• Film
  • Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Body horror, queer horror, fantastical creatures

Film

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2023: Body horror, queer horror, fantastical creatures

Female bonds, fantastical creatures, body horror, queer horror, body autonomy - Final Girls Berlin Film Festival returns to City kino Wedding from February 1-5.

Photo: Epic pictures

Returning to City Kino Wedding for their 8th edition, the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival is essential viewing if you get your kicks from quaking in fear.

Let the twists and turns pull the rug from under your trembling feet

Creeping up on us at the start of February, this fest presents the always reliable, usually terrifying purveyors of female and non-binary horror, showcasing the community’s best work in direction, writing and production. Female bonds, fantastical creatures, body horror, queer horror, body autonomy: the inflections are endless and celebrated here in their full g(l)ory that will have you straining to look-not-look through the gaps in your fingers.

This year opens with the Berlin premiere of RAQUEL 1:1, a Brazilian picture that tackles obsessive religious devotion, directed by Mariana Bastos. With flicks from South to North America, there will be Polaris, a Canadian Arctic adventure film about a young woman’s struggle with the severity of nature (directed by Kirsten Carthew, another German premiere). This year’s shorts really pack a punch. Jump in headlong for full immersion – the less context the better – and let the twists and turns pull the rug from under your trembling feet. Fishwife, You Will See and Mantra are particular short standouts – but catch as many as you can.

Next to this there will be panels, discussions, lectures and talks on women-directed rape-revenge, Mexican post-millennial horror and hagsploitation in American Horror Story. Not to mention all-around creeptastic fun bits such as a Witches Sabbath movement workshop and make-your-own-tarot cards. It’s all here – plenty to pull curious newbies and satiate hardened horror folk.

  • Final Girls Berlin Film Festival Feb 1-5 City Kino Wedding