Returning for its fifth year, Hysteria Fest will once again take over Arkadin Cinema & Bar and The Heavy Anchor from July 8-12, bringing an international repertory focus on Japanese horror, along with exciting gems from the festival circuit and new films with local ties.
Hysteria Fest’s founder and artistic director, Paul Hibbard, is especially excited to see the fest continue to grow both in programming and length, as the fest has now expanded to five days. For Hibbard, this kind of growth means the festival is really coming into its own and cementing its place in the Bevo neighborhood.
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“As the festival grows, we really want to stay where we are,” Hibbard says. “We love Arkadin, we love The Heavy Anchor, we love the whole Bevo area, so to grow the festival, we needed to add more days.”
As with every year, Hysteria Fest spotlights an international strain of horror with its repertory programming, with this year’s focus turning to the world of Japanese horror. The fest’s opening night screening on Wednesday, July 8, will be Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale, which sees Japanese high school students in a dystopian near future face off against each other in a fight to the death. Hibbard notes that this will be a “Weapons Screening,” where attendees will be given a safe, plastic weapon on the way in, entering them into a raffle to win a gift card for Terror Tacos. Additionally, the repertory program will feature Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, the source material for Gore Verbinski’s English-language remake The Ring, on Saturday, July 11, and Takashi Miike’s deliciously dark masterpiece Audition on Sunday, July 12, as the festival’s closing night film.
“It’s so daunting because Japanese horror has such a rich history, and we finally feel like we’re at a place to do it,” Hibbard says.
And the J-horror fun doesn’t stop there. Hibbard notes that on Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m., The Heavy Anchor will host another live taping of Destroy the Brain!, the podcast from the team behind the monthly Late Nite Grindhouse program at Des Peres 16, taking a deep dive into the Japanese horror genre. Following this podcast taping at 9 p.m., Drag Me to STL will be hosting a horror burlesque and drag show, also at The Heavy Anchor, called “Drag Me to a Hell of Good Time: Vengeful Spirits Edition.”
“Every year, their show is just packed, and this year they’re doing a show connected to the festival’s Japanese horror theme,” Hibbard says. “‘Vengeful Spirits’ is the theme, but a lot of the performers are really embracing the Japanese horror theme for their performances.”
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In terms of the films playing in competition, Hibbard was particularly excited by the strong entries this year coming from St. Louis, all of which are world premieres. He is particularly looking forward to local horror actress-turned-director Jackie Kelly’s debut feature, Hag. Other films in competition with local ties include horror western Down the Long River, starring Felissa Rose (of Sleepway Camp fame) and WWE wrestler Matt Cardona, and the eerie backroads thriller Reaper Road.
“[This year’s fest] feels way more connected to the local community than the ones in the past have,” Hibbard says. “The festival has always grown and been exciting, but it seems like a lot of people showing up are watchers of films from around the world. This is the first time it feels like we really are ingrained in the community we’re playing to.”
Further standouts among the competition films include director/actress Emily Robinson’s South By Southwest breakout Ugly Cry, which follows an actress on the rise whose career and identity are thrown into a spiral because of her “ugly cry;” Cat Cam, which Hibbard describes as Paranormal Activity but with a cat while its owners are on vacation; and the queer slasher Hollow Lake.
As in years past, Hysteria Fest has partnered with several local nonprofit organizations that will benefit from festival programming. Drag Me to STL’s performance will benefit Operation Food Search and the Urban League of St. Louis; The Cat Shelter will bring kittens to the screening of Cat Cam and tell audiences about their work; and passholders will have the opportunity to upgrade their badge to support the Migrant and Immigrant Community Action (MICA) Project.
As the event continues to grow and mature, Hibbard is heartened by Hysteria Fest’s success and the support it has earned from the community, and he looks forward to continuing that momentum.
“It’s really exciting to see how the fest is growing in the ways I envisioned it, but also to see the way the community has embraced it and added their flair to it, and it just makes me want to keep doing it.” Hibbard says. “I was talking to someone recently, and I said, ’I don’t think I want to be a filmmaker anymore. I think I just want to run this festival. It gives me the satisfaction that being a filmmaker never did.’”
Festival passes are currently sold out, but tickets for festival screenings will go on sale on June 15. For more information, visit hysteriafilmfest.com.
