Scary Movies X
Sponsored by IFC Midnight
July 14-20
New York’s top horror festival—bringing you the genre’s best from around the globe—is back with a vengeance. This year’s tenth anniversary edition offers an exhilarating week of terrifying and gruesome shockers, featuring a host of hair-raising premieres and rediscoveries, guest appearances and giveaways. Occultism, zombie action, home invasions, survival thrillers, Victorian-era slashers, and creepy clowns are all on tap, in addition to films that play on the very human fears associated with sexual desire and motherhood. Our tenth birthday celebration also includes a quartet of delightfully nasty party-themed flicks from the 1970s and ’80s, and an evening with comedy legend Bob Balaban—who (in our book) is also a legend in the horror field.
Scary Movies X is sponsored by IFC Midnight, a leading distributor of genre entertainment.
Listen to programmers Laura Kern and Rufus de Rham share their Scary Movies X highlights on The Close-Up podcast:
Opening Night
Terrifier
New York Premiere • Q&A with Director and Cast • 10th Anniversary Party
Coulrophobics beware! It’s Halloween night and Art the Clown, the cold-blooded killer, is not wearing a creepy costume just for show.Closing Night: Double Feature
On Closing Night, see Still/Born and It Stains the Sands Red and save, plus a reception in between!
Still/Born
New York Premiere
Still/Born stays grounded thanks to the intense, dedicated performance of Christie Burke as the mother who means business in keeping her baby safe no matter what forces are against her.It Stains the Sands Red
New York Premiere • Q&A with Colin Minihan and Brittany Allen
The solo feature directorial debut of Colin Minihan, one half of the Vicious Brothers, makes his strongest impression yet with this engaging, visually striking film, set during apocalyptic times, about a woman, Molly (a fearless Brittany Allen), who finds herself stranded in the desert after her dumbass boyfriend is killed by a zombie.An Evening with Bob Balaban
Parents
Q&A with Bob Balaban
As supremely black as a comedy can be, Bob Balaban’s brilliantly subversive feature directorial debut is deranged in all the right ways.My Boyfriend’s Back
Introduction by Bob Balaban
At the start of this horror-comedy for the highest of lowbrow tastes—produced by Sean S. Cunningham, written by Dean Lorey (who went on to Arrested Development), and directed by the great comic actor Bob Balaban—geeky teen protagonist Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) announces in voiceover: “This day was the beginning of the end of my life.”Main Lineup
Better Watch Out
New York Premiere
Encompassing three great traditions of horror—the Christmas, home-invasion, and babysitting subgenres—Better Watch Out is a twisted and twisty mash-up of dark delights as filtered through the lens of an ’80s teen comedy.Bloody Birthday
Caught
North American Premiere • Intro by Mickey Sumner and Christina O'Shea-Daly
Like its title, so succinct, even generic, until its meaning is put into clearer focus, Caught is a stellar example of what can be accomplished with little means but a whole lot of imagination, while also reminding us that it’s often the unknown that can be the most terrifying.The Darkness
New York Premiere
Claustrophobic, and exquisitely shot by Diego García (Neon Bull, Cemetery of Splendor), The Darkness transcends the horror tropes it gets its bones from, and becomes something beautiful, fantastical, and truly unnerving.Frogs
Happy Birthday to Me
Killer Party
Killing Ground
Q&A with director Damien Power
Expertly constructed and strongly acted—the two sadistic villains are truly skin-crawling and their prey authentic and sympathetic—Damien Power’s feature debut is at times excruciatingly cruel, yet always positively stunning.The Limehouse Golem
U.S. Premiere
This jam-packed, handsome, highly literate film satisfies as a gothic murder mystery and an inside look into the lively world of the music halls so popular at the time, while also offering its fair share of bloodletting.The Night of the Virgin
New York Premiere
Audacious, inventive (featuring some spectacular practical effects), sometimes hilarious and jaw-droppingly disgusting, and always totally bonkers, the film has more on its mind than pure gross-out—though it succeeds in that too. In any case, we promise you have never seen anything like it...Offensive
New York Premiere
Rough and raw (visually as well as thematically), the ultra-tense film is painfully cruel yet purely satisfying, and, with the introduction of some revelations about Bernard’s father, it also serves as an intriguing exploration of three generations of violence.Phobia
North American Premiere
Phobia is the strongest Hindi horror outing in ages, anchored by a fiery performance by Apte, who absolutely rivets the screen.Tickets are now on sale! To begin the purchase process, log in to your account. Don’t have an account? Sign up for one today.
To purchase tickets to individual films, please click on the “Films” or “Schedule” tabs at the top of this page and then click on your desired films or showtimes.
3+ Film Package – Minimum of 3 films required. Tickets just $8 Members / $9 Students & Seniors / $11 General Public.
All-Access Pass – See all the films at the festival for $125.
Closing Night Double Feature – See Still/Born and It Stains the Sands Red and save! Tickets just $16 Members / $18 Students & Seniors / $22 General Public.
Bob Balaban Double Feature – See Parents and My Boyfriend’s Back and save! Tickets just $16 Members / $18 Students & Seniors / $22 General Public.
Note: Member complimentary tickets can be used for this series.
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