Program – Monster Fest

Dead Howling

benh — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 05:58:55 +0000

DEAD HOWLING finds humanity on the brink of extinction after a zombie virus has overrun the planet. Siblings Megan and Billy are making their way across the devastated landscape in search of a rumoured safe zone when their journey brings them into the path of Carter, a solitary survivor with one hell of an advantage over the living dead – he’s a werewolf.

With the undead rapidly evolving into something even nastier, Carter reluctantly takes responsibility for getting the pair to safety, carving a path through zombies, mutants and what’s left of humanity along the way.

Shot in Perth, DEAD HOWLING is the latest feature from West Australian filmmaker John V. Soto (Needle, The Gateway, Avarice) and is produced by Tom Reeve, whose credits include Dog Soldiers and Feardotcom. Featuring one hell of an Australasian cast including Ryan Kwanten (True Blood, Seven Snipers), Temuera Morrison (The Mandalorian, Once Were Warriors) and Tom Burlinson (The Man from Snowy River, Flesh+Blood), if you only see one Australian-werewolf-zombie-mutant-post-apocalyptic-horror-film in cinemas this year, make sure it’s DEAD HOWLING.

Black Sheeps

benh — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 04:10:42 +0000

BLACK SHEEPS returns to the scene of Jonathan King’s Kiwi cult classic, where a young scientist, convinced that a dangerous new pathogen is threatening New Zealand, follows the trail back to her hometown and the mysterious Glenolden Station. There she encounters a murderous sheep-worshipping cult, a property developer harbouring a particularly unpleasant secret and a mysterious figure known only as The Shepherd, before finding herself trapped inside the quarantined pastures locals call The Zone.

Writer/director Jonathan King returns alongside Nathan Meister as the deeply sheep-phobic Henry Oldfield, while Wētā Workshop is back in the paddock unleashing a new generation of practical-effects monstrosities.

Arriving at Monster Fest fresh from its World Premiere at Sitges, BLACK SHEEPS proves that after twenty years, New Zealand’s most dangerous livestock still isn’t ready to be put out to pasture.

Victimizer

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:57 +0000

A rabbit teacher who wanted to be a tiger used his position to kill his own students and sold the meat of the little rabbits to the powerful. These powerful moneybags tried to achieve immortality by consuming the flesh and blood of children. But things gradually took a strange turn. Every detail seemed to reveal an origin. And then it turned out…

Scarecrow

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:56 +0000

Beneath the floorboards of an old shed, a naive farmer discovers a mysterious scarecrow. As the crows on the farm begin to act stranger and stranger, the farmer soon realizes that he’s stumbled upon an entity more dangerous than he bargained for.

Grotesquerie

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:55 +0000

Cursed by day, a Victorian witch and her gargoyle husband return to their true forms at the witching hour.

Graveyard Gremlins

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:53 +0000

Two morally questionable graverobbers accidentally start the
zombie apocalypse by stealing from their grandmother’s grave. When their grandmother rises from the dead, they must set aside their selfish pride and take responsibility for the mess they’ve created.

Back To Bones

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:52 +0000

A knight and his Squire, resurrected by an evil Necromancer, stop at nothing to rest in peace no matter how many times it kills them.

Ascent

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:16:51 +0000

Alone in a 19th-century hot air balloon, a man becomes increasingly convinced that something is out there in the clouds, watching him.

Kylgor In The Grisly Abyss and other Animated Abominations

benh — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:12:06 +0000

Animation has always had a dark side. In this session we bring together six wildly inventive shorts filled with restless bones, graveyard gremlins, grotesque creations, sinister scarecrows and worse, before giving way to the main event: KYLGOR IN THE GRISLY ABYSS, a blood-soaked, all-puppet sword-and-sorcery epic five years in the making. From the painstakingly handcrafted to the gloriously grotesque, this is animation with a body count.

THE ONLY ONE

benh — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:19:19 +0000

Some people leave their hometown with a few fond memories and the promise to keep in touch. Zoe left behind a trail of broken hearts and an alarming number of men – and women – who never quite got over her.

Years ago, Zoe scored a television commercial and, convinced bigger things were on the horizon, packed her bags and headed for Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Unfortunately, Hollywood had other ideas. Now a struggling actress waiting tables between auditions, Zoe hasn’t told anyone back home that her big break never actually arrived.

With nothing else on the horizon, Zoe returns home for a friend’s wedding, only to discover that while her career may not have gone according to plan, her hometown celebrity status remains strangely intact. Everyone still remembers the used-car ad she can’t stand, and the collection of exes she left behind appear to be every bit as infatuated with her as they were when she left.

Then somebody starts murdering them.

Dressed as the demented Prince Charming who co-starred in Zoe’s infamous car-yard commercial, a masked killer begins systematically working their way through her romantic history, turning old flames into dead ones and leaving Zoe with the unenviable task of tracking down everyone whose heart she ever broke to warn them they might be next. Making matters worse, the local cop investigating the murders is increasingly suspicious of Zoe – and, naturally, he’s another ex.

Directed by Michael Schwarz, this homegrown slasher stars Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat) as Zoe, surrounded by an Australian ensemble including Saphira Moran, Aaron Glenane, John Kim (Diabolic, Monster Fest 2025), Lincoln Younes and Sam Delich (Christmas Bloody Christmas, Monster Fest 2022).