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, Aaron Holliday, Jermaine Fowler, Charli XCX
PARASOMNIA
Filmmaker in attendance
James Ross II | 2025 | USA | 85 min
When one of her closest friends goes missing, Riley, a young woman haunted by a lifelong battle with debilitating night terrors, must come to terms with the fact that the demonic entity that’s been stalking her dreams since childhood may have followed her home into the real world.
Cast: Jasmine Mathews, RJ Brown, Sally Stewart, Stephen Barrington, Danny Brown
SACCHARINE
Natalie Erika James | 2026 | Australia | 112 min
Looking for a quick weight loss fix, a medical student accepts a mysterious drug, setting her off on a path of unwanted transformation in this goopy, sickening, violent body-horror from the director of Relic.
Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden
TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
World Premiere
Filmmaker in attendance
Larry Fessenden | 2026 | USA | 118 min
An aspiring author gets more than she bargained for when she writes an article for the local paper about her small town’s dark history, prompting unwanted speculation on what monsters may lie within. Overlook mainstay Larry Fessenden returns with the thrilling conclusion to his quadrilogy, a thoughtful and fiercely independent monster mash that can be enjoyed on its own or marathoned with his three origin stories – Habit, Depraved, and Blackout.
Cast: Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter, Rigo Garay, Barbara Crampton, James Le Gros, Joshua Leonard
UGLY CRY
Filmmaker in attendance
Emily Robinson | 2026 | USA | 94 min
An actor’s desperate determination to break into Hollywood leads her down a frightening spiral of obsession, delusion, and augmentation in this darkly comedic, Repulsion-esque thriller from first-time writer-director and star Emily Robinson.
Cast: Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Dominguez, Robin Tunney
Wanna get on the horror train to NOLA? Check out travel info here!
Mo Moshaty is an acclaimed horror writer, lecturer, and producer whose work combines visceral storytelling with the psychological insight of her Cognitive Behavioral Therapy background. She has lectured internationally, including as a keynote speaker at Nightmares from Monkeypaw: A Jordan Peele Symposium (Prairie View A&M), No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium (Horror Studies BAFSS Sig), The Whole Damn Swarm: Celebrating 30 Years of Candyman (University of California), and with the Centre for the History of the Gothic (University of Sheffield). Mo has also presented at the BFI, Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, and Final Girls Berlin Film Festival’s Brain Binge on women’s trauma in horror cinema, Cine-Excess on The Creepy Kid Horror Subgenre and Mother/Daughter Trauma in Horror, and Romancing the Gothic on Cosmic Horror’s Havoc on The Body Electric Her short film, 13 Minutes of Horror: Sci-Fi Horror, won the 2022 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Short Film. As a core producer with Nyx Horror Collective, Mo co-created the 13 Minutes of Horror Film Fest and partnered with Shudder in 2021 and 2022, while also establishing a Stowe Story Labs fellowship supporting women creatives over 40+ in horror. A member of the Black Women in Horror Class of 2023 and featured in 160 Black Women in Horror, Mo’s short fiction appears in A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic Tales (Brigid’s Gate Press) and 206 Word Stories (Bag O’ Bones Press). Her debut novella, Love the Sinner, was released July 5, 2024, with Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment released in October 2025. The first of her five-volume non-fiction series, The Annex of the Obscure: The Afterlife, will be released in 2027 from Tenebrous Press. As the Editor-in-Chief of NightTide Magazine and founder of Mourning Manor Media, Mo champions marginalized voices in horror. Under her leadership, NightTide plans to launch a film festival in 2028, furthering her mission to reshape the genre through inclusivity and representation.
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