Badges go on sale at noon Wednesday for The Boston Underground Film Festival, which comes to local screens March 18-22, organizers said in a Tuesday press release. There will be more than 20 screenings of new feature films and shorts, including two blocks highlighting local filmmakers.
The 26th festival of horror, fantasy, sci-fi and quirky indie films brings to town Bob Odenkirk for an audience Q&A about his “Normal,” an action-comedy love letter to shoot‑’em‑up cinema directed by Ben Wheatley. (Odenkirk was last here in 2023 as the Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year.)
Bill Moseley – famous in his own way for horror films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” – gets his own Q&A as well as a meet‑and‑greet, part of the flick’s 40th anniversary celebration. A screening of the 1986 film is slotted as the festival’s repertory centerpiece.
Also screening is “Obsession,” a careful-what-you-wish-for horror film by Curry Barker that audiences and critics relished at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. “I see so many horror movies that threaten to get weird and gnarly, only to pull their punches right when shit gets real,” critic Brian Tallerico said of the film. “Barker pulls nothing, getting darker, creepier and bloodier with each passing scene.” Natalie Erika James’ Sundance thriller “Saccharine” is one of the festival’s two closing‑night selections.
With the departure of artistic director Kevin Monahan and director of programing Nicole McControversy after nearly two decades, Adam Van Voorhis and Phil Healy step up from technical directors to co‑festival directors and bring on Coolidge Corner Theatre artistic director Mark Anastasio as artistic director.
Maybe no surprise, then, that screenings that take place at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square expand this year to include the Coolidge in Brookline.
“In an age where we’re constantly getting further disconnected from each other, festivals like ours and the venues we’re screening in are so important for keeping our community alive,” Anastasio said in the press release.
Festival info can be found at bostonunderground.org where the full lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.
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