by Sasha Ravitch, Staff Writer

New York City’s longest running horror film festival returns Thursday, December 5 through Monday, December 9, with a robust, riveting array of more than fifty films. NYC Horror Film Festival has been making audiences squirm in their theater seats for over twenty years, and 2024’s lineup hosts a combination of live screenings as well as many virtual screenings. With short and feature films, documentaries, and special events, this year’s schedule is guaranteed to meet the needs of even the most particular genre-connoisseur.

The live, in-person film premieres are being held at LOOK Dine-In Cinema on W 57th St in Midtown, Manhattan. These program features are where I am directing my focus. It’s hard to beat the thrill (and chill) of sitting in rapt attention in a dark theater surrounded by others anticipating a film’s debut! With shorts and features by seasoned writers, directors, and producers, as well as inaugural work by fresh voices in the scene, let’s take a look at narrative feature films you can catch in the flesh!

Tickets to attend NYC Horror Film Festival in person and information about virtual screenings can be found here.

Features

The Woods
Written and Directed by Sarah Lyons
Premieres in NYC December 5
Tickets here

The first (of hopefully many) feature films by writer and director, Sarah Lyons, The Woods has been one of my most anticipated premieres of the year. Being familiar with Lyons’ award-winning and culturally lauded writing, I feel confident that she will deliver on an emotionally evocative and gripping debut film.

The Woods follows four best friends who initially developed their friendship during a hike organized by their middle school class. We meet these friends while they’re preparing to graduate college, confronted by the inevitable individuation so innate to that milestone. They elect to recreate their initial bonding experience by going on another hike, but this is a horror film, so you know that plans laid with the best intentions will very inevitably go awry. Such is the case in The Woods, where the “mysterious nature of the woods themselves” cause gruesome rifts that are recounted by the sole survivor of the trip, Kate Reed, on a true crime podcast. As a longtime fan of Lyons’ clever and deeply creative style of writing and thinking, The Woods is sure to be a festival favorite, a celebrated premiere, and a prescient debut in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project.

New Fears Eve
Directed by Eric Huskisson and P.J. Starks
Written by P.J. Starks
Premieres in NYC December 6
Tickets here

The title alone of this feature had me invested; it wastes no time telling you exactly what it is with characteristic genre-kitsch humor, and a practical assertion of setting and tone. Billed as a “holiday horror comedy”, this is not the first festive feature from the dynamic directorial team at Blood Moon Pictures, and some viewers will remember their 2021 holiday series 13 Slays Till Christmas. It only makes sense to build upon such delicious seasonal slasher symbolism with their new feature film: New Fears Eve, and the timing is perfect considering the box office domination of Terrifier 3 and its cursed Christmastime clowning. New Fears Eve follows three best friends who, while preparing for a Hooper Industries New Years Eve party, become the targets of a murderer. While I can only imagine what gore and hilarity ensue, this feature is a must-watch for those trying to lean into the holiday spirit!

1978
Directed by Nicolás Onetti and Luciano Onetti
Written by Luciano Onetti, Nicolás Onetti, and Camilo Zaffora
Premieres in NYC December 6
Tickets here

The Argentinian feature film 1978 is one of the premieres I am most intrigued by, my interest initially piqued by the striking poster. I went in pursuit of more information about this Spanish language film, and found that it has earned a fair amount of outstanding reviews, despite the fact that the film premiered in Argentina only two months ago. Being heralded by some reviewers as “the best Latin American horror film of the year”, 1978 deserves to be on your festival must-watch list. The story synopsis prepares us for immersion into a hellscape. As the title suggests, the film takes place during 1978 during the World Cup between Argentina and Holland, while an active military dictatorship presides over the Argentinian political (and otherwise) landscape. A group of torturers choose to kidnap the wrong group of people, and their attempt to torture said group goes severely and terrifyingly awry. It feels meaningful to engage the genre of horror for catharsis and meaning-making around the very real terrors of regimes and military-states, and I believe this topicality makes 1978 more vital than ever.

Vampire Zombies…From Space!
Directed by Michael Stasko
Written by Alex Forman, Jakob Skrzypa and Michael Stasko
Premieres in NYC December 7
Tickets here

Returning with another feature film to add to his impressive list is director Michael Stasko, known for films like The Birder and Boys vs. Girls. In this house, we love a creature-feature which doesn’t skimp on featuring creatures, and the concept of a “vampire zombie” is eye-catching enough without factoring in their proposed outer space origin. Once again we are met with a title that elicits a smirk while telling us exactly what we are dealing with: a welcome tradition in genre films and monster movies ranging from Troma to Hammer Horror.

Stasko’s NYC Horror Film Festival feature follows the notorious man-in-black, Dracula, who has formulated a malevolent plan while deep in the recesses of space. Determined to turn an American small town into his personal vampire zombie army, Dracula is challenged by a strange band of resistance taking the forms of a “grizzled detective, a skeptical rookie cop, a chain-smoking greaser, and a determined young woman”. Vampire Zombies…From Space! appears to be a nostalgic film full of beloved caricatures and fanciful storytelling.

THE DÆMON
Written and Directed by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe
Premieres in NYC December 7
Tickets here

Last, but absolutely not least, is the feature film brought to us by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe: The Daemon. This film is exclusively being shown in the theater, and will not be part of the virtual programming, so you’ll want to make sure you attend the December 7 premiere at LOOK Dine-In Cinema. Evidenced by the poster, trailer, and film stills, The Daemon is an atmospheric supernatural thriller-horror relying as much on the treacherous malaise of human trauma as it does on some inhuman monstrosity meant to provoke. Critic Joel Harley of Horror DNA refers to The Daemon as “hauntingly bleak” with “exceptionally unsettling visuals”, and is successful in conjuring a “modern Lovecraft” feel. Those descriptors are all I need to be interested in a film, but the synopsis looks compelling as well. The story follows a traumatized husband named Tom, who, haunted by his Father’s suicide, ditches his wife to revisit the family lake house and its uneasy terror. As Tom becomes further entrenched in his misery, and strange forces begin to emerge from beneath the lake, Tom’s wife Kathy gathers family to visit Tom and intervene. One does not need to be a cinephile to deduce that this intervention does not go as seamlessly as Kathy may hope. If you’re looking for a dash of eldritch influence and moody atmosphere, make sure you’re seated for The Daemon.

Tickets to attend NYC Horror Film Festival in person and information about virtual screenings can be found here.