The 25th annual Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) is set to electrify Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre from March 19th–23rd, 2025. Horror fans and genre enthusiasts can look forward to a bold roster of mind-bending debuts, resurrected cult classics, and special appearances.

Kicking things off is the East Coast Premiere of Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage as a man embroiled in a dangerous standoff at his childhood beach. The festival also hosts the World Premiere of Michael Patrick Jann’s Alma & the Wolf, a psychological thriller about a detective probing a chilling wolf attack. Adding to the excitement is a 4K restoration of Stuart Gordon’s legendary Re-Animator, presented by horror icon Barbara Crampton in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary.

Audiences craving fresh storytelling can explore East Coast Premieres like Annapurna Sriram’s hallucinogenic Fucktoys and Stefan MacDonald-Labelle’s existential nightmare Head Like a Hole. The Ugly Stepsister, a body-horror twist on the Cinderella myth, promises to shock, while Sister Midnight blends pitch-black comedy and psychological turmoil. Sci-fi fans should catch Escape from the 21st Century, while Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chain Reactions offers deep insights into The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

BUFF also highlights rare gems, including Muerte en la Playa (1991) and an eclectic shorts program that delivers everything from nightmarish animation to experimental music videos. For its silver anniversary, BUFF remains committed to showcasing boundary-pushing films, celebrating the darker side of cinema, and welcoming fans eager to embrace the weird, wicked, and wonderfully offbeat.

BOSTON UNDERGROUND 2025 FESTIVAL LINEUP

Opening Night Film
THE SURFER – East Coast Premiere
Director: Lorcan Finnegan 

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nicholas Cassim

Australia, Ireland, 2024

A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.

Spotlight Screening

RE-ANIMATOR – World Premiere of the 4K Restoration & 40th Anniversary Screening
Director: Stuart Gordon 

Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton

USA, 1985

With Special Guest Barbara Crampton in Attendance

After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue. 

This special theatrical screening will feature the World Premiere of the new pristine 40th Anniversary 4K UHD restoration of Re-Animator from Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures, which is available for pre-order on Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs at Ignite-Films.com. (It includes 2 hours and 47 minutes of brand-new bonus materials, plus all classic legacy features.)

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Feature Film Lineup

ALMA & THE WOLF – World Premiere
Director: Michael Patrick Jann 

Cast: Ethan Embry, Li Jun Li, Mather Zickel
USA, 2025

With Filmmaker Michael Patrick Jann and actor Lukas Jann in Attendance

Horror and madness emerge from the shrouded mists of coastal Oregon. A violent wolf attack. A missing son. The appearance of a dangerous and seductive woman from the past. How are they connected? At the cost of his sanity, Deputy REN Accord (Ethan Embry) must unravel the mystery and discover the truth before time runs out.

BEST WISHES TO ALL – New England Premiere
Director: Yûta Shimotsu 

Cast: Kotone Furukawa, Kôya Matsudai

Japan, 2023

A young woman visits her grandparents on a break from university. While she’s there, she discovers a dark secret about them and potentially herself.

CHAIN REACTIONS – East Coast Premiere
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe 

USA, 2024

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s impact on 5 artists – Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, Karyn Kusama – through interviews, outtakes, exploring how it shaped their art, psyche from childhood trauma.

ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY – New England Premiere
Director: Yang Li 

Cast: Ruoyun Zhang, Elane Zhong, Yang Song

China, 2024

Three friends discover that they have the power to travel back and forth 20 years with a sneeze. However, the future is not as good as they hope, and they need to take on the responsibility of saving the world.

FRÉWAKA – New England Premiere
Director: Aislinn Clarke
Cast: Clare Monnelly, Bríd Ní Neachtain, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya

Ireland, 2024

Haunted by a personal tragedy, home care worker, Shoo, is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman who fears the neighbors as much as she fears the Na Sídhe — sinister entities who she believes abducted her decades before. As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old woman’s paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors from her own past.

FUCKTOYS – East Coast Premiere
Director: Annapurna Sriram 

Cast: Annapurna Sriram, Sadie Scott, Damian Young, Brandon Flynn, François Arnaud, Big Freedia

USA, 2025

With filmmaker Annapurna Sriram and actor Sadie Scott in Attendance

A lush 16mm fever dream that reimagines The Fool’s Journey of the Major Arcana of the Tarot through the story of AP–a rosy young woman seeking salvation from a curse. 

HEAD LIKE A HOLE – East Coast Premiere
Director: Stefan MacDonald-Labelle 

Cast: Steve Kasan, Jeff McDonald, Eric B. Hansen

Canada, 2024

With filmmaker Stefan MacDonald-Labelle in Attendance

In financial dire straits, a man accepts a strange, high-paying job where he must take up residence in a home and measure a hole in the wall of the basement to determine whether or not it’s growing in size.

MUERTE EN LA PLAYA – Repertory Screening
Director: Enrique Gómez Vadillo 

Cast: Andrés Bonfiglio, Sonia Infante, Rodolfo de Anda

Mexico, 1991

A disturbed young man who was molested by his teacher begins murdering those around him who he sees responsible for his trauma while trying to overcome his own homosexual desires.

SISTER MIDNIGHT – New England Premiere
Director: Karan Kandhari

Cast: Radhika Apte, Ashok Pathak, Chhaya Kadam

India, 2024

A newly arranged marriage sees an oddball couple shoved together in a small Mumbai shack with paper-thin walls. They are alone, awkward and together. Cranky Uma does her best to cope with the heat, her complete lack of domestic skills, nosy neighbors and her bumbling spouse until one night she discovers strange new feral cravings.

THE UGLY STEPSISTER – East Coast Premiere
Director: Emilie Blichfeldt 

Cast: Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp

Norway, 2025

In a twisted take on the classic Cinderella story, ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ follows Elvira as she battles to compete with her insanely beautiful stepsister. In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will go to any lengths to catch the Prince’s eye. ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ is the gory tale of the blood and sweat, grit and gold that goes into making Elvira the belle of the ball.

VULCANIZADORA – MA Premiere
Director: Joel Potrykus 

Cast: Joshua Burge, Joel Potrykus, Solo Potrykus

USA, 2024

Two friends trudge through a Michigan forest with the intention of following through on a disturbing pact. After they fail, one of them must return home to deal with the legal and emotional repercussions.

BOSTON UNDERGROUND 2025 SHORTS LINEUP

THE DUNWICH HORRORS – NEW ENGLAND HORROR

Good Looking Out dir. by Seth Chatfield

Ache dir. by Mike Canale

Damn Handy dir. by Peter Filardi

Followers dir. by Miriam Olken

Forever War dir. by Shana Figueroa

Katie’s Skin dir. by Steven Schloss

Methuselah dir. by Nathan Sellers

My Child dir. by Deniz Akyurek

Sogno Rosso (Red Dream) dir. by Coco Roy

TRIGGER WARNING – MIDNIGHT BLOCK
Brothers Beastly dir. by Peter J. Hartsock

Burn Out dir. by Russell Goldman

F#cker dir. by Amir Baikatov

Mopsorden dir. by Julien Jauniaux

Rejected dir. by Rene R Rivas

Terminal Emulator dir. by Benjamin Capps

The Night Has 1000 Desires! dir. by Vance Osteen

LOVE TO LOVE YOU MAYBE – COMEDY BLOCK

Banjo dir. by Cameron Poletti

But He’s Gay dir. by Michael Calciano

Catamaran dir. by Joseph Rocco Plescia

Erection and Destruction dir. by Eddie Mullins

Handball dir. by Eli Beutel

Make Me A Pizza dir. by Talia Shea Levin

SexySweat dir. by Luke Condzal

The Streetlight dir. by Sophia Parella

The Time Capsule dir. by Michael Charron

There Will Be Womanly Wiles dir. by Nicole Higgins

RAGDOLL DANCE — ANIMATION BLOCK

A Walk in the Park dir. by Jay Marks

Demons in the Closet dir. by James Smith

Howl if You Love Me dir. by John R. Dilworth

Les Bêtes dir. by Michael Granberry

Lilly Visits the Hospital dir. by The Bum Family

Peeping dir. by Yixuan Wang

Pippy and The Typist dir. by Rachel Nemez

Pocket Princess dir. by Olivia Loccisano

Poppa dir. by Peter Ahern

Red Thumb dir. by Kolya Kishinsky, Geneva Huffman

The Garden Sees Fire dir. by Kiera Faber

The House of Weird dir. by Mark Reyes

MUST HAVE GOT LOST – SHORTS BLOCK

Belly Belly dir. by Gabriel Carnick

Good Boy dir. by Colin Russell

How To Clean The Dishes dir. by Benjamin Thomae

Macula dir. by Julietta Korbel

Nadir dir. by Jack Galvin

Perfectly a Strangeness dir. by Alison McAlpine

Rabbit dir. by Nathan Catucci

The Audacity dir. by Desmond Spranklin