Movies
Salem Horror Fest Announces First Wave Programming; Plus Month-Long “Romero Lives” Celebration
The Salem Horror Fest returns to the Halloween capital of the world this October for the event’s fifth anniversary, and the first wave of programs has been announced this week.
Here’s everything you need to know…
Romero Lives, the annual retrospective celebrating the life and legacy of George A. Romero, will relocate from Pittsburgh to Salem for a curated month-long series dedicated to the Master of Horror in partnership with The George A. Romero Foundation. Events to include a screening of the newly restored ‘lost’ Romero film, The Amusement Park and the 100th episode of The Faculty of Horror podcast presented live.
The 2021 slate of independent filmmakers will compete to win a $1,000 cash jury award and be considered for The George A. Romero Fellowship program featuring industry mentors Mynette Louie (Swallow), Travis Stevens (Jakob’s Wife), and Jenn Wexler (The Ranger). New this year will be a showcase of Massachusetts filmmakers called Local Mass Hysteria. The next submission deadline is July 31, 2021.
“After a depressing year without movies on the big screen, we could not be more thrilled and eager to return to live events by honoring one of the most influential titans of horror with a showcase of talent set to prove that cinema remains, and will forever be, undead,” said festival director K Lynch.
For festival badges and more information about the selected films, visit SalemHorror.com. Additional events and program details to be announced throughout the summer.
Romero Lives – Retrospective
THE AMUSEMENT PARK
(USA, 1973 / 2021)
Revival Screening, 53 minutes
Director – George A. Romero
A seemingly ordinary day at an amusement park turns into a living nightmare for an elderly man.
THE FACULTY OF HORROR
100th Episode, Live Podcast
Tackling all things horror with a slash of analysis and research, horror journalists and occasional academics Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West are your hosts for brain-plumping discussions on all things that go bump in the night.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
(USA, 1968)
Revival Screening, 97 min
Director – George A. Romero
SAM AND MATTIE MAKE A ZOMBIE FILM
(USA, 2021)
Featured Screening, 107 min
Directors – Jesse Suchmann, Robert Carnevale
Sam and Mattie, two badass best friends with Down syndrome, rally the entire town of Providence RI to help them storyboard, script, produce, cast, and star in their own dream movie: ‘Spring Break Zombie Massacre.’
2021 Official Selections – First Wave Premieres
6:45
(USA, 2021)
New England Premiere, 100 min
Director – Craig Singer
A couple wakes up at 6:45 each morning to the same nightmarish chain of events that lead to them being viciously murdered.
ALONE WITH YOU
(USA, 2021)
Northeast Premiere, 79 min
Directors – Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks
As she waits for her girlfriend to return home for their anniversary, Charlie discovers she’s trapped inside her apartment with an evil entity, and must fight for survival as nightmarish visions descend and a voice in the wall guides her towards a way out.
APPS
(Chile, 2021)
Northeast Premiere, 92 min
Directors – Lucio A. Rojas, José Miguel Zuñiga, Sandra Arriagada, Camilo León y Samon Marquez
Five stories in which a mobile app will open the doors to mystery and horror.
BAD GIRLS
(USA, 2021)
Northeast Premiere, 97 min
Director – Christopher Bickel
After robbing a strip club, three desperate teenage girls lead a misogynistic Federal Agent on a lysergic cross-country chase, scoring a duffle bag full of money, drugs, and a crew of willing kidnapees along the way.
DEATH CAST
(USA, 2021)
World Premiere, 77 min
Director – Bobby Marinelli
Six fame hungry actors are documented as they unknowingly trade their lives to star and die in an experimental horror film.
HALL
(Canada, 2021)
USA Premiere, 80 min
Director – Francesco Giannini
Scattered victims are thrust into the fight of their lives, when a hotel hallway is ravaged by a mysterious virus.
HIDEOUT
(USA, 2021)
New England Premiere, 104 min
Director – Kris Roselli
Evading police at a remote farmhouse after fumbling a robbery, four criminals discover that the family living there are not who they appear to be.
I NEED YOU DEAD
(USA, 2021)
East Coast Premiere, 107 min
Director – Rocko Zevenbergen
A young punk births a strange fleshy creature… it mocks him, hurts him, and takes over his whole world!
KEEPING COMPANY
(USA, 2021)
Northeast Premiere, 82 min
Director – Josh Wallace
A fateful chain of events begin to unravel after two brash insurance salesmen go knocking on the wrong door and find themselves trapped in a stranger’s basement.
LAIR
(United Kingdom, 2021)
Northeast Premiere, 90 min
Director – Adam Ethan Crow
A fractured family are forced to face their demons, metaphorically and literally, as they unwittingly become embroiled in a man’s attempt to prove the existence of the supernatural in order to overturn a friend’s murder conviction.
LANDLOCKED
(USA, 2021)
East Coast Premiere, 74 min
Director – Paul Owens
Summoned to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home, Mason discovers a video camera that can see into the past, driving him to record as many memories as possible before the doomed house is destroyed.
ORIGIN UNKNOWN (SIN ORIGEN)
(México, 2021)
USA Premiere, 93 min
Director – Rigoberto Castañeda
A former drug runner battles supernatural assassins after taking a sick girl under his protection.
PARALLEL MINDS
(Canada, 2021)
East Coast Premiere, 83 min
Director – Benjamin Ross Hayden
In the near future, an A.I. called URM is investigated by a detective and researcher for a lab about to release a contact lens with the power to record what the eye can see to recreate memories.
SHE WATCHES FROM THE WOODS
(USA, 2021)
East Coast Premiere, 79 min
Director – Beau Ballinger
A troubled artist with a dark past attempts to make peace with her dying mother while investigating the mysterious death of her teenage sister.
TWO WITCHES
(USA, 2021)
World Premiere, 98 min
Director – Pierre Tsigaridis
A matriarchal witch passes on her sinister inheritance to her grand-daughter, triggering horrific curses.
THE UNSETTLING
(USA, 2021)
World Premiere, 93 min
Director – Harry Owens
When an African couple take a vacation to recover from tragedy, they find themselves terrorized by demons both real and supernatural. The house that was meant to provide refuge slowly stalks them, consuming their sorrow and trapping them in a nightmare.
Local Mass Hysteria – Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers
BRAIN DEATH
(Brighton MA, 90 min)
Directors – WL Freeman, John Harrison
After the disappearance of her girlfriend, a young trans woman comes into contact with an ancient evil.
CAPRICE
(Dracut MA, 108 min)
Director – Renée Elizabeth Lavoie
The road to recovery is paved in blood for Rose Marlow — her own included. But tormented by the memory of her traumatic injury, she’ll try anything to keep herself alive.
COCKAZOID
(Amherst MA, 85 min)
Director – Nick Verdi
Andrew, a delusional loner who dreams of killing all white men, returns to his hometown in the wake of family tragedy and goes on a murderous rampage.
SEEDS
(Uxbridge MA, 90 min)
Director – Skip Shea
A grieving mother holds on to her Catholic faith as her husband leaves to study and learn the secrets of an old New England cult.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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