OUR EFFED UP WORLD

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Nightmarish corporeal body horror with excessive violence.

FeatureIN-CINEMA

Poignant and powerful, Don’t Come Out is a horror film that brings visibility to queer femme identity, and with a visceral intensity that is impossible to ignore. It spares no detail in the consequences of authenticity in a homophobic and misogynistic environment; particularly, how it permeates and haunts the mind. Medical student Liz lives a seemingly charmed life. As long as she is careful, consequence is only a word. After the sudden and brutal death of her secret girlfriend, Liz keeps up appearances, playing the role of dutiful daughter and passing as straight in her relationship with her doting boyfriend. When she makes a weekend getaway with her best friends, the reality dawns on her that escape is not really an option. As she finds herself enmeshed in sapphic desire again, the horror of breaking social norms ensues, and there is no going back from it. Informed by giallo cinema—blending suspense, eroticism, and stylish cinematography—as well as modernist and grotesque art elements, Don’t Come Out is sure to linger with you long after the credits roll.

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.

DocumentaryIN-CINEMAVIRTUAL

In late-70’s NYC’s “slummy and fabulous” West Village, a serial murderer dismembered victims and “exploitive” Exorcist-director William Friedkin ripped a page from the headlines, inciting the community to action. As anarchy raged, an unexpected jouissance permeated the hot-blooded summer of ‘79. Addison Verrill, a 36-year-old Variety reporter, split time between his live-in lover, splashy premieres with the likes of Streisand, and exploring “eroticized fears” in pitch black container trucks. His shocking murder convinced crusading journalist Arthur Bell to dedicate himself to the case—a mission that inadvertently inspired Cruising. Helmed by a straight director and his straight superstar, Al Pacino, the film attempted to infiltrate the hedonistic, “leather and Levis” world of the notorious Mineshaft bar. Gay extras flocked while gay activists turned the set into a battlezone as two competing visions of representation clashed. The results would be felt for generations. Jeffrey Schwartz, the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker of Vito (I+N24, 2011) and I am Divine (I+N26, 2013), guides this graphic, gripping documentary. In it, Dan Savage joins historians, journalists and leathermen alike to trace Cruising’s makings and cultural mark all the way to the youth culture of today.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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At Grayson Manor, family legacy is a curse, desire is dangerous, and even a pair of hands can have a mind of their own. Glenn McQuaid’s wickedly funny, unapologetically queer Gothic horror turns the conventions of the haunted-house movie into a delirious tale of repression, excess, and bodily autonomy. Boyd Grayson (Chris Colfer), a hedonistic gay heir with an appetite for men and a talent for provoking his formidable mother, Jacqueline (Alice Krige), has little interest in fulfilling her dreams of a traditional family legacy. But when a horrific accident leaves him handless, Jacqueline seizes the opportunity to remake her son—and secure the heir she so desperately wants. Her solution is experimental prosthetic hands controlled by Boyd’s subconscious. Unfortunately, his impulses are anything but innocent, and the new appendages soon unleash a bloody cascade of chaos. Blending camp melodrama, grotesque practical horror, and dark comedy, The Restoration at Grayson Manor skewers heteronormative expectations while embracing queer desire in all its unruly, outrageous glory. A twisted celebration of the monstrous and the misfit, McQuaid’s gleefully excessive film brings image+nation’s new queer horror series to a suitably bloody close.

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Blending horror and humour, Lethal Ethel is a mockumentary that follows the story of a Naskapi vampire who goes to murderous lengths to protect her land and culture.