Monster Fest
MONSTER FEST returns to Cinema Nova! A celebration of all that is weird and wonderful in the international cult cinema palette – horror, science fiction, fantasy, dark drama, black comedy, animation, and much more.
From its humble beginnings in Victoria back in 2011 at Cinema Nova to present day with festivals nationwide, Monster Fest has grown to become the country’s premier genre film festival.
MF26 The Only One
Opening Date: Friday, 2 Oct 2026
Some people leave their hometown with a few fond memories and the promise to keep in touch. Zoe left behind a trail of broken hearts and an alarming number of men - and women - who never quite got over her. Years ago, Zoe scored a television commercial a ... more
MF26 Bloody Tennis
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
BLOODY TENNIS is a gloriously unhinged melange of Suspiria, Girl Fight and Battle Royale, where elite sport, occult weirdness and survival horror meet on centre court. Sophie arrives at an elite European tennis academy with dreams of making it to Wimbled ... more
MF26 The Glorious Dead
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
At this point, it wouldn’t really be Monster Fest without an Adams family film playing in it. Following Hellbender, Where The Devil Roams and last year’s Golden Monster winner Mother Of Flies, filmmaking family Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams and Lul ... more
MF26 Bloodlust
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
In a world where almost everything is already gone, Keith and Becca still have each other. Then even that is taken away. BLOODLUST follows the couple as they drift through the decaying remains of a post-apocalyptic Australia, surviving from day to day wi ... more
MF26 Nancy Nancy
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
One quiet night on Warratah Island, a reclusive man and his over bearing sister find their fragile domestic routine shattered when a mysterious stranger abruptly bursts into their home and refuses to leave. Introducing herself as Nancy Nancy, the intruder ... more
MF26 Devil's Disciple: The Night Stalker
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
Chad Ferrin delivers his nastiest film since Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! and Someone’s Knocking at the Door with DEVIL'S DISCIPLE: THE NIGHT STALKER, a remorseless, uncompromising account of a serial killer's real-life reign of terror. Los Angeles, 1985. T ... more
MF26 Godmother
Opening Date: Saturday, 3 Oct 2026
Nothing spoils a romantic getaway in the desert faster than the surprise addition of a recently single wild-child sibling - except maybe a horde of randy septuagenarians with a devilish plan for their young and fertile neighbours. GODMOTHER follows Theo ... more
MF26 Tura!
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
It's difficult to imagine anyone being more formidable than Varla, the man-hating, ass-kicking, drag-racing force of nature at the centre of Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Then you discover the life of Tura Satana. Cody Jarrett's TURA! digs ... more
MF26 The Astro-Zombies
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
There are mad scientist movies, and then there are mad scientist movies where John Carradine builds solar-powered supermen out of stolen corpses in his basement, only for them to escape and go on a killing spree while Tura Satana tries to steal the secret ... more
MF26 Satan's Cheerleaders
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
"There are movies that attempt to grapple seriously with the nature of evil. And then there's SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS, which figured Satan would be considerably more entertaining surrounded by horny teenagers in short skirts. The girls of Benedict High are ... more
MF26 Gnomes: The Garden Has Gone To Hell
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
Smart. The series is set in a fading country town that finds itself under siege by an army of murderous garden gnomes on the eve of their first Gnome-a-Palooza festival. At the heart of the story are two police officers, Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps and ... more
MF26 Kylgor in the Grisly Abyss
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
Five years in the making and produced on a budget so small even a micro-budget filmmaker would be shocked, KYLGOR IN THE GRISLY ABYSS is an astonishingly ambitious throwback to the sword-and-sorcery epics of yesteryear, complete with barbarian warriors, h ... more
MF26 I Love Paris
Opening Date: Sunday, 4 Oct 2026
Paris wants to be famous. Unfortunately, nobody else seems particularly interested. A wannabe singer hustling her way through the grungier corners of Paris, she’s told by a festival programmer that what her career really needs is more social media follow ... more
MF26 Pinocchio: Unstrung
Opening Date: Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
Having already transformed Pooh, Peter Pan and Bambi into bloodthirsty psychopaths, Rhys Frake-Waterfield and his merry band of childhood destroyers now turn their attention to poor old Pinocchio - and boy is it glorious. Created by Geppetto (the always- ... more
MF26 Dark Forces (Shorts)
Opening Date: Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
Be careful what you summon. Demons, curses, haunted bloodlines and creatures waiting in the dark are unleashed in a program of supernatural nightmares, proving that some things should never be opened. ... more
MF26 School of Schock (Shorts)
Opening Date: Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
Class is in session, and the curriculum is carnage. Continuing a proud Monster Fest tradition, this year’s student shorts program brings together twelve films from schools around the country for a showcase of emerging Australian genre talent, with plenty ... more
MF26 Jeffrey Dollmer
Opening Date: Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
Sometimes a movie comes along with a premise so profoundly outrageous that you simply have to program it. Meet JEFFREY DOLLMER. A group of models arrive for a seemingly routine photo shoot only to find themselves stalked, seduced and molested by a doll ... more
MF26 Losing the Plot (Shorts)
Opening Date: Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026
Fractured minds, failing bodies and technology behaving badly. Obsession, paranoia and unchecked progress distort the world beyond recognition, until nothing can be trusted, least of all your own senses. ... more
MF26 Blood, Guts, and Bad Decisions (Shorts)
Opening Date: Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026
Bad dates, hangovers, rogue robots and creatures with questionable intentions. A celebration of the fine art of making everything much, much worse, and learning absolutely no lessons. ... more
MF26 Parasite 3D
Opening Date: Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026
Before Puppet Master. Before Future Cop. Before Full Moon. There was PARASITE 3D. The year is 1992. Nuclear war has reduced America to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, evil corporations control what remains of civilisation and scientist Paul Dean has create ... more
MF26 Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story
Opening Date: Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026
If you spent any significant amount of time haunting video stores in the ’80s and ’90s, chances are Charles Band had something to do with messing you up. Puppet Master. Subspecies. Future Cop. Dollman. Demonic Toys. Castle Freak. Tourist Trap. Ghoulies. ... more
MF26 Night of the Demons
Opening Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 2026
There was really only one way to follow a documentary about Steve Johnson’s monsters, excesses and marriage to Linnea Quigley: screen the movie where all three collided. It’s Halloween night and ten teenagers have decided that the perfect place for a par ... more
MF26 Rubberhead: Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson
Opening Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 2026
You may not know the name Steve Johnson, but if you grew up watching horror movies in the ’80s and ’90s, you sure as hell know his monsters. Videodrome, Ghostbusters, Fright Night, Big Trouble in Little China, Night of the Demons, A Nightmare on Elm Stre ... more
MF26 Trasharama Presents: The Taller They Come
Opening Date: Friday, 9 Oct 2026
Australian exploitation filmmaker Alby Wrangler (Andrew Leavold) dreams of becoming the next Tarantino. Instead, he finds himself in Ghana, conning his way onto the film set of real-life director Samuel "Ninja" Nkansah's kung fu remake of the Jamaican reg ... more
MF26 Exorcist II: The Heretic
Opening Date: Friday, 9 Oct 2026
Is EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC really one of the worst films ever made… or have we all been getting it wrong for nearly 50 years? Four years after Regan MacNeil’s unfortunate encounter with the Devil, she’s seemingly doing just fine. Unfortunately, nobody t ... more
MF26 Trasharama
Opening Date: Friday, 9 Oct 2026
Murder City’s ambassador of twisted cinema, Dick Dale, returns to Melbourne with his latest Trasharama program, bursting at the screams with the grossest, goriest and greatest short films to grace a Trasharama yet. ... more
MF26 Boorman and the Devil
Opening Date: Friday, 9 Oct 2026
Fresh from Point Blank and Deliverance, John Boorman was one of the hottest directors on the planet when Warner Bros handed him the keys to one of Hollywood’s most valuable properties and asked him to make THE EXORCIST II. What could possibly go wrong? ... more
MF26 The Devil Within Her
Opening Date: Saturday, 10 Oct 2026
Some horror movies have one great title. This one has four. THE DEVIL WITHIN HER. Sharon's Baby. I Don't Want To Be Born. The Monster. Whatever you want to call it, there's really only one important thing you need to know: Joan Collins gives birth to a h ... more
MF26 Monster Fest x MHFS Trivia
Opening Date: Saturday, 10 Oct 2026
Join Melbourne Horror Film Society ringleaders Melsy Begg, David Lorensene and Andrew Paynter for a session of fiendish questions, cutthroat competition, and devilish prizes. From slashers to shockers, cult classics to deep cuts, this is the ultimate test ... more
MF26 The Final Conflict: Omen III
Opening Date: Saturday, 10 Oct 2026
OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT finds Damien Thorn at 32, fully aware that he's the Antichrist and no longer particularly troubled by the implications. He's rich, powerful, running Thorn Industries and has just been appointed US Ambassador to Great Britain - ... more
MF26 DogGod
Opening Date: Saturday, 10 Oct 2026
Originally made in Thailand in the late ’90s and under the bizarre title 'My Teacher Eats Biscuits', DOGGOD was banned just one day before its premiere for the apparently rather impressive feat of being deemed 'offensive to all religions'. And then it di ... more
MF26 Hallowarrior
Opening Date: Saturday, 10 Oct 2026
October 31st. Halloween. The not-so-distant future. Three years since a plague wiped humans from the face of the planet. All except for 16-year-old ‘Pumpkin’. The last girl left on earth. Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro) is a teenage girl like any other, craving ... more
