Genre Programming At Melbourne International Film Festival

In addition to the DIRECTOR IN FOCUS: DARIO ARGENTO RESTORED retrospective and hometown premiere of LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL, Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) have an incredible amount of genre programming this year.

AUSTRALIAN

YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME
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On a dark and gloomy night, a violent thunderstorm is about to send two people into a tailspin of intrigue and paranoia. Soaked, shaken and seeking shelter from the rain, an enigmatic young woman, known only as “the visitor”, arrives at the doorstep of Patrick, an eccentric old man living in a mobile home at the rear of an isolated caravan park. But what begins as an apparent safe haven for these two lonely souls gradually curdles into a nightmare of suspicion, as distrust escalates into danger, reality crumbles and an unforgettably twisted showdown awaits.
GODLESS: THE EASTFIELD EXORCISM
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Ron has been keeping a secret from his devout community: his wife Lara has been having delirious episodes. For help, he turns to Daniel, a so-called ‘religious fixer’ – a fancy way of saying he’s an unofficial exorcist. Daniel has commodified his own cruelty and bloodlust, but so too does Ron manipulate his wife’s situation for personal gain. Is Lara really possessed, or has she been hoodwinked by those with ulterior motives? As Ron now rallies the town behind him, the faith of all involved is brought into stark question.

INTERNATIONAL

PERPETRATOR
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Something peculiar is going on with 17-year-old Jonny (up-and-comer Kiah McKirnan, who also appears in The Adults at this year’s MIFF). Experiencing simultaneous nosebleeds with her face-morphing father, she’s shipped off to stay with her austere aunt, Hildie. There, she learns more about her magical blood and shapeshifting abilities – known as ‘forevering’ – that also equip her with a form of hyper-empathy. Which is just as well, as girls at her new school are disappearing at the hands of a mask-wearing killer, and they’ve all been linked to the local jock.
SLEEP
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Newlyweds Hyun-su and Soo-jin are expecting a baby, but this may not be the only new addition to their home. One night, Hyun-su sits bolt upright in bed, declaring, “Someone’s inside,” before falling back asleep. Are his somnambulant speeches just night terrors, like the doctors suggest? Or has a more sinister presence invaded their home, as the increasingly anxious Soo-jin fears?

BIRTH/REBIRTH
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Clinical in both career and nature, morgue technician Dr Rose Casper is fascinated with the dead, and with bringing them back to life. For years, she’s toyed with reanimation, and is eventually given a chance to continue her experiment following the sudden death of six-year-old Lila – unbeknown to the child’s mother, Celie. Soon, the weight of Celie’s sadness and the prospect of her daughter’s return trigger an unlikely bond between the two women, who venture into questionable morals to keep Lila ‘alive’.
CLUB ZERO
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Health entrepreneur Miss Novak arrives at an exclusive boarding school for the children of Europe’s wealthy elite to teach ‘conscious eating’. At first, her course seems benign: avoid snacks and processed foods; choose smaller portions; eat slowly and meditatively. But then she initiates her favourite students into Club Zero, whose members don’t eat food at all. Soon, the teenagers are viciously competing to starve their bodies, believing they’re empowering their minds.

IT LIVES INSIDE
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Desperate to assimilate in US suburbia, Samidha is keen to downplay her Indian heritage – she’d rather be called “Sam”. She turns to her teacher for life advice, not her parents; she hangs out with her crush, rejecting family gatherings; and she definitely wants to avoid her childhood best friend Tamira, who’s taken to wearing her hair like Sadako and carrying around a mason jar. When Tamira corners Sam in the school locker room, babbling about an ancient demon from Hindu folklore, Sam angrily smashes the jar. Bad move: now the Pishach, a nightmarish soul-devouring spirit, will start to torment her instead.
TIGER STRIPES
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Boisterous 12-year-old Zaffan isn’t afraid to do as her conservative religion and strict education say she shouldn’t, like removing her headscarf for TikTok dances and showing off her bra to friends. She’s also the first at school to embark on the treacherous journey of puberty, which quickly causes her status as ringleader to be replaced with being a target for mockery and ostracism. Then mysterious scars appear and Zaffan’s changing body becomes animalistic … If you rile this beast, she’ll show her claws.

RETROSPECTIVE

LORD SHANGO
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Amid the quiet menace of rural Tennessee, teenage Billie is about to be baptised when her boyfriend Femi, an avid follower of an African religious cult, tries to intervene, and members of the Christian parish brutally drown him in a river. Racked with grief and madness, Billie disappears. Her mother Jenny (the late, great Marlene Clark, Ganja & Hess) then summons a tribal priest in a desperate bid to find her, and is drawn into a mysterious world of sorcery and esoteric belief.

TROUBLE EVERY DAY
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American doctor Shane arrives in Paris with his new wife, hoping to track down Léo , the physician he once worked with on a bio-prospecting mission in the tropics. Shane is afflicted with the same bloodlust as Léo’s wife Coré – who, when not snacking on unfortunate strangers in the woods, must be locked up in order to restrain her gruesomely libidinous appetite.

MIFF runs from August 3 to 20 and you can find the full program online