If you type muff.com.au into your web browser, you may be disappointed to discover that you’ll be taken to the web site for the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. But rest assured you’ll find something a little off-kilter, a bit perverse, and if you really try you may even come across something a touch titillating.

The eighth annual MUFF takes place over 10 days, beginning Thursday the 20th of September and runs until Sunday the 30th. The event is scheduled over a number of venues throughout the city, with Glitch, The Toff In Town, and Loop carrying the majority of screenings.

You’ll find the weird and wonderful underground fare that isn’t crowd-pleasing or big-named enough for Melbourne’s film festival of legitimate repute. The films are local and international; and through the programming, festival director Richard Wolstencroft hopes to express the idea of Benevolent Psychopathology. And Why not?

There is of course a much more political bent to this kind of festival, but aside from the both-sides-of-the-political-spectrum-are-capitalist-pigs-and-we-need-to-re-think-our-whole-idea-of-society-in-this-election-year philosophy, there are just some great films there to see that won’t be getting a cinema release anytime soon. You won’t find a film with the title Love Runs Faster Than Blood (5pm Wed 26th Sep at Loop) at your local Hoyts this summer.

Opening night kicks off at 7pm on Thursday the 20th at the Toff in Town (252 Swanston St), where three films will be shown. A Nocturne (by Bill Mousoulis, 70 mins), The MUFFumentary (by Steve Jennings, 30 mins – preview) and Bugrush (by Carter Smith, 36 mins) kick things off in true MUFF vampiric, slightly self-indulgent style.

Some of the highlights include stalking crocodile thriller Black Water (9pm Sat 29th Sep at Erwin Rado Theatre), The Subject, where a woman is kidnapped off the street to have medical experiments performed on her (6pm Mon 24th Sep at Loop), and Demonseed, a 1977 sci-fi horror starring Julie Christie (7pm Tues 25th Sep at Rooftop Cinema).

There are also plenty of shorts being screened and I’ll be doing my damnedest to get to the David Lynch program (9pm Tues 25th Sep at Revolver). It’s a pretty packed program and most films are only showing once. So grab a program, or head to muff.com.au to check out which films will make you question the reality you chosen to accept.