The 9th MidWest WeirdFest, set to take place from March 6-9, 2025, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has unveiled its first wave of seven feature films. Films include Anywhere, Beyond Bizarre: The Life and Art of John Willie, Cocaine Stepdad, The Sasqualogist, Straight on Till Morning, Tim Travers & The Time Travelers Paradox, and Traumnovelle.
The festival founder and programming director, Dean Bertram commented, “We’re just two months out from the year’s weirdest film festival and everyone at MidWest WeirdFest is excited to share our first wave of feature programming for 2025. From films about monster hunters and mavericks of erotica, through twisting neo-noir thrillers and blood-drenched horror romances, to dark adult comedies about time-traveling madmen and substance-abusing step-parents, there’s a bevy of delights for any cinephile who revels in the bizarre.”
List of the First Seven Feature Films
ANYWHERE (dir. Adam Seidel)
A roughneck commits a hasty and brutal crime after discovering his scumbag brother is planning to run off with his cheating wife, completely upending the only life he’s ever known—a taut, twisting, and character-driven neo-noir thriller, reminiscent of early classics from the Cohen Brothers.
BEYOND BIZARRE: THE LIFE AND ART OF JOHN WILLIE (dir: Charlotte Grondin & Guillaume Pin)
A captivating examination of John Wille’s tumultuous life, from the Edwardian era to underground New York. Champion of sexual freedom through his magazine BIZARRE, and a brilliant draughtsman, photographer, and editor; Willie left his mark on fetish iconography and on the history of erotic and bondage comics with Sweet Gwendoline. For the first time, a documentary recounts the life and work of this passionate artist.
COCAINE STEPDAD (dir: Cody LaRue, Dylan Grady )
On the run from the law, former stepdad Terry Miller (Cody LaRue ) must travel across the state with his estranged 12-year-old stepson Kyle Kulansky (played hilariously by bearded adult actor and co-director Dylan Grady), to stop his ex-wife from re-marrying. Crude, crass, shocking, and jaw-achingly hilarious, Cocaine Stepdad is THE underground comedy film of the year!
THE SASQUALOGIST (dir. Joseph Granda)
In the Colorado Rockies, a researcher and his young protégé track a Sasquatch, uncovering the emotional depth of their adventure and the influence of fatherhood. A unique and rollicking film, loaded with heart, and Bigfoot references. It’s sure to delight anyone with even a passing interest in cryptozoology.
STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (dir. Craig Ouellette )
Two dreamers, small-town musician Dani, and waitress Kaitlin, start falling for each other on a spontaneous road trip. The future is bright — until they cross paths with a twisted family, led by matriarch Lilly (Maria Olsen, Paranormal Activity 3, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief), with something much, much darker in mind. A unique blend of romance and horror, filled with nail-biting tension and highlighted with original songs sung by Dani, Straight on Till Morning weaves the beautiful and terrible things people do for love into an unforgettable, edge-of-your-seat journey into darkness.
TIM TRAVERS & THE TIME TRAVELERS PARADOX (dir. Stimson Snead)
It is called the Time Travelers Paradox. In which a scientist creates a Time Machine and kills their younger self. So now a man who should not exist somehow does. That is the Paradox, and Paradoxes are impossible. And the man who has created it is Tim Travers: a reclusive, mad scientist. In the course of his adventure, Travers will take on the mercenary gang whose stolen plutonium powers his machine, challenge a conspiracy podcaster to a battle of wits, create a black hole, meet the one woman alive crazier than him, clone himself, destroy the universe, make a new one, and maybe – just maybe – learn to love himself at last.
TRAUMNOVELLE (dir. Florian Frerichs)
A potent adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novel of the same title (the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut). Equal parts erotic and disturbing, a woman tells her husband that she has fantasies with about other men, triggering a desire for his sexual adventures. Set in modern, kinky Berlin, the film is much more than a mere reboot of Kubrick’s last film.
