Sean Parker
Though the weather hasn’t fully realized it, I’m glad it’s spring. This is the beginning of my favorite time of year, film festival season. And it all starts with one festival that I continue to have an absolute blast attending year after year: The Boston Underground Film Festival. Now in its twenty-fourth year, Boston Underground keeps me coming back year after year with their incredible lineups of hotly anticipated distributed releases and carefully curated picks of independent releases that never fail to leave a lasting impression. Last year for me, sitting in the historic Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, I watched what would end up becoming my favorite film of 2023: Moon Garden. So, what will 2024 bring? Let’s find out!
Kicking off the festival on Wednesday, March 20, is Michael Mohan’s (The Voyeurs) Sydney Sweeney, starring convent-set horror film Immaculate. Immaculate follows a recent novitiate nun who arrives at a picturesque Italian convent only to find an evil lurking in the shadows of her new home. If the trailer to this film doesn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, then you’re completely desensitized. Immaculate is one of the season’s biggest horror releases and will surely set the tone for the next five days of the festival.
Bookending the festival, a movie I’ve long been looking forward to ever since it made my list of “coming soon” releases back in 2020: Boy Kills World. This genre-bending hyper-violent revenge film stars IT’s Bill Skarsgård as a no-named deaf-mute, with an inner-dialogue voiced by Bob’s Burgers H. Jon Benjamin, who is trained to be an instrument of death by a mysterious shaman and sets out on a quest to avenge his murdered family. Also starring Happy Death Day’s Jessica Rothe and House on Haunted Hill’s Famke Janssen, Boy Kills World looks like what you’d get if John Wick met Kill Bill.
It isn’t just the marquee releases that are out to impress. Fresh from its screening at SXSW, Chris Nash’s In A Violent Nature is set to make its East Coast Premiere. A slasher film unlike any other, Boston Underground Film Festival attendees will see the world through the eyes of a silent maniac as he carves his path through the teenage camper-filled Canadian wilderness. This methodically contemplative and self-described ambient experience is being hailed by festivalgoers and critics as one of the most brutal slasher films of the year.
Thrillers abound at BUFF24 as well. Boston Underground Film Festival is proud to present UK vengeance noir Femme, starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Nia DaCosta’s Candyman) as Jules, a drag artist in the grips of trauma after a brutal homophobic attack. When Jules later encounters one of their attackers, revenge becomes an immutable desire. Joining Femme, South Korea’s Jason Yu serves up a mysterious and haunting debut with Sleep. The late Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) and Train to Busan’s Jung Yu-mi star as expectant parents overcome by the possibilities of raising an infant. As if the prospect of constant crying and an all-hours feeding schedule wasn’t enough pressure, Soo-jin (Yu-mi) has to worry about her husband’s increasingly troubling sleepwalking habits. And, if that kind of creeping dread is your jam, Joseph Mault’s Strange Kindness, a Cape Cod set American gothic and isolationist fable about extending empathy after an act of unfathomable violence, is poised to make its World Premiere.
Boston Underground Film Festival is also hitting us with a triple-play of French films, beginning with festival darling Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. Sasha, a young vampire with issues killing for food, has her alternative food source taken away and enlists the help of a man willing to trade his life to save hers. To thank him, Sasha sets out to fulfill the man’s bucket list before daybreak. Ariane Louis-Seize’s charming ethical dilemma film has been a hit on the festival circuit, and I look forward to its New England Premiere. Next up, Sébastien Vanicek’s Infested is sure to give you arachnophobia. This creepy-crawly import follows residents of a French social housing block as they battle for survival against a rapidly reproducing onslaught of vicious spiders. If the name Sébastien Vanicek doesn’t sound familiar now, it will once this one gives you nightmares. He’s also been tapped to direct the next Evil Dead feature. Finally, rounding out the trio is Belgium’s 2024 Oscar entry Omen. From visionary director and rapper Baloji, Omen taps into themes of identity, culture, and belief when a man returns to his homeland, triggering communal division.
Since it is spring and love is in the air, Boston Underground invites you to experience Zach Clark’s out-of-this-world romance, The Becomers. Narrated by Sparks frontman Russel Mael, this body-snatching sci-fi rom-com premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival and tells the story of an alien reconnecting with their partner and trying to get by in modern America. And, if that’s not enough to capture your heart, Kim Albright’s With Love and a Major Organ may do exactly that. Starring Violation’s Anna Maguire, in a world where hearts are made of objects and self-care consists of suppressing your emotions, a lonely woman rips out her own heart only to discover the man she’s given it to has run off with it.
And there’s plenty more to discover! Amanda Nell Eu brings her coming-of-age Cannes Film Festival Winner (Critic’s Week Grand Prize Award) Tiger Stripes to BUFF24. And Nathan Tape’s Juggalo thriller, Off Ramp, makes its East Coast debut. Plus, shorts, shorts and more shorts. Boston Underground Film Festival is pumping up six short film blocks ranging in genre from the horrific sights of their “Dunwich Horrors” block and the iconic “Trigger Warning” block of Midnighters to a slew of comedy shorts with their “Friendship is Magic” block, Animated block “Sometimes Always,” or their rocking music video block, “Sound + Vision.”
The Boston Underground Film Festival really has something for everyone. Running from March 20 to March 24 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, festival badges and individual tickets are on sale now. Check the festival website for additional information.
__________________________________________
BOSTON UNDERGROUND 2024 FEATURES LINEUP
BOY KILLS WORLD – Closing Night Film | March 24, 8:15 PM
Moritz Mohr | Germany, South Africa, USA | 2024
A dystopian fever dream action film that follows Boy, a deaf person with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, he is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.
FEMME – New England Premiere | March 21, 10:15 PM
Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping | UK | 2023
Follows Jules, who is targeted in a horrific homophobic attack, destroying his life and career. Some time after that event he encounters Preston, one of his attackers, in a gay sauna. He wants revenge.
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON – New England Premiere | March 21, 8:15 PM
Ariane Louis-Seize | Canada | 2023
A young woman vampire is unable to kill to meet her need for blood, but may have found a solution in a young man with suicidal tendencies.
IMMACULATE – East Coast Premiere / Opening Night Film | March 20, 7:00 PM
Michael Mohan | USA | 2024
Cecilia, a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside, where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – East Coast Premiere | March 23, 9:30 PM
Chris Nash | Canada | 2024
An ambient horror slasher that methodically depicts the enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness.
INFESTED – New England Premiere | March 23, 11:30 PM
Sébastien Vaniček | France | 2023
Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.
OFF RAMP – East Coast Premiere | March 22, 7:15 PM (Director Attending)
Nathan Tape | USA | 2023
A couple of lovable, degenerate Juggalos must sojourn through America’s hellish underbelly to The Gathering of the Juggalos, the one place on earth they feel accepted.
OMEN – New England Premiere | March 24, 6:15 PM
Baloji | Belgium, Congo | 2023
After spending years in Belgium, a young Congolese man returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.
SLEEP – New England Premiere | March 22, 9:45 PM
Jason Yu | South Korea | 2023
A young, expectant wife must figure out how to stop her husband’s nightmarish sleepwalking habits before he harms himself or his family.
STRANGE KINDNESS – World Premiere | March 21, 5:30 PM (Director Attending)
Joseph Mault | USA | 2024
Strange Kindness is a film about isolation, the shocking acts of violence that have come to punctuate our American dream, and what empathy might look like at its further limits. While the film’s content is political its treatment of themes is far more mythological in nature.
THE BECOMERS – New England Premiere | March 23, 7:00 PM (Director Attending)
Zach Clark | USA | 2023
A body-snatching alien comes to Earth, reconnects with their partner, and tries to find their way in modern America.
TIGER STRIPES – Massachusetts Premiere | March 23, 2:45 PM
Amanda Nell Eu | Malaysia | 2023
An 11-year-old girl who is carefree until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.
WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN – New England Premiere | March 24, 4:15 PM
Kim Albright | Canada | 2023
In an alternate world where hearts are made of objects and suppressing emotions is self-care, a lonely woman rips out her own heart for the man she loves, only to discover that he has run away with it.
