The Sundance Film Festival may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think “Horror” but the festival has had a long history of rolling out the red carpet for some of today’s most groundbreaking horror films. Previous years’ programs have included the world premieres of Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez’s The Blair Witch Project (1999), James Wan & Leigh Whannel’s Saw (2004), and Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy (2019).
Last year’s lineup included world premiere’s of Prano Bailey Bond’s video nasty inspired Censor, Ben Wheatley’s mind-scrambling In The Earth, and Sion Sono’s Prisoners of The Ghostland. It was a banner year for weird & wild indie horror and this year’s program boasts another stacked deck of creepy cinema. Full details and tickets for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival can be found HERE, but TLDR; below are the 5 horror movies we here at Nightmare on Film Street can’t wait to feast our eyes on.
Nanny
World Premiere
Directed by Nikyatu Jusu
“Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese immigrant, lands a job as a nanny of a wealthy Manhattan couple. While she easily wins the affection of their young daughter Rose, she becomes a pawn in the couple’s facade of a marriage. The mother is as controlling as the dad is disillusioned and woke. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind in Senegal, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S. and share in the life she is piecing together. But as his arrival approaches, a supernatural presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality.”
Full Details and Tickets HERE
Hatching
World Premiere
Directed by Hanna Bergholm
“Tinja’s mother showcases their family’s existence on her popular blog “Lovely Everyday Life” as a brightly hued domestic idyll set amid manicured suburban perfection. Beneath the impeccable veneer, though, friendless tween gymnast Tinja is struggling, spending most of her time striving to please her image-obsessed mom and appease her shrilly obnoxious little brother. After finding a wounded bird in the woods, she brings its strange egg home, nestles it in her bed, and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges, christened Alli, becomes Tinja’s closest friend, surrogate child, and living nightmare in this tremendously twisted coming-of-age body horror film.”
Full Details and Tickets HERE
Speak No Evil
World Premiere
Directed by Christian Tafdrup
“While on holiday in Tuscany, a Danish family becomes fast friends with a fellow traveling family from the Netherlands. Months later, when an invitation arrives encouraging the Danish family to visit the Dutch in their countryside home, they don’t hesitate to plan a quick getaway. Free-spirited and adventurous, the Dutch welcome the Danes for the weekend, channeling an energy that rouses their visitors as drinks flow and they start to let loose. But what begins as an idyllic reunion soon takes a turn as the hosts increasingly test the limits of their houseguests. Now the Danes find themselves caught in a web of their own politeness, trying to understand whether their new friends are merely eccentric… or hiding something more sinister.”
Full Details and Tickets HERE
You Won’t Be Alone
World Premiere
Directed by Goran Stolevski
“In an isolated mountain village in 19th-century Macedonia, a young girl is taken from her mother and transformed into a witch by an ancient, shape-shifting spirit. Left to wander feral, the young witch beholds the natural world with curiosity and wonder. After inadvertently killing a villager and assuming her body, she continues to inhabit different people, living among the villagers for years, observing and mimicking their behavior until the ancient spirit returns, bringing them full circle.”
Full Details and Tickets HERE
Piggy
World Premiere
Directed by Carlota Pereda
“With the summer sun beating down on her rural Spanish town, Sara hides away in her parent’s butcher shop. A teenager whose excess weight makes her the target of incessant bullying, she flees a clique of capricious girls who torment her at the town pool, only to stumble upon them being brutally kidnapped by a stranger, who drives off with them in his van. When the police begin asking questions, Sara keeps quiet. Intrigued by the stranger — an interest that’s mutual — she’s torn between revealing the truth and protecting the man who saved her. “
Full Details and Tickets HERE
Bonus Pick: Something In The Dirt
World Premiere
Directed By Justin Benson & Aaron Moorehead
“Levi has snagged a no-lease apartment sight unseen in the Hollywood Hills to crash at while he ties up loose ends for his exodus from Los Angeles. He quickly strikes up a rapport with his new neighbor John, swapping stories like old friends under the glowing, smoke-filled skies of the city. One day, Levi and John witness something impossible in one of their apartments. Terrified at first, they soon realize that this could change their lives and give them a purpose. With dollar signs in their eyes, these two random dudes will attempt to prove the supernatural.”
Full Details and Tickets HERE
And that’s only a small handful of the movie we will be reviewing at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Be sure to keep an eye out for all of our festival coverage HERE on the site, over on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and in the official Nightmare on Film Street Discord. Not a social media fan? Get more horror delivered straight to your inbox by joining the Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter.
