As a special treat to fans of genre and fantasy movies, QCinema is relaunching its Midnight Series section with three new titles.
Launched in 2017, the section offers chills and thrills in its late-night festival screenings.
Nocebo, an atmospheric psychological thriller by Lorcan Finnegan, is a debut collaboration between Ireland and the Philippines, with Epic Media and the Film Development Council of the Philippines as co-producers.
Finnegan, best known for Vivarium (2019), ventures into familiar eerie terrain — Nocebo is about a fashion designer (Eva Green) suffering from a mysterious illness. A Filipino caregiver (Chai Fonacier) offers traditional folk medicine. The immediate recovery of Green's character leads to a revelation of a horrifying truth.
Blending thriller elements with folk horror, Nocebo premiered in October at the Sitges Fantasy Festival and gives Fonacier more international exposure.
Meanwhile, Mexican actor Natalia Solian plays the pregnant Valeria who is threatened by occult forces in the Spanish-language supernatural thriller Huesera.
Debuting filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera turned to the body horror genre in her movie on the nightmares of motherhood. It premiered at Tribeca earlier this year and won the Best New Narrative director for Cervera.
British-Iranian director Ana Lily Amirpour is back with a 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 movie 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 leads to a strange alliance and a crime spree, roaming neon-streaked New Orleans streets.
Set to a remarkable soundtrack, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon was recognized with a special award in Venice.
The Midnight Series screens from 17 to 26 November.
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