New works by acclaimed Japanese horror director Nakata Hideo (The Ring), Romania’s Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) and French filmmaker Marion Hansel (Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea) will unspool at the 42nd International Film Festival at Rotterdam (IFFR), says THR.

Hideo’s latest horror fest, The Complex, will have its world premiere in Rotterdam, as will Hansel’s Tenderness. A trio of new titles from Puiu: The Cat is on the Chair, The Monkey is on the Branch and The Mouse is Under the Table will all have their international premieres at the IFFR.

Other highlights at Rotterdam include Japan’s Tragedy, a family drama from director Kobayashi Masahiro (The Rebirth), which is dedicated to the victims of the 2011 tsunami; Il Futuro from Chilean director Alicia Scherson, which stars Rutger Hauer as a rich but lonely actor and Frankenstein’s Army, pictured above, a zombie film from first-time Dutch director Richard Raaphorst.

Rotterdam will announce its full 2013 line up on Jan. 9. The acclaimed art-house festival runs Jan.23 to Feb.3.

THE COMPLEX: “Nursing student Asuka (Atsuko Maeda) has just moved into an apartment complex with her parents and younger brother. On the first night in her new room, she is awoken by a strange scratching sound coming from the apartment of her neighbor, a reclusive old man who has refused all attempts at communication. Concerned over his well being, Asuka enters his home only to find him dead from malnutrition. Worse, it looks as if he had been trying to claw his way into her room.

Panicked by the discovery of her apartment emptied and her family gone, Asuka seeks help from Shinobu, who brings in a spiritualist to exorcise Asuka of the evil surrounding her. However, as she delves into the girl’s predicament, the spiritualist discovers that signs points not to the old man but to a small boy living in the complex with a past as tragic as the one Asuka herself lives in denial of.”