MINESHAFT: THE CRUISING MURDERS

Short

A famed detective arrives at a remote mansion to find a murderer standing over his latest victim. As the detective presses him to confess his motive, the truth grows increasingly complicated, revealing that the two men's shared history may be central to the crime.

Short

Nightmarish corporeal body horror with excessive violence.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

A queer psychosexual slasher starring Emmy-winning actors Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Jane Schoenbrun’s latest film further establishes them as one of queer and trans cinema’s vital auteurs. Einbinder stars as Kris, a passionate writer hired to revive Camp Miasma, their favourite horror franchise, after years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom. Kris travels to an abandoned summer camp to meet Billy (Anderson), the reclusive actress who played the original film’s final girl. As the two women unravel the ways the franchise has shaped them, they descend into a blood-soaked delirium of desire, self-discovery, and obsession. Described by Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair; I Saw the TV Glow) as “an insane yet cozy midnight odyssey,” Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a brilliant, funny, and poignant meta-meditation on the stories that make us, our final girls and their monsters, and the process of becoming. With echoes of Mulholland Drive, standout central performances, and a stellar cast including Jack Haven, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Eva Victor, and Zach Cherry, Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision.

Short

When a rookie forest ranger flees into the Quebec wilderness to escape a brutal hazing ritual, he finds himself hunted not only by his peers, but by a towering creature of folklore stalking him through the woods.

Short

A slasher with a grudge meets his match when a group of queer friends on a weekend getaway turns his killing spree into a bloody night he never saw coming.

Short

Recently divorced, Warren retreats to a quiet lake house with his young son. When a stranger named David appears asking for help, an ordinary evening becomes a tense psychological confrontation, exposing secrets, shifting power, and an unexpected connection between them.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

Blood, boys, and a masked killer on the loose! Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’s Hellbent, often cited as the first gay slasher film and image+nation’s 2004 Opening Night Film, unleashes a scythe-wielding murderer at West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnival. As bodies pile up, Eddie and his crush, Jake, must fight to survive in this landmark queer horror classic. With its wicked sense of humour, eye-popping production design, and ultra-gory special effects, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’s Hellbent takes the slasher genre to a new homo height. This campy debut follows handsome boy-next-door Eddie and his three best friends into the fantastical world of West Hollywood’s annual Halloween Carnival. Distracted by his crush on the darkly mysterious Jake, Eddie—a would-be police officer—fails to notice the masked, scythe-wielding killer stalking him and his friends. As the decapitated bodies begin to pile up, Eddie and Jake must join forces in a desperate fight for survival. Packed with surprises and propelled by an explosive soundtrack, Hellbent delivers thrills, chills, and wicked laughs at breakneck speed. Blending classic slasher conventions with queer desire, camp humour, and unapologetic gore, the film carved out a distinctive place in queer horror.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

Join Sheri and her entourage on this short and sweet sci-fi romp that explores found family with effortlessly queer sensibilities. Grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother, Sheri and her astronomer dad are soon mystified by radioactive meteors that crash land in the forest nearby, spawning a hungry intergalactic creature. Campy, fun, and outrageous at times, Alice Maio Mackay’s eighth film delivers movie store nostalgia, quippy conversation, and neon green alien gore. The scale of everyday problems in Our Effed Up World—or a small town in Australia to be more specific—is cut down to size, replacing trivialities, ennui, and existential dread with pure extraterrestrial mayhem. A movie for B movie buffs with an added dash of realism to the world of science fiction, plus vocal cameos from Brandon Flynn of Hellraiser and Jack Haven of I Saw the TV Glow make for quite the adventure, bringing all the more appreciation to simple nights with loved ones under a starry sky among the soothing sound of crickets and the laughter of friends.

Short

After two decades of creative repression, an artist descends into kaleidoscopic madness, turning her oppressive partner into a grotesque work of art.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

A stunning film set in the Canadian wilderness by award-winning director Gloria Mercer. Thrill-seeking in every sense, and especially bold in its critique of patriarchy out in the wild, A Safe Distance examines the idea of what survival can mean, putting a refreshingly feminist twist on a lovers-on-the-run tale. Yellowjackets fans, get ready, this one’s for you. There is no place for fragility in this film-viewing since gore and guile mark the characters’ journey as they stray far from their comfort zones, sometimes intentionally, and other times, by chance. When a marriage proposal goes awry, an abandoned woman named Alex finds herself in the company of two intriguing strangers whose rejection of societal norms draw her in and away from the mundane reality of her own life. One psychedelically-induced night of mayhem later, Alex has uprooted her entire system of values, and on levels that she never imagined possible. Fluid and kinetic, with the use of long-lens photography and zoom lenses, A Safe Distance is a rare cinematic sight to behold.