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Today, Chattanooga Film Festival organizers gave their fans even more bang for their 2025 badge buck by announcing another jam-packed wave filled with a veritable Whitman’s sampler of the genre programming for which Cff has become known.

The third and final wave of Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 includes a film programmed by a very special guest, another World Premiere, sneak preview screenings, and their biggest 2025 shorts program ever!

Joining the festival’s programmers and curating a secret screening as part of the 2025 edition of their fan-favorite Redeye secret screening series is David Dastmalchian, who will give fans insight into the wild world of his selection, a film presented by longtime Cff co-conspirators Arrow Video.

Joining the festival’s already-announced lineup is the World Premiere of Alan At Night, a Top Secret Sneak Preview screening of a fantastically funny new film, and a screening of Abigail Before Beatrice.

Then, there’s their massive shorts program,...

The Chattanooga Film Festival has announced the final wave of programming and closing night film for its 12th annual event, which will take place June 20-28 both in-person in Tennessee and virtually.

Joining the team’s programmers and curating a secret screening as part of the 2025 edition of their fan-favorite Redeye secret screening series is actor and horror stalwart David Dastmalchian. Look for new world premieres, a massive short film slate, and special live episodes of podcasts including Bloody FM’s Horror Queers. The new additions round out an already packed wave one and two for programming at this year’s fest.

Read on for the third and final wave…

‘Abigail Before Beatrice’

Abigail Before Beatrice (d. Cassie Keet)

An isolated woman is confronted by her past when a fellow former cult member reaches out with news that their leader has been released from prison early. What happens when your...

Johannes Grenzfurthner has done it again. The Austrian filmmaker rarely misses: his more recent “Solvent” mixes history and fiction to whip up a tale of unsettling horror that is impossible to forget. This time, Grenzfurthner’s unflinching approach to confronting real-life horrors culminates in “Hacking at Leaves,” a documentary that blends the United States’ colonial past with the atrocities faced by the Navajo tribe in a bittersweet cocktail of uncomfortable truths. Grenzfurthner goes one step further by honing in on the hacker movement and how a particular Durango hackerspace rallied for people’s lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Each of these ideas is tackled at breakneck speed without cohesion ever being risked, but the questions asked are meant to disturb and provoke while no easy answers are presented. Those acquainted with the director’s body of work might perceive the documentary as a natural extension of his intellectual curiosities, but for those who are not,...

A few minutes into Johannes Grenzfurthner’s “Solvent,” we are privy to a dilapidated Austrian farmhouse belonging to one Wolfgang Zinggl, who disappeared at the age of 94 under mysterious circumstances. This mission to overturn the abandoned house for clues is presented as a faux-documentary shot by combat veteran Gunner S. Holbrook, who specializes in “tracking hidden and potentially fragile goods.”

However, the unblemished truth about Zinggl’s life is laid bare as Holbrook and his team comb through the mountains of old furniture, documents, memorabilia, and knick-knacks sprawled throughout the crumbling, lived-in space. As Zinggl’s grandson, Ernst Bartholdi (Grenzfurthner), and Polish academic historian, Krystyna (Aleksandra Cwen) explain, the old man used to be a high-ranking Nazi who was stationed at the Chełmno extermination camp, and actively helped engineer the horrors that unfolded there. Something about the farmhouse, framed as a disintegrating edifice that solidifies the horrific nature of Zinggl’s past,...

London is set to become the capital of fear this winter as the Soho Horror Film Festival makes its eagerly awaited return for 2024. With an expanded hybrid format, this year’s festival promises to be the biggest yet, delivering a chilling mix of in-person and online scares across two weekends. Kicking off at Brixton’s Whirled Cinema from 22nd to 24th November, the festival then moves online for its Sohome Horror Film Festival from 28th November to 1st December, offering fans a ghoulish feast of over 80 films from 17 countries.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project, the festival will showcase an exceptional strand of found footage films. Leading the charge is the international premiere of Tim Kasher’s Who’s Watching, a disturbing tale of obsession starring Zachary Ray Sherman. Horror fans can also expect chills from Stuart Ortiz’s documentary Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire,...

Johannes Grenzfurthner redefines horror through his unique sound design and visual approach, emphasizing audio as a means to communicate a message. Grenzfurthner explores socio-political issues with grace, finding a balance between cultural commentary and accessibility to a wide range of audiences. Both of Grenzfurthner's horror films, Masking Threshold and Razzennest, offer abstract storytelling through visceral imagery, pushing the boundaries of traditional cinematic storytelling.

With a consistent trend of endless remakes and trying to revitalize popular characters, horror has become more stagnant in pushing conventions than in previous decades. However, there are still those forging ahead and trying to re-envision the genre, those often working on the fringes, or at least outside the Hollywood system.

One such director pushing the boundaries as to how we define horror is Austrian filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner. With only two movies in the horror genre, Grenzfurthner has already proved himself a unique talent with a fresh perspective.

In Theaters Now, Exclusively with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Presented by Fantastic Fest Masking Threshold Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Get Tickets Here and join director Johannes Grenzfurthner and the film’s star Ethan Haslam in Los Angeles this evening for a special Q&a following the 9:30Pm showing. In Theaters Now, Exclusively …

The post In Theaters Now – Masking Threshold – Drafthouse Films’ New Thriller from Filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Masking Threshold: "Frustrated by a constant ringing in his ears, a paranoid data analyst documents his obsessive attempts to cure his own debilitating tinnitus through a series of home experiments conducted in a make-shift lab. But as his research becomes increasingly dark and macabre, a horrifying secret behind his maddening condition is revealed with a potential cure more sinister than he could have ever imagined. A deeply philosophical horror film inspired by Lovecraftian weird fiction and cosmicism, experimental filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner takes us on an unsettling journey into the paranoia of the human mind to reveal the disastrous consequences of the relentless pursuit of knowledge."

Directed by: Johannes Grenzfurthner Written by: Johannes Grenzfurthner & Samantha Lienhard Featuring: Ethan Haslam as the voice of the protagonist and Katharina Rose as Dana Produced by: Günther Friesinger, Julianne Gabert, Jasmin Hagendorfer, and Johannes Grenzfurthner Genre: Horror, Thriller MPAA Rating: Not Rated Runtime: 90 minutes Distributor:...

From the Fantastic Fest Burnt Ends collection comes a new film that is all at once unique and fascinating, as well as pique insanity. Which I suppose you can expect from a program that highlights “outlier and outsider media that intersect definitions of genre, avant-garde, and trash art, while shattering all traditional borders of taste and convention.”

From the bonkers mind of Johannes Grenzfurthner comes Razzennest. The setup is that we are watching the latest film from avant garde filmmaker Manus Oosthuizen (Michael Smulik) while he and several crew members conduct an interview and provide a commentary track with film critic Babette Cruickshank (Sophie Kathleen Kozeluh).

Manus’ film is an artsy examination of the 30 Years War, which wreaked havoc across Europe in the early 17th century. In reality, the film is an abstract series of images ranging from stark footage of bare trees in remote forests, to empty fields, shots of garbage,...

"The mere observation of a phenomenon inevitably changes the phenomenon." Drafthouse has revealed a new official trailer for Masking Threshold, a peculiar and mysterious sound-based horror thriller from an Austrian director. This premiered at Fantastic Fest last year, and Drafthouse Films is releasing it into their own cinemas later this month. "A surreal study of dread." Conducting a series of experiments in his own makeshift home-lab, a skeptic It worker tries to cure his harrowing hearing impairment. But where will his research lead him? Masking Threshold combines a chamber play, a scientific procedural, an unpacking video, and also a DIY YouTube channel while suggesting endless vistas of existential pain and decay. Well okay. Described as a "deeply philosophical horror film inspired by Lovecraftian weird fiction and cosmicism, experimental filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner takes us on an unsettling journey into the paranoia of the human mind to reveal the disastrous consequences of the relentless pursuit of knowledge.

"History is Written by the Dead" From director / writer Johannes Grenzfurthner, Razzennest will have its world premiere at a prestigious festival this Autumn and we have the trailer premiere as a special treat for Daily Dead readers!

Synopsis: "South African enfant terrible filmmaker and artiste-cineaste Manus Oosthuizen meets with Rotten Tomatoes-approved indie film critic Babette Cruickshank in an Echo Park sound studio. With key members of Manus's crew joining, they record an audio commentary track for his new elegiac feature documentary Razzennest. But the session goes down a different path... cazzart! The ultimate elevation of arthouse horror, just not as you might expect."

Cast: Sophie Kathleen Kozeluh (as Babette Cruickshank), Michael Smulik (as Manus Oosthuizen), Anne Weiner (Ellen Zampaglione), Roland Gratzer (as Hetti Friesenbichler), Jim Libby (as Pat Kirkpatrick), Bob Rose (as Bob), Joe Dante (as Joe Dante)

Crew:

Johannes Grenzfurthner ... writer and director Florian Hofer & Philine Hofmann & Ronald von den Sternen...

Digital Distributor Giant Pictures has acquired Drafthouse Films and announced its first two acquisitions, Nr. 10 and Masking Threshold.

Giant Pictures’ Gm Nick Savva will serve as the new Drafthouse Films CEO and Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League will be chairman. Financial terms of the transaction weren’t released.

Drafthouse Films, a genre and international specialist, was founded as the distribution arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in 2010 before being spun off from the exhibitor. As CEO, Savva is planning to expand the Drafthouse Films label.

“Giant Pictures’ investment enables Drafthouse Films to continue releasing the provocative, visionary, and artfully unusual genre films from around the world that have always defined the Drafthouse brand,” Savva says. “At the same time, this acquisition gives Giant new theatrical releasing capabilities which complement our existing digital distribution and streaming technology businesses.”

Giant Pictures will work closely with Alamo Drafthouse and its related media companies, such...

Digital distributor Giant Pictures has acquired Drafthouse Films, the genre movie label formed by Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League.

Giant Pictures general manager Nick Savva will serve as CEO of the company, which will continue to operate under the title Drafthouse Films. League will become the chairman of Drafthouse Films.

“Giant Pictures’ investment enables Drafthouse Films to continue releasing the provocative, visionary, and artfully unusual genre films from around the world that have always defined the Drafthouse brand,” Savva said. “At the same time, this acquisition gives Giant new theatrical releasing capabilities which complement our existing digital distribution and streaming technology businesses.”

Drafthouse Films was created as the distribution arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in 2010 before being spun off from the exhibitor. Past titles on Drafthouse Films’ slate were “Bullhead,” “The Act of Killing,” “Spring” and “Cheap Thrills.” Giant Pictures partners with studios and filmmakers to release movies and TV shows across major streaming platforms,...

Dead & Beautiful: "...Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has announced that psychological thriller Dead & Beautiful will premiere on Thursday, November 4 in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The film, which is written and directed by David Verbeek, is also set to play at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX on Saturday, September 25.

In Dead & Beautiful, five rich, spoiled Asian twenty-somethings are suffering from upper class ennui, unsure how to spend their days when so little is expected from them. In search of excitement, the five friends form the “Circle,” a group where they take turns designing a unique, extravagant experience for the others. But things go wrong when the privileged urbanites awaken after a night out, to find they have developed vampire fangs and an unquenchable thirst for flesh, blood, and adventure at any price.

Dead & Beautiful...

"Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot." An early teaser trailer has debuted for an intriguing, strange horror film project called Masking Threshold - which is a strange title for a horror film but it's also quite a unique title and that makes me happy to see. Made by Austrian filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner, the film is described as "a surreal study of dread" about an It worker performing experiments in his home lab. "Masking Threshold is a film about a suffering, stubborn person whose worldview and beliefs are turned on their head, whose dogmas come out against the world and himself.... It includes the urge for control, the reactionary fear of regression and decay and an almost Lovecraftian terror of contamination." The film stars Ethan Haslam, Katharina Rose, Ishan Raval, Kudra Owens, and David Fine. This trailer contains mostly close-up shots; but along with the poster art,...