Following the announcement of an absolutely stacked first wave (including Clown in a Cornfield, Drop and The Shrouds), Overlook Film Festival has added a bunch of exciting new titles to the 2025 edition, kicking off from April 3 – April 6 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Prytania Theatres.
Highlights of latest edition to the Overlook Film Festival's full lineup includes Kiyoshi Kurosawa's anxiety-inducing Cloud, Irish folk horror Fréwaka and Yûta Shimotsu's bizarre and uncanny new J-horror, Best Wishes to All.
In addition to the full feature lineup, this year's Overlook also comes stacked with events including a newly added screening of William Castle's 13 Ghosts, celebrating its 65th Anniversary with a showing in the original intended form of ILLUSION-O! The screening will be preceded by Phantom Follies with Zabrecky: A Midnight Spook Show & Film Spectacular, a one-of-a-kind midnight experience from Zabrecky, a six-time Magic Castle award-winning magician and master of theatrical séances.
There's also an additionally added tribute to the late, great David Lynch as Overlook presents The Short Films of David Lynch.
Overlook are also bringing one of New Orleans' most popular goth nights to the Toulouse Theater with Splatterday Night Closing Night Party, hosted and curated by electronic artist Destryur.
And finally, adding to the festivities even more, the previously announced Opening Night Party (celebrating the tenth anniversary of Shudder) will include as special guests the queens of horror and stars of Shudder’s Dragula, the Boulet Brothers. Each party is open to all festival pass holders to join in the celebration.
Read on for the new feature film additions, and for more event, lineup and ticket information, head over to Overlook Film Festival's official site.
Best Wishes to All
Director: Yûta Shimotsu
Cast: Kotone Furukawa
Japan, 2024
A young nursing student gets an unexpectedly twisted dose of reality when she visits her grandparents in the countryside, only to uncover the secrets to their exceedingly happy life. Director Yûta Shimotsu’s unsettling debut draws from classics like Audition and The Wicker Man to create a wholly unique vision.
Cloud
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daiken Okudaira, Amane Okayama, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Masataka Kubota
Japan, 2024
Japanese horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse) returns to his trademark discomfort zone in this unpredictable psychological genre-bending, screw-turner following an online reseller whose bogus products land him in the crosshairs of mysterious violent threats which reach increasingly close to home.
Fréwaka
Director: Aislinn Clarke
Cast: Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya
Ireland, 2024
Irish folkloric terror awaits in this remarkably atmospheric bone-chiller about a care worker who, after suffering a personal tragedy, leaves her Dublin home for a remote assignment in the north country to look after an elderly shut-in… Deep inside her new abode, she finds a portal to something far more sinister.
The Home
Director: Mattias J Skoglund
Cast: Philip Oros, Anki Lidén, Gizem Erdogan, Malin Levanon, Peter Jankert, Lottie Ejenbrant, Ayan Ahmed, Bengt CW Carlsson
Estonia, Iceland, Sweden, 2025
Terrified of facing the scars from his past, alcoholic Joel returns to his small town to move his dementia-ridden mother Monica out of her elderly care facility to look after her himself. When he starts to experience strange visions, he begins to realize she might have brought something else with her.
LifeHack
Director: Ronan Corrigan
Cast: Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, Roman Hayeck-Green, James Scholz, Jessica Reynolds, Charlie Creed-Miles
United Kingdom, 2025
From the producers of former Overlook opener Unfriended: Dark Web comes a non-stop, high tension thriller following four slacker teens as they descend into the darkest corners of the internet to plan one of the greatest cyberheists of all time.
Predators
Director: David Osit
United States, 2025
Director David Osit’s unnerving, intricate examination of the once lauded To Catch a Predator delves deep into the real life horrors of how far one tv show will go to turn disturbing crimes, and disturbed people, into entertainment. As heartbreaking as it is chilling, this shocking documentary explores the thin line between “monster” and human.
Rosario
Director: Felipe Vargas
Cast: Emeraude Toubia, David Dastmalchian, Paul Ben-Victor, José Zúñiga, Diana Lein
United States and Columbia, 2025
When the grief-stricken young Rosario is forced to wait overnight with the body of her deceased grandmother until an ambulance can get to her through a severe snowfall, she falls prey to ghoulish attacks from supernatural possessors determined to wreak havoc on her.
