Laura Dern

Doing my part to educate Gen-Z.

Hey boos! It's just your girl talking Female Trauma in Horror Cinema: The Blurred Reality Between Horror & Real Life with Seed Talks, a virtual event.
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The 10 best films we saw at Overlook 2026 This was a stacked year for Overlook, bolstered by a number of films that took a simple idea and pushed it to its conclusion. Horror is at its best when it doesn’t just land the premise, but keeps …

Here’s my highlight rundown for 2026’s @overlookfilmfest.bsky.social - the ten best films I saw at the festival. This was a very strong year, with an especially great top three and an all-timer number one (pictured). ❤️‍🔥

Overlook Film Festival final roundup – Drag, Parasomnia, Goody Goody, New Group, and Trauma: Or Monsters All To round out our Overlook Film Festival coverage, here are five more films that we caught in New Orleans – three of which are heading to Shudder later in the year. Pictured above: Christine K…

For my final set of reviews, here’s a variety of other films I caught at the Overlook Film Festival: Parasomnia, Goody Goody, and New Group (each of which is heading to Shudder later this year), Drag, and Larry Fessenden’s ‘Trauma: or, Monsters All’.

Horror can be so many different things! 😱

Ugly Cry – SXSW review ★★★ Emily Robinson’s debut sits on the brink of the current wave of intimate body horror but approaches it from an unusually grounded angle, turning a minor industry note into a psychological and p…

I also caught Overlook’s UGLY CRY (★★★) at SXSW earlier in the year. Robin Tunney is the great joy of this film, as a well meaning but deeply unhelpful mom, saying a bunch of wrong things as actor-director Emily Robinson slides towards Botoxmania.

Buffet Infinity – Fantasia Review ★★★★ The boldest horror of the year just dropped, and it’s a funny, freaky, cosmic nightmare that feels like it’s watching you back. Buffet Infinity, directed by Canadian Simon Glassman, stitches t…

The boldest movie at Overlook was BUFFET INFINITY. I caught it at Fantasia, but wherever you get a chance to catch it, I wholeheartedly recommend it. A flow of fuzzy infomercials and public access TV gradually reveal an emerging cosmic horror - located just off the highway, with great parking! ★★★★

In a sea of (legitimate) Evil Dead and Exorcist comparisons, I’m glad I’m not the only one to pick up on the Poltergeist connections!

It’s a shame this is called The Mummy (sorry, LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY), as it locks any franchise into that monster. I’d like a series where May Calamawy investigates a different supernatural threat each time. (Or the MCU could just bring her back as the Scarlet Scarab. Her time was too brief!)

Poltergeist 2, I thought, as well.

Hope you enjoy Obsession and Hokum!

That’s down at number 13 🙃

Over Your Dead Body – Overlook Film Festival review Over Your Dead Body (★★★½), Jorma Taccone’s remake of Tommy Wirkola’s The Trip, switches up the tone (less dark, more snark), but delivers plenty of gore gags and snappy one-liners in this slick, b…

OVER YOUR DEAD BODY (★★★½) got the biggest laughs of anything I saw at @overlookfilmfest.bsky.social; this remake of Tommy Wirkola’s dark, venomous THE TRIP is lighter on its feet: a big crowd-pleaser that kept the room laughing while the bodies hit the floor. This is what THE ROSES should’ve been.

The Holy Boy – Venice review Paolo Strippoli delivers a saint-or-cryptid tale that plays like a Catholic Ari Aster, weaving confession, revelation, and the corrosive value of guilt and pain into a slow-burn horror allegory. ★★…

Also playing at Overlook Film Festival was THE HOLY BOY (★★★½), which I’d caught earlier at Venice.

Paolo Strippoli delivers a saint-or-cryptid tale that plays like a Catholic Ari Aster, weaving confession, revelation, and the corrosive value of guilt and pain into a slow-burn horror allegory. Rec!

Affection – Overlook Film Festival review Jessica Rothe delivers (as always) in BT Meza’s gaslighting horror Affection (★★★), which draws real tension from its central setup, then somewhat deflates once its central mystery is solved.…

Crowd entering cinema: rothe rothe rothe
Buying popcorn: Rothe Rothe Rothe
Getting seated: Rothe! Rothe! Rothe!
Jessica Rothe appears on screen: 🫡🫡🫡

I saw the Outer Limits-style gaslighting horror AFFECTION at @overlookfilmfest.bsky.social
★★★

lol @ “boater”

I have a ticket for the GDT in conversation. Is anyone looking for one?

Playing at select UK cinemas from this weekend, including the @ifccenter.bsky.social in London!

XYZ Films has Never After Dark and I hope they do right by it 🫶

UK:

1. 28YL: The Bone Temple - VOD
2. Obsession - 15 May (cinemas)
3. Hokum - 1 May (cinemas)
4. Forbidden Fruits - 26 June (Shudder)
5. Leviticus - 19 June (cinemas)
6. Mārama - in cinemas
7. Never After Dark - TBC
8. Undertone - in cinemas
9. Bodycam - Shudder
10. They Will Kill You - in cinemas

Top ten horror films of the year* so far:

1. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2. Obsession
3. Hokum
4. Forbidden Fruits
5. Leviticus
6. Mārama
7. Never After Dark
8. Undertone
9. Bodycam
10. They Will Kill You

*4 of these first hit the fests in 2025, but I just saw them, so there. ☺️

It’s the Australian accent from NATURAL BORN KILLERS.

Also evasions and elusions. All the ~sions!

The UK premiere of THE FURIOUS is on June 20 at @princecharlescinema.com and I hugely recommend it. Tickets on sale now. Action flick of the year! ★★★★★

One of the best recent films with a bunny!!

Never After Dark – Overlook Film Festival review Dave Boyle’s Japan-set ghost story Never After Dark (★★★★) toys with familiar J-horror territory, then quietly turns into a classical ghost story: a slow, sly mystery where there’s more to be scare…

There’s more than one haunted hotel movie out this year! Dave Boyle’s Japan-set ghost story NEVER AFTER DARK (★★★★) toys with familiar J-horror territory, then quietly turns into a classical ghost story: a slow, sly mystery where there’s more to be scared of than a simple haunting. Recommended!

It’s not quite capital-B Bad, but it’s utterly forgettable and derivative.

Andrew Pope PATRON Normal 2025 Watched 15 Apr 2026 Cold Fuzz No likes yet NORMAL

I see Letterboxd has been down for a couple of days.

I love the touch of Margot Kidder in Lois’s face here.

In US cinemas from today!