As a special post-Halloween treat for lovers of genre and fantasy movies, QCinema is relaunching its Midnight Series section with three spine-tingling titles.
First introduced in 2017, the section offers chills and thrills for its late-night festival screenings.
An atmospheric psychological thriller by Lorcan Finnegan, Nocebo, is the first co-production of Ireland and the Philippines, with Epic Media and Film Development Council of the Philippines as co-producers.
Finnegan, best known for Vivarium (2019), ventures into familiar eerie terrain, as his third work focuses on a fashion designer (Eva Green), who’s suffering from a mysterious illness. A Filipino caregiver, played by Chai Fonacier, arrives and soon offers traditional folk healing. The immediate recovery of Green’s character soon leads to a revelation of a horrifying truth.
Blending thriller elements with folk horror, Nocebo premiered last October in Sitges Fantasy Festival, and guarantees character actor, Fonacier, for more international exposure.
Mexican actress, Natalia Solian, takes the lead role of Valeria, who finds herself pregnant and is soon threatened by occult forces in the Spanish-language supernatural thriller, Huesera.
Debuting filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera infuses the body horror genre into a nightmare about motherhood to bone-breaking effect. It premiered in Tribeca earlier this year and won the Best New Narrative director for Cervera.
British-Iranian director Ana Lily Amirpour returns to local screens with her latest cult hit, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, starring Kate Hudson and Jun Jong-seo.
Amirpour is best remembered for her atmospheric vampire/western, A Girl Walks Home at Night, her debut film which premiered in QCinema’s 2014 edition.
Korean star, Jong-seo, plays a girl with unusual powers who escapes from a mental asylum. A chance encounter with Hudson’s prostitute character soon gives way to a strange alliance, as they go on a crime spree, roaming neon-streaked New Orleans streets.
Set to a remarkable soundtrack, Amirpour’s much-awaited fantasy thriller was recognized with a special award in Venice.
Catch these must-see thrillers in a specially-curated section, Midnight Series, only in QCinema, scheduled on Nov. 17-26.