PREVIEW: 2023 A NIGHT OF HORROR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Australia’s longest running showcase of horror and dark genre cinema, A Night of Horror International Film Festival (ANOH) is back for its 15th year, with a typically frightening program. From 28th September to 1st October, the Festival will take over Dendy Cinemas Newtown, screening the very best in freaky, macabre and spine-chilling films from around the globe.

ANOH will present a total of ten features and 31 short films, hailing from different corners of the world, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Lithuania, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Denmark, India, and New Zealand.

“The calibre, ingenuity, and range of submissions this year truly surpassed all expectations. We were astounded by the exceptional talent and diversity on display, making the selection process a both challenging and exhilarating journey,” said Festival Director, Bryn Tilly.

“This year’s final line-up has films from all shades of the horror spectrum, and, as one would expect post- pandemic, many of them deal with grief and trauma, each promising to send shivers down your spine, immersing you in delightfully bizarre worlds and blood-curdling nightmares.”

Opening Night Thursday 28 September will see the world premiere of The Devil’s Work, the third instalment in Ursula Dabrowsky’s award-winning Demon Trilogy (Family Demons, Inner Demons). All three films stand alone, yet share similar themes of survival, revenge, and the loss of innocence.

Sydneysider Jack Dignan follows his 2022 ANOH award-winning debut feature After She Died with Puzzle Box, a riveting and deeply unsettling found footage purgatory tackling addiction and psychological trauma. Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s Austrian Mother Superior (pictured, right), winner of Best Film & Best Director at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2022, is a unique delve into witchcraft and folk horror.

The Festival’s much-loved signature event, the Australian Shorts Gala, will feature nine of the very best short-film shockers from these shores. The International Shorts Showcase will take place Sunday 1 October, showcasing a selection of the creepiest, freakiest new short films from around the world.

Other features include Sarah Tice’s feature film debut DID I?, a whip-smart, giallo-inspired study of alter personalities and the effects of trauma on the mind, body, and soul; Gareth Carr & David Sullivan’s Saving Grace, winner of Best Horror Feature at Washington DC International Cinema Festival 2023 and Liverpool Indie Awards 2023, a psychological thriller featuring a fierce, compelling performance from rising Aussie star Kirsty McKenzie; and, Nicholas Tomnay’s spellbinding neo-noir thriller What You Wish For, a morality tale roasting greed, told with crisp efficiency, laced with the sharp smack of horror.

Jonas Trukanas’s Pensive (pictured, top), a slasher flick screened in Lithuanian language with English subtitles, tackles social responsibility and identity roles in a very contemporary vein; The Coffee Table by Spanish Director Caye Casa is a pitch-black comedy that balances farce, melodrama, tragedy and absurdism and Winner of Best Film at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; and, Chris Cronin’s The Moor presents a creeping tale of guilt that pushes the boundaries of folk horror and found footage format into Lovecraftian territory.

Closing out the festival is Steven John Mihaljevich’s Violett (pictured, right), a surreal exploration of trauma, abject grief, and destructive self-preservation, constructed like a poetic puzzle.

A Night of Horror International Film Festival will run 28th September to 1st October 2023 at Dendy Cinemas, 261-263 King St, Newtown. DETAILS HERE.