MOTELX

MOTELX – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival is headed into its 17th edition. Between premieres, special guests, surprises and programming partnerships, the Festival will be in constant harmony with contemporaneity, but also with historical and fundamental moments in ensuring the present and contaminating the future that looks bright for genre cinema.

One of the first major confirmations is the European premiere of Amelia’s Children by Gabriel Abrantes, the new and much-awaited film directed by one of the greatest talents in Portuguese cinema. Other highlights are the incendiary Property by Brazilian Daniel Bandeira; the French Vincent Must Die by Stéphan Castang, and the winner of Cannes Critics’ Week 2023, the Malaysian Tiger Stripes.

But there are more terrifying films being shown for the first time in Portugal and representing the Festival’s official selection: Jennifer Reeder’s second feature, presented in Berlin, Perpetrator; Jacqueline Castel’s My Animal, a female take on a Canadian horror classic; the Australian Run Rabbit Run with actress Sarah Snook; and the return of David Farrier, with the new documentary/thriller based on the investigation of a fait-diver in Mister Organ.

Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg’s most recent and resounding film, arrives exclusively at MOTELX, as does the man himself. The screening of this body horror meets science fiction, here in the director’s cut version, will be complemented by a retrospective of his work, including Antiviral and the unprecedented Possessor. With a very strong work of his own, the son of David Cronenberg proves that he deserves to be highlighted in his own name, integrating the suit of new values of horror cinema. The Festival dedicates a well-deserved full retrospective to him and invites him to a masterclass.

As far as classics are concerned, MOTELX celebrates half a century of the obligatory The Exorcist, by William Friedkin, essential for much of the genre cinema that followed, with the projection of the restored 4K copy, in one of the Special Screenings.

Full Programme here.

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