Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Festival (BARS), Argentina’s top horror film festival, kicks off on Wednesday. The festival, which will run until December 8, is set to feature more than 60 genre films from all over the world.  

The event, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, will officially begin on Wednesday night with a special screening of Carlos Hugo Christensen’s 1957 classic Si muero antes de despertar in a very special venue: Buenos Aires’ 17th-century church of San Ignacio de Loyola. It’s the oldest one in the city, built by Jesuits between 1686 and 1722.

BARS will offer both local and international films at the Multiplex Belgrano cinemas, as well as special activities with free admission. Film tickets can be purchased both online at www.multiplex.com.ar and the cinemas’ box office in Vuelta de Obligado 2238 at a price of AR$ 2700 (US$2.5 at the MEP rate)

The BARS roster also includes a restored version of Dr. Lazarus, the 1992 film by Alejandro Jablonskis and Pedro Loeb that is regarded as “the missing link in Argentine fantasy cinema.” Combining horror and comedy, the film features renowned Argentine actor Norman Briski (Argentina, 1985) as an immortal man and a voice-over narration by local horror icon Narciso Ibáñez Menta.

BARS’ international competition will feature some local horror highlights, such as 1978, set during the country’s last military dictatorship. Directed by Nicolás and Luciano Onetti, 1978 is a supernatural horror film that takes place inside a clandestine center of detention, torture, and extermination after military forces try to kidnap and disappear the wrong people. In Retratos del apocalipsis (Portraits of Apocalypse), established genre directors Nicanor Loreti and Fabian Forte join Luca Castelo to create a compendium of four short films that depict a zombie apocalypse in Buenos Aires. The competition also features Estonian musical slasher Chainsaws Were Singing, directed by Sander Maran,  as well as Uruguayan zombie comedy El tema del verano, a Sitges festival entry directed by Pablo Stoll Ward. 

The festival will also bring some Argentine premieres of the top latest horror films from all over the world, like Sitges festival winner The Devil’s Bath, an Austrian religious fable set in the 18th century and directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, or a one-time-only screening of Brazilian film Abraço de Mãe, by Argentine director Cristian Ponce.

A Horror Classics section will also offer two landmarks of the genre: Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven’s 1984 introduction of Freddy Krueger to the world, and the 1998 Japanese horror icon film Ringu (Hideo Nakata). 

The festival’s Closing Film will be the Argentine premiere of Narit Yuvaboon’s Death Whisperer 2. This is the second installment of a Thai franchise that promises demonic possessions and plenty of blood and action sequences.

The BARS program is available on the festival’s website.