Welcome to the fifth annual Anomaly - The Rochester Genre Film Festival!

This year we’ve got 13 programs containing 12 feature films and 21 short films packed into 5 days for a ghoulishly good time!

Join us for the best genre cinema from around the world, November 8-12, 2023 in downtown Rochester, NY!

Schedule :

November 8, 2023

5:00-5:50pm : Full Festival Passholders - Pass Pickup & Reception

Directly preceding River

Location : The Little Theatre - Theatre 1 Lobby

Come pickup and decorate! your pass, mingle with your fellow film-buffs, and enjoy light refreshments before we kickoff opening night! Passes can still be picked up all festival long.

6:30pm : River - Little Theater 1

A sweet and soulful time-twisting comedy.

Director Junta Yamaguchi takes the micro time loop premise of his 2021 Anomaly Audience Award-Winner Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and applies it to an even larger canvas, as the guests and staff of a Japanese inn find themselves living the same few minutes over and over and over again. Somewhere in those repeating, all-to-brief moments, they confront questions of life, love, and their own mortality.

When You're Here, You're Pizza!

River orders the same pizza every day. What could go wrong?

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9:00pm : The Sacrifice Game - Little Theater 1

A retro holiday home invasion tale with a delightful demonic twist.

It's Christmas Eve 1971... and two misfit students with their kind-hearted teacher are the only ones left in their snowbound boarding school over winter break.

Unbeknownst to them, a band of murderous hippies are about to arrive, on a vicious tear of violence and terror, itching to perform an ancient ritual and release a supernatural evil. But what these cultists don't know will definitely hurt them before the dawn.

Three Baths

A spiritualist instructs Loreen to give her distraught younger sister, Rosa, three baths to get rid of a malevolent spirit that appears to be moving closer and closer to her.

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November 9, 2023

8:00pm : When Dragons Collide - Dryden Theater

An Anomaly Excursion to The Dryden Theatre!

A rarely-seen kung-fu action film of nonsense and fists.

Presented on 35mm film! This over-the-top martial arts film has been a hidden treasure in the George Eastman Museum’s vault for years.

Betrayed by his partners, a man returns to his hometown seeking vengeance and re-connection with his long lost love. Killing his way up the organized crime ladder, the protagonist will have to avoid falling oil drums, escape from a coffin, survive a school full of martial arts students, and dodge flying fists and bullets.

A prime example of the lower budget of the genre, the film features violence, nudity, and more laugh-out-loud moments than you might expect. Shot in Hong Kong in 1973, this early 1980s United States release reveals the slapdash efforts at importing film at the time.

If Birds Fly

A puppet fantasia about an aging daredevil who struggles to find value in his bright and brutal career as he prepares to attempt his most daring jump.

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November 10, 2023

5:45pm : Loop Track - Little Theater 1

An unexpected psychological thriller.

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Ian retreats to the New Zealand bush seeking solitude. Only he’s not alone. There are annoying tourists and cocky fellow hikers around to tell him he’s doing things all wrong. But there’s also… something else. Somewhere in the dark recesses of the forest, a malevolent presence waits. Or is it all in Ian’s head?

To Moher

A man on a solo vacation to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland receives an ominous, life-altering phone call from his supervisor.

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8:30pm : Molli and Max in the Future - Little Theater 1

An imaginative sci-fi rom-com that spans galaxies.

Molli and Max keep finding themselves drawn into each other’s orbits, and find that dating is awkward no matter what year you’re in or which planet you find yourself on. A classic will-they-won’t-they romance matched with cleverly lo-fi effects, it’s “When Harry Met Sally” with aliens, robot warriors, and space witches.

FILMMAKER Q&A with Molli and Max in the Future director Michael Litwak and producer Ben Murphy.

Somewhere In Between

Two will-they-won't-they friends are just keeping it simple this New Year's Eve until their house is crashed by a man from the future who tells them that the fate of the universe rests in their hands!

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11:00pm - 12:00am  : Friday After-Film Excursion

approx.; directly following Molli and Max in the Future

Location: The Spirit Room - 139 State St, Rochester, NY 14614

Join Anomaly for a Friday-night drink at one of Rochester's spookiest bars, The Spirit Room! Drink specials for all Anomaly ticket-holders and Festival Passholders.

November 11, 2023

11:00am : Shocking and Spooky Saturday Shorts - Little Theater

Strange, unsettling — and sometimes even touching — bite-sized tales. From students to professionals, these filmmakers showcase a variety of styles and tones, celebrating some of the best short-form genre-filmmaking this year.

Ditched

An impulsive middle schooler playing a game of hide-and-seek soon realizes something sinister is hunting him and his friends.
Mahogany Drive

In this comedy horror tale, three Black friends wake up to a nightmare: a dead white woman on the floor of their Airbnb. Tensions rise, sweat beads, and accusations fly, but they slowly come to a terrifying truth.

Greed & Gore

After a bank robbery doesn't go exactly as planned, a crew of five pick a last minute safehouse to lay low with their take and a hostage. But the safehouse isn't so safe.

We Forgot About The Zombies

Two dudes think they found the cure for zombie bites.

Wormies

In 1980s suburbia, a distant family is forced to come together when the Summer's hottest new toy, a cute aquatic pet, mutates into a repulsive monster.

The Haunting of a Ghost

Walter can't wait for the Johnsons to move into their new house, his personal haunting ground. But when the family arrive with a demon in tow, Walter is in for one hell of a scare-off.

Below Snakes

When a group of bandits ambush a traveling merchant, they find out that one man's treasure is another's curse.

Mickey Dogface

Halloween night, three friends high in a van, and an urban legend surrounding a cult singer's mysterious death in a fire - what could go wrong?

Nosepicker

A 'tale of the unexpected' about an 8-year-old schoolboy with a nasty habit of picking his nose.

"It was great... Snot what I expected." -Joe Dante, director of "Gremlins"

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2:00pm : Red Rooms - Little Theater

A chilling psychological horror about dark cyber obsessions.

The trial of Ludovic Chevalier — a serial killer dubbed “The Demon of Rosemont,” notorious for broadcasting his gruesome murders on the dark web — has captivated the world. None more so than enigmatic fashion model Kelly-Anne.

Her morbid fixation on the crimes and their perpetrator quickly takes her down a dark path, in this drama exploring our impulse to peer into the most terrible corners of human nature.

Strangers in the House

Maud finds her husband Peter with strangers in their living-room. Who are these people? Why are they here? And why does Peter act as if he knew them.

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5:00pm : Riddle of Fire - Little Theater

A chimerical, modern-day fairytale that feels like a lost-then-found 80s children's classic.
Screening on 35mm film! Three free-roaming, feral children spend their vacation riding on their dirt bikes, wielding paint guns and creating chaos. One day their sick mother sets them on a journey to fetch a blueberry pie - one made with a speckled egg. But as fables tend to go, a simple task soon becomes an epic journey through a series of side-quests, a chase through the wild woods at night, and eventually a confrontation with a powerful witch and her coven.

Shot on 16mm with a dreamy aesthetic, this story unfolds languid and warm like a long summer day. More details & tickets

The Forest Drum

A monster attempts to make friends with a drum he finds in the woods

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8:00pm : The People's Joker - Little Theater

A subversive queer and trans coming-of-age origin story.

The film that defied a major Hollywood studio. Writer, director, and editor Vera Drew enlists the assistance of 100 different artists — blending live action, 2D animation, stop-motion, and CGI — to create a hilarious and deeply personal riff on superhero movies, gender identity, stand-up comedy, and the power of a good laugh.

Don't Turn Off the Ghost Light

Every stage actor knows the old theatre lore. At night, you leave the theater ghost light on - or else. Poor Terrence should have been more careful - because now he's about to find out that some performances never die.

10:00-11:30pm : Saturday After-Film Excursion

approx.; directly following The People's Joker

Join Anomaly for a Saturday-night gathering. Come chat about the day's movies!

Snacks provided; drinks and additional food available for sale. Open to all "The People's Joker" ticket-holders and Anomaly Festival Passholders.

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November 12, 2023

10:30am : Tiger Stripes - Little Theater

A charming coming-of-age story with a body horror bent.

12-year-old Zaffan is the first in her grade to get her period, an event that leads to her being ostracized by her friends and classmates. But the strange changes to her body keep coming, and soon it seems that the young girl’s feisty personality and sharpening animal instincts may be too much for her conservative Malaysian community

Black Tea

A lonely Victorian widow longing for her lost love, conjures a spell to be reunited.

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1:00pm : Sleep - Little Theater

A spooky and darkly funny love story with ghostly possession.

Young married couple Soo-jin and Hyun-su find their marriage tested when Hyun-su begins sleepwalking and behaving in erratic and increasingly dangerous ways. Unable to sleep, fearful that he’ll harm their newborn baby, Soo-jin desperately searches for a way to trust her husband again. After all, why let a little thing like possession come between you and the one you love

Get In, Get It Out

A mockumentary about three wildly ill-informed priests as they attempt to "save the world, one demon at a time."

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4:15pm : Stopmotion - Little Theater

A squirm-inducing horror of art, creation, and determination.

Overshadowed by her recently deceased mother her whole life, Ella finally has a chance to be herself and make her own masterpiece to show the world who she is.

A strange young girl and a new apartment start her on a terrifying journey of self-discovery, told through a mix of visceral live action and macabre stop motion.

The story of an artist scared she may never be able to shape a creation that is truly her own - and the terrifying lengths she'll go to try anyway. The perfect nightmare mix of Hereditary, May, and Mad God.

Innermost

A stop-motion cyberpunk emotional entanglement, where acquaintances — one with regenerated organs — fight for a mystical lyre.

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7:00pm : Robot Dreams - Little Theater

A bittersweet animated love story about “interspecies” friendship.

Seeking companionship, a lonely dog mail orders himself a robotic best friend. The pair bond on their adventures around a colorful cartoon version of 1980s New York City, but when circumstances force them to separate, will they find a way to be together again?

With stunning hand-drawn animation, a tuneful soundtrack, and no spoken dialogue, Robot Dreams looks at what makes us happy, as we face the world together or separated from those we love.

Smoke and Suds

In a world of illegal soap smuggling carried out by the Rubber Duck Mafia, an innocent duck bumps into a smuggling operation and sees too much.

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9:00-10:00pm  : Closing Night Pizza Party

approx.; directly following Robot Dreams

Location: The Little Theatre (Theatre 1 Lobby)

Our annual tradition! Following our Closing Night Film, stick around for a free, laid-back pizza party celebrating the conclusion of this year's festival! Open to all ticket-holders of Robot Dreams and all Festival Passholders.

Date : November 8, 2023 - November 12, 2023

Location : Various Location

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