Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

Islands // 2017, France, 23 min

A sexual reverie unfolds over the course of one ethereal night. Characters wander through an erotic maze of love and lust, blurring the lines between wet dream and lucid nightmare as a macabre, erotic stage performance sends a ripple of lustful desires through its audience and performers.

Knife + Heart // 2018, France, 102 min

Paris, Summer 1979. Anne (French pop star Vanessa Paradis) produces third-rate gay porn. After her editor and lover Lois leaves her, she tries to win her back by shooting her most ambitious film yet with her trusted, flaming sidekick Archibald. But one of her actors is brutally murdered and Anne gets caught up in a strange investigation that turns her life upside-down. Shot on 35mm and featuring a killer retro score from M83, Yann Gonzalez’s KNIFE+HEART is an ultra-stylish and blood-soaked ode to ’70s-era De Palma, Argento, and Friedkin.

William Asher, 1986, USA, 91 min

Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

Terror begins when a night of murder and bloodshed leads bigoted police detective Joe Carlson (Bo Svenson, Walking Tall Part 2, Choke Canyon, Breaking Point) to try to frame orphaned high school basketball player Billy Lynch (Jimmy McNichol, Escape From El Diablo). However, Billy’s aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell, Fat City, Forbidden Zone) is the real knife-wielding culprit, and with Billy about to graduate, her twisted urge to keep him all to herself is about to erupt in a wave of carnage. No one is safe when an unstable lawman and a psychotic aunt converge in a shocking climax you’ll never forget!

Enrique Gómez Vadillo, 1991, Mexico, 75 min

Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

David, the disturbed son of a wealthy businesswoman, returns to his sunny beachside home to try to get over the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his boarding school teacher. As he tries to overcome his homosexual urges, David begins murdering all those around him who he sees as being responsible for his trauma. Never available theatrically for English language audiences, MUERTE EN LA PLAYA is a sleazy homoerotic serial killer thriller with a Telenovela twist from one of Mexico's most unheralded genre filmmakers.

Paul Vecchiali, 1970, France, 96 min

Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

An unconventional French giallo released before the sub-genre’s popularity boom resulting from filmmakers like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, THE STRANGLER centers on Émile (Jacques Perrin, The Young Girls of Rochefort), a handsome young man targeting women he believes are too depressed to go on living. As multiple women fall to Émile’s suffocating white scarf, inspector Simon Dangret, the detective assigned to track down the killer, resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man with the assistance of Anna, a beautiful woman who believes herself to be a potential victim.

Thomas Casey, 1971, USA, 95 min

Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

Dropping somewhere between PINK FLAMINGOS, BLOOD FEAST, and an episode of THE BRADY BUNCH on acid, SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS is a histrionic psychodrama that could only have originated in the alternate dimension known as Florida. After robbing a bank in Baltimore, cross-dressing Paul (aka Aunt Martha) and his partner Stanley hide out in a Florida town. But it’s only a matter of time beforePaul’s paranoia forces him to embark on a demented killing spree. AGFA is thrilled to present one of the most unforgettable exploitation movies of all time -- and an overlooked chapter of early queer cinema -- preserved from the only 35mm theatrical print in existence.

Hisayasu Satô, 1995, Japan, 65 min

Part of our Diva Down: Queer Slashers, Killers and Thrillers series

A police detective investigating a vicious string of homosexual murders discovers that the latest victim appears to be the married executive who was his college lover ten years before.