NIGHTSTREAM: Five Films We're Excited For

Not even a pandemic can stop Halloween 2020 and the first annual Nightstream Festival is here to prove it. When COVID-19 threatened the ability to hold some of the best genre festivals in the US, five of them came together to ensure the world would still have access to new and exciting horror titles. The Boston Underground Film Festival, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, North Bend Film Festival, The Overlook Film Festival, and Popcorn Frights Film Festival teamed up to create Nightstream, a fully online and virtual festival that starts October 8 and runs through October 11.

All five festivals are known for their impeccable choices throughout the ever-expanding world of horror, and Nightstream will be no exception. It features not only a diversity in genres, but in directors, from gender to race. Here are five films we are most excited for directed by women and people of color that should definitely be on your watchlist. Keep an eye out for Film Cred’s coverage of the festival.

All synopsises are courtesy of press materials

This is a screen still from Bleed With Me. A woman with short blonde hair stands in the middle of the frame, holding a candle which casts a yellow glow across her face. She is standing in a doorway and surrounded by darkness.

Bleed With Me, dir. Amelia Moses

A lo-fi and subtly creepy chamber piece, Amelia Moses’ debut BLEED WITH ME follows Rowan, an insecure girl spending a wintery retreat at a remote cabin with her best friend, Emily, and Emily’s boyfriend, Brendan. When Rowan’s anxiety around being an unwanted guest starts to get to her, mounting paranoia gives way to hallucinations, making this trip into something chillingly sinister.

This is a screen still from The Obituary of Tunde Johnson. A black man is shown sitting in a car with only his face in the frame. His window is rolled down and he is looking at someone out of the frame. It's nighttime.

The Obituary of Tonde Johnson, Dir. Ali Leroi

Director Ali Leroi and screenwriter Stanley Kalu present one of the best and most radical uses of the time loop narrative device in the story of a gay black teenager forced to continuously relive May 28th, a date in which, no matter what he does differently, Tunde Johnson finds himself unarmed and shot by the police at the end of the day.

This is a screen still from The Queen of Black Magic. In the foreground stands someone in a dress holding a bloody scythe. They are shot from the waist down. The person is facing a young woman, cowering in a corner in the backgroud, screaming. A man, blocked by the person holding the weapon, is kneeling against another wall.

The Queen of Black Magic, Dir. Kimo Stamboel

In this terrifying and gory tale of supernatural revenge from two of Indonesia’s modern masters of horror, Screenwriter Joko Anwar (SATAN’S SLAVES) and director Kimo Stamboel (HEADSHOT), a middle-class family journey to visit the terminally ill director of the orphanage where the father was raised as a child, only to encounter sinister and terrifying events as the dark history of the children’s home begins to reveal itself.

This is a screen still from Pelican Blood. A mother and daughter stand out in a snowy landscape. The daughter is strapped to her mother's back and both are bundled up in winter gear.

Pelican Blood, Dir. Katrin Gebbe

Nina Hoss delivers a daring performance as a mother who suspects there are sinister supernatural forces at play when her newly adopted daughter turns from shy and charming to menacing and dangerous, threatening her idyllic country life in Katrin Gebbe’s (NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN) engrossing and cerebral horror-drama.

This is a screen still from Time of Moulting. A young girl is standing in front of a pile of boxes in a shadowy room while she holds up a large butcher knife.

Time of Moulting, Dir. Sabrina Mertens

Spanning over ten years in 1970s Germany, this chilling debut from Sabrina Mertens follows Stephanie as she’s raised in isolation by her cold father and emotionally distraught, bedridden mother. Suffocated by the weight of her family’s lifestyle, Stephanie’s mind gradually veers towards darker thoughts and, inevitably, troubling habits and actions.

Learn more about Nightstream, purchase passes, and see the full lineup on the festival’s website.