Horror Legend Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Headlines Documentaries At Melbourne International Film Festival

Australia-based Rondo Hatton-award winning author, critic and commentator Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is bringing her horror expertise to Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) with headlining roles in two documentaries exploring the genre's global impact. 

Inspired by Heller-Nicholas' 2020 book of the same name, MIFF will host the word premiere of 1000 Women in Horror, a new documentary from filmmaker Donna Davies that has been picked up for streaming on Shudder at a later date. Heller-Nicholas both wrote the documentary and is one of its many interview subjects, alongside director Mary Harron (American Psycho), screenwriter Akela Cooper (M3GAN), filmmaker and programmer Kier-la Janisse (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror), actresses Kate Siegel (Netflix's Fall of the House of Usher) and Lin Shaye (the Insidious franchise), producer Sara Risher (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Melbourne critic, academic and programmer Cerise Howard, and so many more amazing ladies of the horror space.

Davies, Heller-Nicholas and Howard are also participating in the MIFF Talk event Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Horror,  which is a ‘Pay What You Wish' event

Also screening at MIFF is Chain Reactions, Alexandre O. Philippe's 2024 documentary celebrating 50 years of Tobe Hooper's 1974 American horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Heller-Nicholas is one of the huge names in horror interviewed for the doc, alongside Stephen King, Patton Oswalt,  Takashi Miike and Karyn Kusama.

1000 Women in Horror screens at MIFF on Thursday 21 August and Saturday 23 August, and those attending can grab tickets here. Chain Reactions screens on Saturday 9 August, Tuesday 12 August and Saturday 16 August. Grab tickets here.