James Ashcroft follows up his enthralling debut feature COMING HOME IN THE DARK (2021) with this magnificently nasty tale about a former judge (Geoffrey Rush) imprisoned in his own body after a stroke and left to the tender mercies of an elderly psychopath (John Lithgow) who employs a hand puppet to abuse the residents of a nursing home.

Featuring interviews with Adam Wingard (YOU’RE NEXT), Rob Zombie (THE DEVIL’S REJECTS), Xavier Gens (FRONTIER(S)), Neil Marshall (DOG SOLDIERS), Srdjan Spasejevic (A SERBIAN FILM), Alice Lowe (PREVENGE), Christopher Smith (TRIANGLE) and more, THE FOUND FOOTAGE PHENOMENON (MF 2021) filmmakers Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott return to Monster Fest with this engrossing documentary on late 90s - early 2000s horror films .

On Halloween night, Tara Heyes finds herself as the obsession of a sadistic murderer known as Art the Clown.

Before checking out our closing night film FRANKIE FREAKO, join us for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see one of the greatest 'Small-Creature Features' to ever hit a cinema screen. Filled with a cast of genre greats like M. Emmet Walsh, Dee Walace, and Lin Shaye plus teen hearthrob Billy Zane, you won't want to miss CRITTERS!

One year after the now infamous Miles County Massacre, serial killer Art the Clown returns to wreak havoc on a bereaved family.

Painstakingly restored by director Alex Chandon (INBRED, MF 2011) this truly underground British epic about a secret cult of perverts who rebel against their censorial monarch exudes incredible handmade aesthetics, gleeful energy and an innocent sexy charm. Filled to the brim with evil henchmen, Amazonian warrioresses, bizarre monsters, freaks, geeks, and all manner or ne’er-do-wells all searching for freedom of expression (and sexual gratification) - you won’t see another film like this anywhere else anytime soon!

The conclusion to Monster Fest and Umbrella Entertainment's TERRIFIER TAKEOVER is the Australian premiere TERRIFIER 3, the latest extreme adventure of that silent master of the macabre, Art The Clown.

The conclusion to Monster Fest and Umbrella Entertainment's TERRIFIER TAKEOVER is the Australian premiere TERRIFIER 3, the latest extreme adventure of that silent master of the macabre, Art The Clown.

Join us for Australian gonzo filmmaker Andrew (THE SEARCH FOR WENG WENG) Leavold’s most out-there film adventure so far as he parachutes onto a film set in Wild West Africa and into a starring role in a slavery-themed action movie (appropriately called called White Devil!), all the while prepping a midget kung fu remake of The Taller They Come with director Ninja (B14, AFRICAN KUNG FU NAZIS).

Presented by Murder City's favourite son, Dick Dale, the Trasharama shorts program is bursting at the seams with gross-out horror, bad taste comedies, sick n' twisted animations, science fiction scat and other genres not even invented yet! Trash ain't trash when its in Trasharama!!

Delve into the life, music, & artistic output of Stu Spasm aka Stuart Gray, the notorious underground rocker who created the most psychotronic group to ever emerge from Australia – the legendary Lubricated Goat!

Helmed by CRANK writer / director Brian Taylor, this ominous, foreboding fable returns the Hellboy franchise to its darker horror roots and is a must for fans of Mike Mignola (who also worked on the script)'s original comic book creation.

Once again Monster Fest has scoured the top film schools in the country looking for the nastiest, scariest, horroriest shorts on the continent, and boy did we succeed! Contained herein are films from the VCA, SAE, RMIT, Flinders University, University of Sydney, Deakin University and more. Who knows, one day you could be coming out of the cinema after seeing the latest Hollywood blockbuster smash hit and telling those around you how you discovered the director's work at Monster Fest one year.

A deeply emotional and devastatingly personal exploration of the impact that the ‘Citizen Kane of horror’ had on the family of the film’s director Robin Hardy half a century after THE WICKER MAN was first released.

Not for the weak of bladder, Monster Fest's GUTBUSTERS shorts program contains a plethora of horror comedies, comedy horrors and everything in-between. Buckle up for a wild ride full of wild belly laughs, psychotic giggles and suggestive sniggers.

Following on from the fantastic documentary GENERATION TERROR about early 2000s horror, join us for a very special screening of THE FINAL DESTINATION in glorious 3D. This film is just how we like ‘em here at Monster Fest - filled with inventive kills, shocking jump scares and intense violence and gore.

HAUNTED HEARTS is a vibrant mix of short films bursting with surrealism, horror, intensity, and heart. This program delivers a captivating array of inventive stories with emotional depth, a diverse cinematic adventure.

After wowing audiences with his special-effects laden alien invasion OCCUPATION RAINFALL (MF 2020), director Luke Sparke returns to his horror roots with SCURRY, a claustrophobic nightmare set in an ever narrowing tunnel below a city under attack.

Immerse yourself in a collection of global short films that delve into the darkest corners of horror, showcasing the most unsettling shorts in the 2024 program.

Only the French could conceive of a film this outrageous, this dark, this… alarmingly possible? ULTIMATE CHABITE is an apocalypse-themed black comedy that chronicles the downfall of society when men across the globe become obsessed with a tiggy-like game that transfers the state of ‘it’ by tapping your opponent on the balls and yelling CHABITE!

Jasmine Jakupi and Addison Heath make their triumphant return to Monster Fest after their sell out session of THE VIPER'S HEX at Monster Fest 2018 with their most ambitious project yet – an action-packed road movie across the American west fuelled by nasty sex, illicit drugs and extreme violence.

MEAN GIRLS  meets  FACE/OFF  in Sasha Rainbow’s gory body horror about a Chinese student who finds a new way of achieving popularity one body at a time.

In 2021 director Ché Baker wowed Monster Fest audiences with the amazing SFX in his award-winning short film VR GRANDPA, and now he's back to do it again, this time with a mind-bending horror that follows a group psychics as they complete for some serious prize money at a weekend retreat until an exorcism goes horribly wrong and unleashes a terrible evil.

From director E.L. Katz, the man behind the gleefully nasty and darkly hilarious CHEAP THRILLS (2013) and screenwriter Simon Barrett (THE GUEST, YOU'RE NEXT) comes AZRAEL a real-time rural survival horror that pits Australia's own Samara Weaving against a horde of ruthless enemies.

Head to Stay Gold in Brunswick, Melbourne’s premier live music haunt to close out Monster Fest 2024 for an unforgettable afterparty! After eight days of spine-chilling horror and adrenaline-pumping films, we’re ending on a high with a killer night of music, drinks, and dancing. Keep the eerie vibes alive with an electrifying DJ set from the one and only Miles Brown, whose haunting beats will keep you moving deep into the night.

Directed by Jason Trost (THE FP) and inspired by classic videogames like Resident Evil and Silent Hill crossed with the spirit of those timeless black and white horror films of 1930s, THE WAVES OF MADNESS is a vivid Lovecraftian action/horror film shot completely from a side-scrolling perspective.

A rag-tag team of divers attempting to salvage a sunken car from a river are thwarted by a highly aggressive bull shark in Matthew Holmes' (THE COST, THE LEGEND OF BEN HALL) latest underwater horror epic.

Melbourne-based filmmaker John Balazs follows up his brutal 2021 revenge thriller RAGE with FREELANCE, a disturbing, nightmarish tale with echoes of Joel Shumacher’s 8MM and Brian De Palma’s BLOW OUT.

CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING is an absolutely bonkers action-horror-musical-comedy B-movie epic from Estonia. Shot guerilla style in 2013, this true love letter to crowd-pleasing exploitation cinema then spent a modest 10 years in post-production before making its way here. The mutant eurotrash lovechild of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Andy Milligan, this bizarre monstrocity might just be the weirdest, most wonderful movie we've ever unleashed upon an audience.

Are you ready to Party? I didn’t hear you! I said ARE YOU READY TO PARTY ?!? You better be because it doesn’t get any wilder than this wacky practical FX-driven horror-comedy in the style of “GREMLINS 2 and GHOULIES 3: GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE. Filled with slapstick violence, beer-related destruction of private property and a non-stop onslaught of bad-taste gags, we had no choice but to program Steven Kostanski's ode to the evil puppet movies of yore as our closing night film. Be there, or we’ll set Frankie on you!