When two tourists and their canal boat guide are found brutally murdered, detective Tara Lee is assigned to the case. Following another killing, retired detective Eric Visser is brought back in, as there are fears that someone is recreating one of his old cases.

Director Maas still has a flair for bloodshed and a confident directorial style. Amsterdamned II picks up the thread of one of the Netherlands’ truly great cult films, hovering on the line between sequel and reboot. This is a nostalgic slasher with a generous dose of light-hearted humor.

KK

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Toilet horror has become a staple of Ramaskrik, and this year’s rowdy contribution comes from Brazil. Malu runs an event agency in São Paulo and is tasked with organizing a gender reveal party for a major influencer. But while the pregnancy comes with its own surprises, guests and residents of the apartment building alike fall victim to ravenous forces lurking in the toilets.

With exquisite direction and practical effects, we’re served generous helpings of filthy, disgusting madness. It’s bloody, hilarious, and, above all, political. Bon appétit!

KK

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Brothers Rob and James are on their way to their father’s funeral, accompanied by their respective partners. They stop at a rural roadside diner run by a family that probably doesn’t have the most extensive family tree. After a very uncomfortable meal, they continue on their way, only to end up in a car accident that quickly turns into a full-blown nightmare.

Boxcutter isa nasty, mean-spirited film, in many ways the bastard child of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the French extreme cinema movement. After a slow build-up, the film explodes in its second act, delivering discomfort of the highest order. The filmmakers have extensive experience with practical special effects, which is evident in the film’s brutal and highly effective shock effects.

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Mathilda Lutz, known for Revenge (2017), stars as the caretaker of the Paradiso Palms apartment complex. One of the residents has brought home a venomous spider, a species that reproduces at an incredibly rapid rate. The police seal off the apartment complex from the outside world to prevent the infestation from spreading, while the residents who are still alive must battle an overwhelming and ever-growing army of spiders that is taking over the entire complex. They come up with ingenious ways to avoid being bitten, and this is one tough caretaker!

Love spiders? You’re guaranteed not to get over your fear of them after watching this delightful, well-crafted and entertaining insect thriller!

ØS

Fall 2: Deadpoint picks up not long after the ending of Fall. We follow Jax, Shiloh’s younger sister, who never made it home after the events of the first film. Jax is grieving the loss of her sister when she is approached by Luce, one of Shiloh’s friends. Together, they set out to honor Shiloh by climbing a plank walkway high up on a mountainside in Thailand. Needless to say, it doesn’t exactly turn into a trouble-free trip.

Fall 2: Deadpoint manages the impressive feat of taking the original’s simple concept and developing it into something more. There are more layers here, along with subplots that help make the film both exciting and, at times, almost unbearable. If you’re prone to a fear of heights, it might be a good idea to make that trip to the bathroom before the movie starts. Consider yourself both warned and encouraged!

TG

Best friends Ligia and Mayte dream of the ultimate quinceañera, hoping it will finally make them popular at school. But then Ligia becomes pregnant, and the creature growing inside her is not only a threat to herself, but to everyone around her.

This coming-of-age body horror is packed with just as much playful charm as it is blood and gore. The film explores anxieties surrounding sexuality, adulthood, peer pressure, and the fear of what an unpredictable future might bring. One of the film’s strengths lies in the performances of Greta Martí and Macarena Oz, who bring an authentic, raw energy to their roles.

If you enjoyed Ginger Snaps (2000) or Eighth Grade (2018), Fifteen is one to catch!

TS

It’s the early 80s, the heyday of the B-movie slasher. Michael, the sleazy porn studio boss, sees an opportunity to make a fortune and brings his usual porn crew along to shoot a slasher film he has written himself. The plot is simple: scantily clad students are picked off by a mysterious and bloodthirsty beekeeper. For the actors, memorizing lines proves to be a challenge in a film with barely any penetration, and things get even more complicated when they start dying one by one …

Friday the 69th is an ultra-low-budget B-movie horror tribute, shot entirely on an iPhone and partly in the same house where The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was filmed. It’s bloody, great fun, and gloriously silly!

TG

We find ourselves in the Basque Country in the 17th century, where the Catholic Church rules society with an iron grip and the strict doctrines of the Spanish Inquisition hold sway. Kattalin is fleeing through the forest following a clumsy attempt to kill her husband. The night is heavy and impenetrable, and something unsettling lurks in the shadows. When she encounters three older women deep in the darkness of the forest, she is confronted with the choices that have shaped her life – choices that now demand reckoning.

Gaua is a dark and atmospheric tale of shame and the forbidden, the beautiful and the grotesque, love and liberation; woven together with tradition, folklore and ancient beliefs. If you have an interest in folklore, history, witchcraft and sorcery, this is the film for you!

TSF

Welcome to the modern workplace! In Grind, we are presented with four interwoven stories set in a dystopian present. We get a glimpse into the intense pressure to perform within a multi-level marketing company, the endless and repetitive routine of a food delivery driver, the digital horrors faced by a content moderator at work, and, not least, what happens when the employees at a coffee shop decide to unionize.

Grind is a dark comedy that, just a few years ago, might have been considered a dystopian vision, but which, in today’s United States, will likely seem like only a slight exaggeration to many. The film explores what it means to be a worker in a world defined by economic inequality and ruled by endlessly greedy oligarchs, wonderfully personified by Rob Huebel and Barbara Crampton.

TG

Galicia, Spain, 1976. An sinister past slowly but surely creeps into what was meant to be a pleasant family dinner. Bad conscience and a cruel history, the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, simmer beneath the surface. The horror is always lurking but rarely explicit. As in John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), no one can hide from the misty monsters of the past.

Victor Català announces himself as a filmmaker to watch with his feature debut, with atmospheric cinematography and a colour palette inspired by the 70s. They Always Come at Night is not without humour, but oozes of slow, gothic melancholy and mystery.

EEL