Movies
Boston Underground Film Festival 2026 Includes ‘Normal’ with Bob Odenkirk, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’ with Bill Moseley
The Boston Underground Film Festival returns for its 26th edition March 18-22 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline.
Opening night will feature director Ben Wheatley’s Normal, an action‑packed and often darkly funny love letter to shoot‑’em‑up cinema starring Bob Odenkirk, who appear live for a post-screening Q&A.
Closing night will feature Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious starring martial arts superstars Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Miao Xie, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga, Enyou Yang, and JeeJa Yanin.
The repertory centerpiece is a 40th anniversary screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 featuring an in‑person appearance by horror icon Bill Moseley, who will also stick around for a late-night screening The Devil’s Rejects.
Additional features include: Curry Barker’s Obsession, Natalie Erika James’ Saccharine, Becca Kozak’s Sugar Rot, Brooke Cellars’ Cramps: A Period Piece, Nick Funess’s The Hedonist, Avalon Fast’s Camp, Alice Maio Mackay’s The Serpent’s Skin, Simon Glassman’s Buffet Infinity, and David Kittredge’s documentary Boorman and the Devil with supporting screenings of Exorcist II: The Heretic.
There will also be six short film blocks: Animation Disorientation, Die Laughing (Comedy), The Dunwich Horrors (Locals), New England Esotercia (Locals), I Hate it Here (Midnights), and Death, Love, & Road Trips (Atypical).
This year marks a significant transition for BUFF with the departure of Artistic Director Kevin Monahan and Director of Programing Nicole McControversy, who for nearly two decades championed the festival’s offbeat spirit and helped elevate it into one of the top 50 genre film festivals in the world.
Former BUFF technical directors Adam Van Voorhis and Phil Healy have stepped into the role of co‑festival directors and they have brought on Coolidge Corner Theatre artistic director Mark Anatasio as BUFF’s new artistic director. Together with the support of a dedicated team of volunteers, they will continue BUFF’s legacy as a filmmaker‑focused festival, sharing a wide range of films with an audience of passionate cinephiles and championing diverse voices from around the globe.
“We’re thrilled to announce our full slate for BUFF 2026,” said Anastasio. “Our incredibly hard-working, and entirely volunteer, team of programmers has pulled together pure cinematic madness. I can’t wait for our audience to lose their minds experiencing these incredible films together in the dark.”
Boston Underground Film Festival passes are on sale now. Individual tickets go on sale this Thursday, March 5, at 2pm.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.