You remember the Overlook Hotel, don’t you? Does the image below help you recall a troubled writer and his family, trapped there for a long and increasingly terrifying winter? Yes?

A t-shirt logo for Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, The Shining

Taking its name in homage to that film, The Overlook Film Festival describes itself as “a four day celebration of all things horror:”

The Overlook Film Festival is a 4-day celebration of horror held in iconic locations that evoke the spirit of the Overlook hotel, horror’s most infamous haunted fictional location. The 2018 festival will take place in America’s most haunted city, New Orleans.

Genre fans and cinephiles from the world over will convene in the heart of the French Quarter, home to countless apparition sightings, voodoo legends, and vampire curses. Festival headquarters will be located at the infamously haunted Bourbon Orleans Hotel. Revisit the roots of terror at the very hotel whose 4th floor ghost child is said to have been the inspiration for the Grady Twins immortalized in THE SHINING.

The festival runs April 19 – 21 at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. The line-up of films announced so far is amazing, with 25+ feature films and a big slate of short films as well. All films are from 2017 and 2018 and the festival is international in scope. A couple of world premieres are included. It is quite a feast of horror!

Gabriel Byrne and Milly Shapiro

Ari Aster’s first feature film, Hereditary, has been given the special honor of “closing night film” and will screen April 21. Starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, and Gabriel Byrne, the film shocked audiences at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and will no doubt do so again in New Orleans. It premieres on American screens June 8.

In addition to the great new films on offer at the festival, the Overlook FF also offers a truly remarkable array of immersive experiences, live shows, and virtual reality adventures as well.

One of these, The Overlook Interactive Game, begins once you arrive at the festival:

Throughout the entire weekend, uncover an interactive horror mystery that permeates the festival, featuring live actors inhabiting unique locations, hidden clues, tactile puzzles, and surprising twists that each player can engage with at their own level of comfort and curiosity. Follow the clues to become the protagonist of an engaging and thrilling narrative that no two players will experience in exactly the same way. Details of the game’s story will remain locked away until the festival begins, but you may wish to seek out the celestial raven, instantly.

Hint, hint.

There are many of these experiences available at the festival every year.

I must say there is no way I could attend this festival now. I would definitely have a heart attack. heart But you go! You can take it!

From the Overlook Film Festival:

Closing Night – HEREDITARY

When their reclusive grandmother passes away, the Graham family is slowly taken hold by a cursed terror, one that won’t let go. A cavalcade of gifted performers led by Toni Collete star in filmmaker Ari Aster’s astounding debut feature, which has deservedly become one of the most anticipated horror films of the year since it’s electrifying debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Get tickets to this screening in New Orleans! Director Ari Aster is slated to attend the festival. And remember: Gabriel was seen on the streets of New Orleans just a few weeks ago, shooting a mysterious new project. Perhaps he is still there. Perhaps he will attend the Overlook screening of his newest film. Ok. Perhaps not, but we always hope!

New Poster

What a dark and troubled family portrait. I must leave you now and turn on all the lights in the house. Bye. wink

2 Comments

  1. Very scary ! I used to work in an 1880’s building that had been a jail and courthouse. It was converted into an arts centre in the 1980’s. There was still an old limestone jail cell in the basement where no one ventured… I’ve never believed in the supernatural, but that room gave me the creeps. We’re just completing renovations in the building – but we left that cell alone….

    Angelle

    • Remember The Sixth Sense? The school that was originally an old courtroom/jail? I think that’s right. Anyway, that scene almost made me leave the theater. So scary and so unexpected!
      I really don’t know if I will be able to watch Hereditary. I will try. If you don’t hear from me, you will know what happened.

      PS. Of course, this makes Halloween so much easier… ;-)

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