2023 Buried Alive Festival Results

The Plaza in Atlanta proudly hosted the unveiling of the 2023 Buried Alive Horror Film Festival Award winners. This prestigious ceremony, took place in September 2023, and it was celebrated by a diverse array of talented submissions. This year’s awards encapsulated the spirit of horror and creativity.

Here are the winners, all of whom were chosen through a meticulous selection process. Every nominee was worthy, but these winners took home the honors, marking their success in the the 16th Annual Buried Alive Festival’s history.

A hearty congratulations to all the 2023 winners and nominees! Start sharing your support and enthusiasm using the hashtags
#BuriedAliveFest, #HorrorUnleashed, #BAFF2023, #PlazaPremieres.

Let the world know about these cinematic terrors that have captivated Atlanta!

I’ll Crush Y’ll

I’ll Crush Y’all, feature film directed by Kike Narcea

Fat Fleshy Fingers

FAT FLESHY FINGERS is a feature-length anthology film entirely by alumni of the BizaroLand Film Festival. The movie will have its world premiere in January 2023 at Film Maudit 2.0, taking place online and at Highways in Santa Monica.

Violet Butterfield Makeup Artist for The Dead

Warped Witch Cinema presents Violet Butterfield: Makeup Artist for the Dead Shot on 16mm film Written, produced, directed, and edited by: Brooke H. Cellars Produced by: Madeleine Yawn Director of Photography: Levi Porter Starring: Michelle Malentina, Martini Bear, Trevor Chapman, and Wicken Taylor “Violet Butterfield” weaves a captivating narrative centered around a unique protagonist—an enigmatic mortician beautician who goes beyond the ordinary realms of her profession. Set in the eerie yet alluring atmosphere of her mortuary, the story follows Violet as she anticipates a calm and uneventful evening. However, her expectations are quickly shattered when a new client enters her macabre domain. What unfolds is a revelation that challenges conventional notions of existence and self-expression. As Violet engages with her visitor, she unveils a profound truth—some individuals believe that their truest and most authentic life can only be lived posthumously. Through its darkly groovy aesthetic and unconventional premise, “Violet Butterfield” delves into the complexities of personal identity, the pursuit of self-actualization, and the transformative power of embracing one’s true nature. It invites viewers to question societal norms and reflect on the boundaries of living an authentic life, even in the face of mortality. The film’s inspiration derives from a variety of favorites like Death Becomes Her, Bride of Frankenstein, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Reanimator, Blow Up, Peeping Tom, Female Trouble, Hairspray, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

The Face of Oblivion

The Face Of Oblivion is an homage to the creative ground zeroes of the original surrealist movement, drawing direct conceptual inspiration less from the theorists of the movement than the filmmakers and authors who were brought into it from how they already put the movement’s ideologies into action despite having no familiarity with it. Figures like Luis Bunuel and Georges Bataille along with elements of the Japanese psychological ’erotic grotesque nonsense’ mysteries of Edogawa Ranpo and Yumeno Kyūsaku that uncannily paralleled it along with elements of absurdism. While some branches attempt to harshly differentiate the movements from their coexisting scenes, the fact is that they’re all more or less branches of the same underlining zeitgeist. These movements all came from a place of political motivation, with surrealism specifically being an extreme poetic form of political action. The Face Of Oblivion is meant to be an abstract form of political action in that same way, which is why I want people to go into it with no preexisting expectations. It’s enough of a direct drawing from the ambiguities of the subconscious that its effects are unique to each viewer. All reactions have currently been positive, but the balance between absurdist humor and unsettling horror varies from person to person.

Lunch

Lunch has been an evolving project for about four years now, and its journey from concept to screen has been tremendously rewarding, and being my directorial debut, an extraordinary learning experience. This film started in the mind of a 20-year-old deeply insecure within herself and the art—or lack thereof—that she was creating, weeks post-psychiatric hospital stay. People with mental illnesses in horror can often be used as gimmicks or instigators of violence which in turn creates real-life fear of those who are mentally ill, and for this film, I wanted to flip that narrative. My protagonist, Girl, is suffering through this internal battle that, although stems from herself, is sometimes ultimately out of her control. I wanted to show the grueling, vicious, violent, and occasionally torturous internal battle that those with mental illness struggle with. Often folks with mental illness are just trying to survive, just trying to make sure the ones around them don’t hurt the way they do, and that’s what inspired a lot of this film.

2023 Buried Alive Photo Gallery