Chain Reactions

Melbourne-based film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ engagement at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival firmly establishes her as the queen of horror genre commentators. MIFF 2025 is premiering of Canadian filmmaker Donna Davies’ 1000 Women in Horror, inspired by Heller-Nicholas’s eponymous book. Heller-Nicholas wrote the documentary and is one of its principal interview subjects. Additionally, Heller-Nicholas appears alongside horror luminaries Stephen King, Patton Oswalt, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike and American director Karyn Kusama in Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chain Reactions. Programmed at MIFF 2025, the documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the 1974 American horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.