The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has announced its complete 2026 program. The festival runs October 15 through October 22, 2026, with every screening held at Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg.
Opening Night is the U.S. premiere of Nicky Murphy’s award-winning vampire mockumentary I Love Paris, about an aspiring underground singer whose turn only makes her hustle harder and bloodier. Dark Sky Films presents the Opening Night Party afterward across both levels of the Nitehawk. Marion Le Corroller’s Species (Sanguine) takes the Centerpiece slot in its New York premiere, and Nick Kozakis’s drug-fueled siege horror Kick On closes the festival ahead of a Halloween party presented by ALTER.
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- Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2026 — from the festival’s 2026 program. Courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
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- Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2026 — from the festival’s 2026 program. Courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
The 2026 Leviathan Award, presented by Arrow Video, goes to the Adams Family — John Adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams — whose Lovecraftian creature feature The Glorious Dead screens in its New York premiere. Other highlights include Larry Fessenden’s Trauma, or Monsters All, the world premiere of Michael Schwarz’s aughts-throwback slasher The Only One, and documentaries Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson and Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story.
A Dark Suburbia sidebar gathers American Dollhouse, Sender, and Little Doors. The Culture Shock section — the festival’s newly permanent home for Black horror — pairs a 50th anniversary 35mm screening of J.D.’s Revenge with a 35th anniversary screening of The People Under the Stairs. Fear in Focus tackles cyber horror, running from Ghost in the Machine on 35mm through The Den to Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Rounding out the retrospectives: Trick ‘r Treat on 35mm preceded by Michael Dougherty’s original short Season’s Greetings, restored in 4K, with Dougherty on hand afterward, plus The Passion of Joan of Arc with a live score from The Flushing Remonstrance. Seven shorts blocks, a secret screening, and horror trivia hosted by Ted Geoghegan and Michael Gingold fill out the week.
Festival badges are on sale now, with individual tickets available at brooklynhorrorfest.com.
