A Night of Horror International Film Festival announces its full program and schedule for 2025 today. Taking place for its second year in the USA, the 17th edition of the festival runs March 6-9, 2025 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
The festival's tradition of championing and screening the best and bloodiest new horror films continues, with another stellar line-up of feature films and shorts from America and around the planet, including many world, international, and US premieres.
ED KEMPER is one such feature film, and the latest from modern master of horror, and A Night of Horror alum, Chad Ferrin (NIGHT CALLER, THE DEEP ONES, PIG KILER). Ferrin's latest film is a powerful and terrifying biopic about the film's titular serial killer . It is scheduled to world premiere as the festival's closing film on Sunday, March 9, at 8pm. And will be followed by a closing night after party at the official bar of the festival The Mousetrap Tavern.
ED KEMPER from director Chad Ferrin. World premiere at A Night of Horror 2025.
“Having ED KEMPER premiere at A Night of Horror is aces,” says Ferrin. “From an amazing script by Stephen Johnston to the fantastic cast and crew, everything on this journey has been the best of my career. As the days near for it to flicker upon the big screen, I sit here chain smoking on pins and needles in anticipation for the moment that the lights come up in the theater and the audience either cheers or jeers. I hope they cheer.”
ED KEMPER is just one of a plethora of amazing feature films and shorts to be showcased at the festival next month.
The feature films screening at the festival include:
ED KEMPER (dir. Chad Ferrin) WORLD PREMIERE
An unflinching if eerily sympathetic portrayal of the life of American serial killer Edmund Kemper, who murdered his grandparents at age 15. Then, years later, after being paroled for that crime, killed eight women in 1972 and 1973, including his own mother. Chad Ferrin - fest alum and modern master of horror - delivers what might just be his most compelling, and his most disturbing, film yet. Sure to become a staple of the serial-killer sub-genre, it's a must see for anyone with an interest in true crime and real-life horror stories.
ITCH! (Dir: Bari King) In this gripping tale of survival, a horrific outbreak known as the ITCH! spreads like wildfire, turning its victims into frenzied, self-destructive shells of their former selves. Trapped in a department store, a widower must fight to protect his young daughter. And in the best tradition of George Romero's DEAD films, they soon discover the biggest threat isn't the inhuman infected, but their fellow, human survivors.
LEAD BELLY (dir: Stephen King Simmons) Horror writer/director ‘Stephen King Simmons’, of the critically acclaimed and award winning feature THE PARKER SESSIONS, returns with his sophomore nightmare. Flashback to 1997, for a period coming-of-age horror film about two brothers visiting their recently divorced and estranged father during summer vacation. With plenty of bumps, twists, and terrifying turns along the way, LEAD BELLY keeps the audience guessing until the final frame, and then leaves them shattered.
THE LOST EPISODE (dir: Nick Wernham) Assembled by XPU$HER and made available through the Black-Torrent Release Group, The Lost Episode offers a raw and unsettling look at unaired footage captured during a police ride-along on Halloween night, 2004. The film follows officers Paul Massaro and Terrence Williams as they navigate the sleepy streets of Franklin, uncovering a chain of horrifying events and a disturbing conspiracy rooted in the heart of the small town they swore to protect.
THE MATRIARCH (dir: Jayden Creighton) A thirteen year old girl kills her addict mom's abusive boyfriend in self defense, and is subsequently terrorized by her own mother. Australian writer/director Jayden Creighton explodes onto the horror scene with this feature debut, with the type of raw and visceral potency that Australia's top genre filmmakers deliver better than anyone on the planet. Brings to mind the debuts of Creighton's legendary fellow country men, from George Miller and Geoffrey Wright to Greg McLean and Steven Kastrissios. Do not miss.
NEW FEARS EVE (dir. Eric Huskisson and P.J. Starks ) Three best friends involuntarily prepare for a corporate New Year's Eve party. Soon the party turns deadly when a masked murderer sets his sights on them. A side-splitting and gore-spilling horror comedy, that grabs the slasher sub-genre by the throat and bleeds it dry. Don't miss what is already a cult hit on the fest circuit.
SÉANCE (dir. Vivian Kerr) In 1892 California, a Victorian woman contemplating adultery is forced to take refuge from a storm at the home of her first husband and his unstable wife, who claims to be haunted by their dead child. A pitch-perfect four person ensemble cast, haunting cinematography, and a mounting atmosphere of paranormal dread mixed with shocking twists and turns, makes this sophomore feature from writer/director Vivian Kerr (who also co-stars) the must see supernatural chiller of the year.
STRANGE HARVEST: OCCULT MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE (dir: Stuart Ortiz) Two detectives pursue an infamous serial killer named Mr. Shiny, who terrorized Southern California for almost two decades. The latest horror hit from award winning writer, director, producer and editor, Stuart Ortiz (GRAVE ENCOUNTERS, GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2, EXTRATERRESTRIAL) which DREAD CENTRAL calls “a pitch perfect found footage film”.
TIM TRAVERS & THE TIME TRAVELERS PARADOX (dir. Stimson Snead)
It is called the Time Travelers Paradox. In which a scientist creates a Time Machine and kills their younger self. So now a man who should not exist, somehow does. That is the Paradox, and Paradoxes are impossible. And the man who has created it, is Tim Travers: a reclusive, mad scientist. In the course of his adventure, Travers will take on the mercenary gang whose stolen plutonium powers his machine, challenge a conspiracy podcaster to a battle of wits, create a black hole, meet the one woman alive crazier than him, clone himself, destroy the universe, make a new one, and maybe - just maybe - learn to love himself at last.
THEY WERE WITCHES (dir. Alejandro G. Alegre)
A paranormal radio show host and self-proclaimed witchcraft expert, meets a group of 20-somethings when she stops at a rural motel during a road trip. Soon, they will be murdered, one by one, to bring an evil spirit back from the dead. A taut, haunting, and violent offering from writer/director Alejandro G. Alegre (THE DEVIL TOLD ME WHAT TO DO, ÁNIMA), which cements his place as one of the most talented genre filmmakers in the Spanish speaking world.
TRAUMNOVELLE (dir. Florian Frerichs)
A potent adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's novel of the same title (the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT). Equal parts erotic and disturbing, a woman tells her husband that she has fantasies about other men, triggering a desire for his own sexual adventures. Set in modern, kinky Berlin, the film is much more than a mere reboot of Kubrick's last film.
VIDEO VISION (dir. Michael Turney)
Kibby (Andrea Figliomeni) works in a junk-laddened digitizing studio, transferring analog media to modern formats. But on the cusp of a new romantic relationship, her life and body begin to transform, when she unwittingly unlocks an alternative dark dimension, through an old VCR, and unleashes Dr. Analog. Turney has painstakingly crafted a retro-tech, horror-romance that evokes and homages 80s horror, while remaining grounded in the present. The result is one of the most effective, and unique, horror films you'll ever see.
There will also be a very SPECIAL SECRET SCREENING at the festival, of a brand new feature film, never before seen by any audience. The film is from a well known horror filmmaker and festival alum. It’s still not the final cut of the movie. But the director will be at the fest in person, and wants to hear audience feedback. It screens Friday March 7, 6pm at the Micon Downtown.
The full line-up of visiting filmmakers will be announced next week.
A Night of Horror's full 2025 program and schedule can be viewed here.
Tickets to all films, along with discounted festival passes, are available to purchase here.