{The Overlook Film Festival} The 2026 First Wave Lineup Is Here and It’s Absolutely Unhinged (In the Best Way)

The Overlook Film Festival 2026 has announced its first wave lineup, and if you weren’t already planning a trip to New Orleans this April, you better get to walking because you shouldn’t miss it.

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Returning April 9–12 to America’s most haunted city — a title New Orleans holds with the casual confidence of someone who has genuinely seen a ghost and no longer finds it remarkable — the Overlook is once again delivering a weekend of new films, immersive horror experiences, live performances, and enough dread to power a small cemetary.

A Wish Gone Wrong, a Monster Unleashed, and Adam Scott at an Irish Inn

The Opening Night film is Obsession, from writer-director Curry Barker and Focus Features. It follows a lovelorn twenty-something whose wish upon a novelty toy goes horrifyingly sideways. Consider it a cautionary tale about novelty toys, wishes, and probably the 2020s in general.

The Centerpiece film is NEON’s Leviticus, directed by Adrian Chiarella. It’s a coming-of-age story in which two teenage boys must confront a violent supernatural entity that takes the form of what they desire most — each other. Equal parts terrifying and tender, it promises to be exactly the kind of film Overlook does best: horror with something real beating underneath it.

Closing out the weekend is Hokum, from director Damien McCarthy — the man behind Oddity, which rattled Overlook audiences back in 2024. Adam Scott stars as a cynical writer who travels to an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes and somehow ends up tangled in legends of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Nobody ever just has a normal trip to scatter ashes. Nobody.

Rick Baker Gets His Crown

If you grew up watching monsters and wondering how in the world they made those things, Rick Baker is the answer. The legendary makeup effects artist — a self-described “monster kid” who turned that passion into a forty-plus year career and a record seven Academy Awards — will receive the Overlook’s prestigious Master of Horror Award this year.

The presentation will be accompanied by a 45th anniversary screening of An American Werewolf in London, Baker’s personal selection and the film that earned him the very first Oscar ever given for makeup. Seven Oscars later, the choice still hits perfectly.

Larry Fessenden Brings It All Home

Horror institution Larry Fessenden is premiering Trauma, or Monsters All, the final film in his personal quadrilogy, and the Overlook is going all in. The festival will also screen the first three films leading up to it: Blackout, Depraved, and his 1995 classic Habit. If you’ve been sleeping on the Fessenden-verse, this is your intervention. If you’re already a devotee, clear your schedule.

The Rest of the Rogues’ Gallery

The supporting lineup reads like someone handed a Hollywood casting director a list of beloved character actors and said “go wild.” Chili Finger, from directors Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad, stars Judy Greer, Bryan Cranston, Sean Astin, and John Goodman in a blackmail plot that spirals into bloody, unpredictable chaos. Drag, directed by Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer, stars Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, and John Stamos in a burglary-gone-wrong story whose central complication is, magnificently, a bad back.

Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death — filmed locally in New Orleans and starring Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, and Charli XCX — reimagines the mythical cult film through the lens of a social media moderator who starts encountering very real, very disturbing snuff videos. And Boorman and the Devil, a documentary from David Kittredge, digs into director John Boorman’s infamous attempt to sequel The Exorcist, widely considered one of the most ambitious bombs in horror movie history. A film about a cursed film. At a horror festival. Seems right.

Short Films, Immersive Nightmares, and a Brass Band Parade

Short films return in three themed programs — Feral, Freaky, and Static — which sound like the world’s most unsettling mood board.

The immersive programming is back and stranger than ever. HAG, from The Queen’s Fools and presented by Charming Stranger, sends audiences of four to confront the Weird Sisters for a harrowing 35-minute experience. ETERNAL from Darkfield is a 25-minute solo audio experience — you, alone, in a bed. And THE MOTHER OF NIGHTMARES from E3W Productions and AOTW puts you face to face with the entity responsible for your worst dreams. Casual weekend plans.

And because this is New Orleans and normal is not on the itinerary, the festival opens Thursday night at 5pm with the return of the horror-themed Second Line Parade through the French Quarter, presented by Shudder. Demonic brass band, creepy characters, and surprises. The only reasonable way to kick off a weekend like this.

Get Your Passes Before Something Else Does

The Overlook Film Festival runs April 9–12, 2026 in New Orleans. Passes and tickets are available now at overlookfilmfest.com, and partner hotel rates are still available — including a $15 drink coupon at Hotel Theo, which frankly you will earn.