The 28th Indie Memphis Film Festival runs November 5 through November 8, 2026 at the Halloran Centre and Malco Powerhouse in Memphis’s South Main Arts District, and its program includes a handful of horror, thriller, and sci-fi titles.
Oliver Bernsen’s Bagworm (regional premiere, November 7 at 10:00 PM) is a body-horror comedy in which a rusty nail in the foot kicks off the physical manifestation of a hardware salesman’s psychological decay. Harrison Atkins’s Sour Minnows (regional premiere, November 6 at 9:45 PM) slides from slacker comedy into existential paranoia after a man witnesses strangers licking the pavement and begins finding minnows in his pockets.
Sam Gorman’s Inter-State (regional premiere, November 6 at 10:15 PM) is a handmade sci-fi romp about a teleportation machine and a hostile interdimensional entity called the Tracksuit Man. Zach Weintraub’s Assets & Liabilities (November 7 at 10:30 PM) is a comedy about a suburban dad at a skate park that takes a supernatural turn. Glenn Payne’s Safe & Sound (November 6 at 3:00 PM) is a stalker thriller about a pop star abducted by an obsessed fan, and Sophia Takal’s Act One (November 6 at 8:00 PM) follows a young woman through a toxic acting studio.
Also on the slate are Chronovisor (November 6 at 1:00 PM), a 16mm sci-fi noir about a hunt for a camera that captures lost history, and the Hometowner short Hallelujah Station (November 6 at 5:30 PM), set in a bleak asylum. Alexandre Rockwell’s noir The Projectionist (November 6 at 7:15 PM) rounds out the thriller side, with a murder the protagonist cannot fully remember.
The festival opens with Sam Pollard’s The Lorraine and closes with Ira Sachs’s The Man I Love. Seth Green will take part in panels. Full program and tickets are at imff26.indiememphis.org.
