While previous incarnations of Salem Horror Fest occured in tourist-heavy October, this year’s sixth installment smoothly shifted to two weekends in April. The official selections include 20 features and 37 shorts, along with repertory programming, celebrity guests, live podcasts, panels, after parties, and more.
Here’s what I saw at this year’s event…
Bury the Bride
After making his feature directorial debut with last year’s horror anthology Allegoria, Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One returns with Bury the Bride, exhibiting considerable growth as a filmmaker in a short span of time. He channels a redneck-fueled grit similar to his elder brother Rob Zombie’s ourve, particularly The Devil’s Rejects, coupled with Quentin Tarantino-esque idiosyncrasies.
The film follows bride-to-be June (Scout Taylor-Compton, Rob Zombie’s Halloween) along with her older sister (co-writer Krsy Fox) and three of her closest friends (Lyndsi LaRose, Rachel Brunner, Katie Ryan) into the California desert for a bachelorette party at a rural house owned by her mysterious fiance, David (Dylan Rourke). Once the partying starts, it’s not long before her friends begin to question June’s decision to rush into marriage with a guy they know nothing about.
But that’s nothing compared to the drama that ensues when David and his crude, country bumpkin friends (Cameron Cowperthwaite, Adam Marcinowski, and American Horror Story‘s Chaz Bono) crash the party. It’s around this time that a reveal occurs, which I won’t give away here since it admirably wasn’t spoiled by the marketing, but it’s an intriguing twist on a classic horror trope. From there on, the pacing is relentless for the characters and the viewer alike.
Despite some missteps along the way, the film finds its footing and left me wanting more. I was always surprised Taylor-Compton didn’t do more mainstream work after the Halloween movies. Say what you will about them, but the actress showcased an infectious charisma — and she hasn’t missed a beat, as it’s all on display here. Far from a damsel in distress, she’s prepared to fight back with a resilient energy that’s matched by Rourke’s ferocity.
Bury the Bride is available now on Tubi.
Brightwood
In Brightwood, quarreling couple Jen (Dana Berger, Orange in the New Black) and Dan (Max Woertendyke) find themselves trapped in an inexplicable time loop while on a run in the woods — and they soon discover they’re not alone. Like The Twilight Zone meets Timecrimes with a hint of Blair Witch, the rousing premise is bolstered by character turmoil, although it could have used more answers by the end.
With a cast of two entirely outside in daylight, writer-director Dane Elcar makes his feature debut with the clever indie production for the pandemic, based on his 2018 short The Pond. The concept may have been better served at 20 minutes than 84, but despite occasionally falling victim to the redundancy that poses a risk to any time loop story, Elcar never loses sight of building intrigue.
T Blockers
Drawing from her own experiences as a transgender woman, Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay (So Vam) continues to use the genre to fight back against oppression with her latest effort, T Blockers. Did I mention she’s only 18 years old with three features under her belt? This is an important voice in horror that doesn’t beg but rather demands to be heard.
The movie centers on Sophie (Lauren Last), a trans indie filmmaker who works a menial movie theater job in an effort to make ends meet. As if dealing with “chasers” who fetishize her and transphobes who hate her mere existence wasn’t enough, a parasite starts invading the brains of insecure hate-mongers and turns them into zombie-like creatures; a timely metaphor for how right-wing propaganda enables the conservative base to perpetuate its vile agenda.
Armed with a unique ability to sense the infection and with insight from an obscure horror movie that reflects their predicament, Sophie teams up with her best friends, Spencer (Lewi Dawson) and Storm (Lisa Fanto), and her new love interest, Kris (Toshiro Glenn), to take justice into their own hands as masked bigot bashers. Although the finale is a tad anticlimactic, the neon-soaked journey to get there is no less effective.
The Weird Kidz
Like Beavis and Butt-Head taking the South Park boys to see a creature feature, The Weird Kidz follows preteen friends Dug (Tess Passero), Mel (Glenn Bolton), and Fatt (Brian Ceely) on a camping trip with Dug’s surly older brother, Wyatt (Ellar Coltrane, Boyhood), and his amiable girlfriend, Mary (Sydney Wharton), where they encounter the urban legend of the Night Child, an insectoid monster that appears every 25 years.
Made over the course of eight years while writer-director Zach Passero worked regular jobs and started a family, The Weird Kidz is rude and crude in terms of both animation and content. It functions best as a comedy, but a coming-of-age angle gives it heart while the genre elements are a welcome addition. Angela Bettis (May) voices a convenience store clerk and Sean Bridgers (The Woman) plays the local sheriff, while Passero’s frequent collaborator and genre favorite Lucky McKee serves as a producer.
Mahakaal
While I tried to squeeze in as many new movies as possible, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see India’s unofficial remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Mahakaal (AKA The Monster), with an audience. Noted Bollywood horror directors Shyam & Tulsi Ramsay are no Wes Craven, but the 1994 film benefits from ripping off a genre master. The surprisingly effective nightmare sequences — atmospheric and well-shot with decent effects — are a sharp contrast to the clumsy rest of the film.
Shakaal (Mahabir Bhullar) — a burned, razor-gloved, mulletted (!) entity with a vendetta — stalks and slashes teenagers in their dreams; following most of the major beats from the original Elm Street, plus a subplot inspired by Freddy’s Revenge and a waterbed kill lifted from The Dream Master. But the first kill doesn’t occur until 45 minutes into the bloated, 132-minute runtime, padded by goofy characters (including a Michael Jackson-impersonating friend, who inexplicably plays two other characters as well), musical numbers that don’t advance the plot, and abrupt editing.
That said, it’s still the superior Elm Street remake! Mahakaal is available on Blu-ray via Massacre Video.
Swallowed
In Swallowed, best friends Benjamin (Cooper Koch, They/Them) and Dom (first-time actor Jose Colon) are forced by a drug dealer (Jena Malone, Donnie Darko) to swallow condoms filled with mystery drugs in order to smuggle them across the Canadian border. When things go awry in the most unfortunate of ways, they’re forced to answer to the unhinged kingpin, Rich (Mark Patton, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge).
Frustrated with the struggle to get anything made in the studio system, The Ruins writer-director Carter Smith took stock in what he had available to him and made a low-budget movie independently. The result is a queer thriller with a body-horror spin that masterfully sustains tension throughout. Carter makes the unique decision to shoot in a 4:3 fullscreen format, heightening the claustrophobia and intimacy, while all four leads deliver blistering performances.
Swallowed is available on VOD via Momentum Pictures.
Follow Her
Follow Her is far from the first film to use internet culture as a foundation for a genre film, but it’s one of the more effective attempts in recent memory. Jess Peters (screenwriter Dani Baker) livestreams her “Classified Crazies” in which she publicly vets creepy online ads with questionable motives. It’s not quite sex work, but more often than not she’s paid to facilitate men’s kinks — like tickling or foot fetishes — under misleading pretenses.
Her latest client, Tom (Luke Cook, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), is an unassuming and even charming Australian man looking for an “attractive female writer” to help him write the ending to his psycho-sexual thriller screenplay. Lured back to the remote barn he calls home, Jess reads a script that mirrors their exact situation before being forced to live out the movie to the end… or die trying.
Like a Hitchcockian twist on Creep, Baker and director Sylvia Caminer craft a compelling, tense thriller for the social media age. Some foolish character choices are made to advance the plot, and the movie would have been better served without the protracted epilogue — but each time it seems to be settling into predictability, a left turn makes things more interesting.
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