Popular Film, Music, and Interactive festival SXSW held in Austin, TX is just a month away.  Program details have been steadily trickling in, and today they’ve announced the final pieces to the lineup including the Midnighters: the section scheduled for the scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.  In other words, genre films perfect for us horror fanatics.  So what can we expect?

The SXSW Midnighter selections are:

carnagepark
Director/Screenwriter: Mickey Keating
The year is 1978. A team of wannabe crooks botch a small-town bank heist and flee with their hostage deep into the California desert, where they find themselves in a harrowing fight for survival against a psychotic ex-military sniper.
Cast: Ashley Bell, Pat Healy, Alan Ruck, Darby Stanchfield, Larry Fessenden, Graham Skipper, James Landry Hebert, Michael Villar
Hush
Director: Mike Flanagan, Screenwriters: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel
A deaf woman is stalked by a psychotic killer in her secluded home.
Cast: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan (World Premiere)
i am a hero
Director: Shinsuke Sato, Screenwriter: Akiko Nogi
Japan’s first major zombie movie based on a blockbuster manga series!
Cast: Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Masami Nagasawa (U.S. Premiere)
Jack Goes Home
Director/Screenwriter: Thomas Dekker
After his father is killed in a car crash, Jack travels home to Colorado to help nurse his mother (who was injured in the crash) back to health. There, he uncovers long buried secrets and lies within his family, his friends and his very identity.
Cast: Rory Culkin, Lin Shaye, Daveigh Chase, Natasha Lyonne, Louis Hunter, Nikki Reed, Britt Robertson (World Premiere)
Johnny Frank Garretts
Director: Simon Rumley, Screenwriters: Ben Ketai, Marc Haimes, Tony Giglio
When a young man is executed for committing murder, he leaves behind a curse letter in which he promises to take vengeance on all those connected to his trial.
Cast: Sean Patrick Flanery, Erin Cummings, Devin Bonne, Mike Doyle (World Premiere)
My Father Die
Director/Screenwriter: Sean Brosnan
A young deaf boy avenges the death of his brother, and the killer happens to be his father.
Cast: Joe Anderson, Gary Stretch, Candance Smith, Kevin Gage, John Schneider, Gabe White, Ross Britz, Michael Francis Murphy, William Mark McCullough, Frances Reagan James (World Premiere)
sxsw pet
Director: Carles Torrens, Screenwriter: Jeremy Slater
A lonely man fatefully reunites with a former high school classmate. When she spurns his advances, he takes her prisoner, only to find that she is not what she seems.
Cast: Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons, John Ross Bowie, Da’Vone McDonald, Janet Song (World Premiere)
Phantasm Restored
Director/Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams and his company Bad Robot have undertaken a meticulous 4K restoration of writer/director Don Coscarelli’s beloved horror fan favorite about a young boy confronting the embodiment of death in the form of the sinister “Tall Man.”
Cast: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester
Under the Shadow
Director/Screenwriter: Babak Anvari
As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war torn Tehran of the 80s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home…
Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Arash Marandi, Ray Haratian, Hamid Djavdan, Nabil Koni
A Man in the Dark
Director: Fede Alvarez, Screenwriters: Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues
A group of teens break into a blind man’s home thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime. They’re wrong.
Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang (World Premiere)