Overlook 2024: Showcasing This Year's Must-See Genre Cinema

By Sean Boelman

The Overlook Film Festival is one of the biggest events for horror cinephiles in the United States. While this year’s lineup only features one world premiere (Radio Silence’s Abigail), it also features several of the best genre films from other festivals, such as SXSW, Sundance, TIFF, and more.

If you’re descending on the Big Easy to check out some spooky flicks, here are a few we suggest you don’t miss:

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Cuckoo

This year’s opening night film, Tillman Singer’s Cuckoo, was met with a mixed reception upon its debut at Berlinale, but the Overlook crowd seems like a much better fit for the absurd, campy B-movie this is. If you want to try to make sense of the storyline, this probably isn’t the movie for you. However, if you’re willing to let go of logic and enjoy the film’s incredible sound design, strong production design, and ridiculously fun performances by Dan Stevens and Hunter Schaefer, you’re in the target audience for this picture.

Dead Mail

Dead Mail is likely one of the strangest films playing on the festival circuit right now, but that makes it perfect for an Overlook appearance. The best way to describe this thriller is like if Peter Strickland directed Silence of the Lambs. It follows the intertwined stories of a keyboard technician and the dead mail investigator following the path of his kidnapping. It’s darkly funny but consistently unsettling — making for an unquestionably auspicious debut for Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person debuted on the festival circuit last fall, and it’s a travesty that it still does not have US distribution. The deadpan horror-comedy is just as wacky as it sounds, following a vampire who struggles to drink blood because of the ethical concerns it gives her after she finds a depressed young man. An unorthodox romance brews, resulting in a hilarious and super poignant watch.

In a Violent Nature

If one indie horror movie has taken the festival circuit by storm, it’s Chris Nash’s In a Violent Nature. The film’s set-up is pretty simple: a Friday the 13th-esque slasher told from the perspective of the killer rather than the victims. Of course, the story is pretty straightforward, and the characters thin, but given the concept, it’s almost fitting. However, where the film shines is delivering some of the most incredible kills you will see in any horror film this year and maybe even this decade.

Sleep

The Korean thriller Sleep is directed by Bong Joon-ho’s (Parasite) Okja assistant director, Jason Yu. With that information, cinephiles know they’re in for a treat. Although the film starts in a somewhat restrained way, following a couple whose lives are thrown into disarray when one of them begins to suffer strange bouts of sleepwalking, the final act is incredibly memorable. It’s slowly been picking up buzz and a fanbase on the festival circuit, and the Fantasia crowd would be the perfect people to see it with.

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The 2024 Overlook Film Festival runs April 4-7 in New Orleans, LA.