Skip to main content

2022 Festival Guide

2022 Films

Film Guide

Film Category

8 FOUND DEAD

Meet the Filmmaker

Travis Greene

Director
Synopsis
Two couples escape for a weekend getaway in the desert, only to find their air b&b is already occupied.
Film Category

AFTERTASTE

Meet the Filmmaker

Christianne Cruz

Synopsis
Following the death of her mysterious grandma, her Amah, a young chef is haunted during her first night of service. In this directorial debut, we explore the world of a chef on her first day of work - and the worst night of her life. She struggles to find peace under the regime of a tyrannical chef, the weight of her immigrant family, an insatiable specter and the pressure to receive a mystical 'gift' from her dying grandmother.
Film Category

ALL YOU CAN EAT

Meet the Filmmaker

Kieran Reed

Director
Synopsis
A young waitress stumbles upon a dark and sinister cabal operating behind the scenes of the fast food diner where she works. She now has the proof she needs to bring this secret to light, but unseen evil forces are unleashed in a bloodthirsty attempt to stop her. NOLA GOMBO loves her job at the diner, but loathes her boss KIP MEATSOCK. The 'day to day' workings of the diner would grind to a halt without her, but there has always been a niggling doubt in the back of her mind that things at the diner are not totally as they appear. Working early one morning, and while attempting to stay out of Kip's way, Nola over hears something that is chillingly disturbing, but also seems to confirm her suspicions that the diner is a front for more nefarious undertakings. Nola, armed now with hard evidence, attempts to convince and gain the help of her close friend and co-worker GURDIP CHUTNEY, but before Nola get to fully explain her concerns a frenzied and grizzly incident causes Gurdip's disappearance.
In desperation Nola goes looking for Gurdip, only to suddenly and viciously have to fight for her life as she becomes the focus of a blood crazed, ghoulish nightmare.
Film Category

Baby Boom

Meet the Filmmaker

Thomas Lunde

Director
Synopsis
The middle-aged alcoholic Runar believe he has scored the perfect date. Things take a strange turn when he realizes he's impregnated with her alien eggs.

Some fun facts: features a Lydia Laska remix by Alap Momin aka Oktopus (Dälek) which will be released as a single together with the film. And it stars Espen Lervaag. The mind behind Maniac which was remaked by Cary Joji Fukunaga for Netflix.
Film Category

BABY FEVER

Meet the Filmmaker

Hannah May Cumming

Director, Co-Writer
Synopsis
A popular teen's dream to be crowned Prom Queen is threatened when she discovers she is pregnant with something even worse than her dumb jock boyfriend's offspring.
Film Category

Bean Feasa

Meet the Filmmaker

Daniel Butler

Writer & Director
Synopsis
The skeptical daughter of a traditional healer has her certainties challenged when she encounters one of 'the Good People'. Bean Feasa is an Irish-language supernatural drama inspired by Donegal folktales and filmed on location in the Donegal Gaeltacht. *Winner of the Comórtas Físín Irish-language pitching award 2021.

Film Category

The Black Zombie Movie

Meet the Filmmaker

Choni Francis

Director
Synopsis
Don is having a perfect day until a determined realtor finds her way to the backyard of his property, looking to stop gentrification by "buying back the neighborhood." Best friend George isn't having the best day with his son. Kenya, Don's sister, suggests therapy to both of them during an unexpected zombie apocalypse All they have to do is survive the day
"It's always good in the hood, just not today."
Film Category

Blood Rites

Meet the Filmmaker

Helena Coan

Director
Synopsis
Three teenage girls with a monstrous hunger begin to unravel in the English Fens.
Film Category

The Blue Drum

Meet the Filmmaker

Angelita Mendoza

Director
Synopsis
A grieving woman is tormented by memories of a mother that abandoned her as a child. The day of her father's funeral, a presence calls for her to discover secrets long hidden.
Watch the full video on the Screamfest YouTube channel by clicking Preview on the image above.
Film Category

Buzzkill

Meet the Filmmaker

Peter Ahern

Director
Synopsis
Tune into the blind date woes of Rick and Becky (who has something in her eye...and her closet).
Film Category

Catch Your Breath

Meet the Filmmaker

Matt Sears

Director
Synopsis
A shy teenager (Andrew) is peer pressured by his older brother (Mike) into playing a game that is said to summon the ghost of the town legend, 'The Lady Beneath'. To disprove his brother and impress a girl at school he reluctantly agrees. The rules of the game are simple, as long as Andrew holds his breath, he is safe from The Lady Beneath. But how long can Andrew hold his breath?
Film Category

CIMIM

Meet the Filmmaker

Cody Mobley

Director
Synopsis
When five friends decided to camp in the middle of the desert in order to escape the trials of everyday life, they never expected the evil they'd encounter. After Mallory returns to the group to find herself sitting at the fire, all hell breaks loose. Now they must find a place to hide in the vast flat desert landscape - or die trying.
Film Category

Cinefilia

Meet the Filmmaker

Matthew Jehle

Director
Synopsis
A hardcore cinefile goes on a killing spree since none of his friends understand his movie references.
Film Category

Code One Eighty Seven

Meet the Filmmaker

Buz Wallick

Director
Synopsis
Two detectives begin a routine investigation of what appears to be a homicide but there are no visible signs of death, the apartment is spotless, and there is a strange portrait of a little girl with bloody words written on it. It doesn't take them long to realize that something else is at the crime scene, lurking in the shadows.
Film Category

Cookies by the Fire

Meet the Filmmaker

Scott Vasey

Synopsis
A desperate teenage girl digs up a dark family secret to ensure she can celebrate a peaceful, merry Christmas, with her mother and brother.
Film Category

Creak

Meet the Filmmaker

David Parker

Director
Synopsis
A man investigates creaking sounds happening in his apartment to discover not everything is as it seems.
Film Category

Crimson Ties

Meet the Filmmaker

Francesca Scorsese

Director, Co-Writer
Synopsis
When a 10 year old girl is forced to spend the weekend with her older sister and her wild friends, she becomes drawn to a pendant hidden in the house, and the night takes a deadly turn for the worse.
Film Category

Cruise

Meet the Filmmaker

Sam Rudykoff

Director
Synopsis
We've all received scam phone calls, but what about the person making the calls? Cruise is a dark workplace satire about a hapless telemarketer trying mightily to give away a free cruise. And if he fails, there will be dire consequences.
Film Category

Darker

Meet the Filmmaker

Frank van den Bogaart

Director
Synopsis
When her father goes missing, young Rhena (Adriana Bakker) enters the woods to seek out a mythological creature believed to collect the stories of dying beings.
Film Category

The Days That (Never) Were

Meet the Filmmaker

Pedro Rivero

Directors
Synopsis
Three characters are about to have the best time of their lives ... until a strange phenomenon appears to interrupt everything.
Film Category

D.O.D.

Meet the Filmmaker

Paul Davis

Director
Synopsis
*WARNING* This ain't your daddy's zombie apocalypse.
Ambitious, startling, brutal, and hilarious, there is no way to brace yourself for the face-melting glory of D.O.D. The world has come apart. Society has collapsed. The dead have risen. As two survivors stumble upon the wreckage of a crashed airliner, they aren't prepared for the astonishing discovery they make. Think Dawn of the Dead meets Dumb and Dumber and you might be halfway there. You have to see this barn-burner to believe it.
Film Category

Daze

Meet the Filmmaker

Shari Petti

Director
Synopsis
Best friends Iris & Beza embark on a dreamy road trip where they reflect on the meaning of life. Things take a sudden turn when reality threatens their whimsical outing.
Film Category

Deer Camp '86

Meet the Filmmaker

L. VanDyke Siboutszen

Synopsis
The year is 1986. Chernobyl has the worst nuclear disaster in history. Mike Tyson becomes the youngest ever heavyweight champion. Hands Across America inspires an awful song, and in Michigan, six knuckleheads from Detroit travel north to partake in the annual tradition of deer hunting. But upon arrival, something horrific has been awakened... In an ironic twist of fate, the hunters have become the hunted.
Film Category

Ditched

Meet the Filmmaker

Sloan Turner

Director
Synopsis
It's 1996 middle-of-nowhere Ohio. In one of the state's many cornfields, a group of neighborhood kids play Ditched-a fast-paced, nocturnal version of hide-and-seek. When it's 12-year-old Cole's turn to be 'ditched' and find his friends, he quickly realizes how cut-off he is from everyone and everything. As the search leads him deeper into the corn he stumbles across a disturbing truth; there's something hostile in the field with them...something not human.
Film Category

Drifter

Meet the Filmmaker

Michael Pizzano

Director
Synopsis
An anonymous Woman lives in a van and works as a plumber, but when a new client sparks her interest, she surrenders to her long-time murderous fantasies, and stalks her potential first victim, only to become hunted herself.
Film Category

Do Not Disturb

Meet the Filmmaker

John Ainslie

Director
Synopsis
Do Not Disturb is a psychedelic exploration of love, lust and carnal desire. It follows Chloe and Jack's honeymoon in Miami where a peyote trip to strengthen their marriage bond forces them to confront their toxic relationship while it awakens a desire to consume human flesh. Love is all consuming in this narcotic nightmare crafted by writer/director John Ainslie.
Film Category

The Domestic (2022)

Meet the Filmmaker

Brad Katzen

Writer/Director/Editor
Synopsis
The Domestic tells the story of an upper-class, happily married couple who hire the daughter of their recently deceased housekeeper as their new helper, only for things to take a dark and macabre turn when she tries to destroy them from within... Exploring themes of tradition versus modernity, African witchcraft and muti, and the extreme class differences in our society, THE DOMESTIC is a tense, disturbing descent into suburban horror.
Film Category

Dreamster

Meet the Filmmaker

Ludvig Gür

Director
Synopsis
An actress is asked to appear on a TV-show where celebrities livestream their dreams to the world. However, when her dream ignites mass controversy, a situation involving life and death follows.
Film Category

The Druid's Hand

Meet the Filmmaker

Mitch Oliver

Director
Synopsis
An ostracized town priest and his acolyte face the ramifications of their dark past. Guilt turns to paranoia as an evil ignites their once peaceful town.
Film Category

Employee of the Month

Meet the Filmmaker

Véronique Jadin

Director
Synopsis
Inès is the mainstay of EcocleanPro, a small wholesale company selling household products. She gives herself body and soul to her boss PATRICK, in the love of a job well done. Although PATRICK is proud of his 1992 Manager of the Year award, the laziness of his employees JEAN-PAUL and JEAN-PIERRE play shoulder to shoulder with the boastfulness of NICO, the tiresome salesman.

Under the blasé gaze of the new trainee MELODY, the marketing phrases of the Benelux manager ANNA NILSSON open up a new mental space for Inès: she is the only one who never gets a raise, even though she works harder than the others. Is it because she is the only woman in this boys' club?
Ines takes her courage in both hands and for the first time insists on being augmented, but Patrick throws her out in two sentences. Ines gets screwed again; her frustration turns to anger. Ingesting Xanax and Viagra won't help. Ines wants her raise and all of EcoClean is going to pay cash for these years of exploitation.
Mélody's internship will finally prove to be very instructive...

"The cast is great, and the ending is pitch-perfect. So get ready to laugh until your sides hurt."  - Bobby LePire- Film Threat

"Jasmina Douieb and Laetitia Mampaka shine with hilarious rapport, making Employee Of The Month a comical, infinitely rewatchable joyride." - Nightmarish Conjurings
Film Category

ERIC

Meet the Filmmaker

David Yorke

Director
Synopsis
Joshua finally gets to meet Eric, the beloved dog of a girl he's been dating. As the evening evolves, Josh begins to get a sneaking suspicion that Eric isn't your typical house pet.
Film Category

EVERYONE WILL BURN (Y Todos Arderán)

Meet the Filmmaker

David Hebrero

Director
Synopsis
In a small village in Leon, Spain, María José (30 COINS and SEXY KILLER’s Macarena Gomez) prepares to end her life after failing to get over the death of her son years before. Everything changes when she receives a visit from Lucía, a strange little girl who might be connected to a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse. With the enigmatic girl by her side, María José faces the corrupt community, triggering strange events and a series of horrific deaths among the local population.
Film Category

Extraneous Matter - Complete Edition

Meet the Filmmaker

Kenichi Ugana

Synopsis
One day, a strange thing comes to her, who is suffering from being sexless with her boyfriend.
Film Category

The Eyes

Meet the Filmmaker

Mike Timm

Director
Synopsis
Nothing goes unseen in this 80s camp creature short where the eyes of karma haunt one man's wrong choices.
Film Category

Fake Plastic Blood

Meet the Filmmaker

Nathan Gallagher

Director
Synopsis
Atop a parking garage in downtown Detroit, Clara asks her drug dealer for the forbidden blue pills - to help her deal with the "fake bitches" at her roommate's party tonight. The drug comes with a warning: she might hallucinate some very disturbing things. On her way to the party, the visions start - and they are exactly what she had been hoping to escape.
Film Category

VRDLK: Family of Vurdulak

Meet the Filmmaker

Sam Chou

Director
Synopsis
VRDLK: (pronounced Vor-Du-Lac) centers around a traveling diplomat that is caught in a snowstorm and forced to take shelter with a poor Serbian family.
When the family warns him of “beasts” that hunt in the night, he is quick to dismiss their fears as superstition and fairy tales - a mistake he may not have a chance to make twice.
Based on acclaimed Russian writer, Aleksey Tolstoy's 1839 gothic novella, "The Family of The Vourdulak"
Film Category

Five Star Review

Meet the Filmmaker

Vivien Vitolo

Synopsis
Jenn arrives in NYC and checks into a home sharing apartment for a two-day stay and is greeted by Alex, her well-reviewed host, who is seemingly pleasant. As the stay unfolds, so does a series of unsettling events that lead Jenn to wonder if they are purely happenstance or is something sinister really going on? Though both women are politely engaged, there is an uncomfortable and arresting tension that surrounds their interactions. Jenn overrides her suspicions, after all, Alex has five star reviews. Five Star Review is a horrifying, psychological story of trust, personal security and the ultimate betrayal. What you don't know CAN hurt you.
Film Category

FOLLOW HER

Meet the Filmmaker

Sylvia Caminer

Synopsis
With arresting visuals and an engrossingly lurid mystery, FOLLOW HER is a nail-biting, seat-squirming, stylish suspense thriller that swept the recent Fantasporto Film Festival, including wins for Best Picture, Best Actress, and the Audience Award as well as Jury Awards for Best Film at Popcorn Frights, Ravenheart and Sinistro. The disturbing but timely female-led psycho-sexual thriller centers on a struggling actress and live streamer who has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she's been hired to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin. Once there, the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This client isn't what he seems, and even though the money's great... the real payment here could cost her life.
Film Category

Followers

Meet the Filmmaker

Felipe Martinez Carbonell

Director and Producer
Synopsis
Gabriela, an unfulfilled psychiatrist, who is tempted by her greed ends up in a psychotic situation that she won't be able to escape.
Film Category

Freebirth

Meet the Filmmaker

Juan Avella

Synopsis
The idealistic, all-natural birth in the woods of a young Latina woman turns into a nightmare
Film Category

The Gift

Meet the Filmmaker

Farbod Ardebili

Director
Synopsis
The Gift is a short science fiction / horror film that explores human nature and how catastrophic events can occur when a climate of distrust is cultivated. It is set in the near future after alien ships appear in the skies above Earth's major cities, throwing the world into chaos. Unable to determine the alien's motivations, the media feeds the planet a steady diet of fear, uncertainty and doubt. But when the alien's true intentions are finally revealed, an unspeakable tragedy unfolds.
Film Category

Give Me An A

Meet the Filmmaker

15 Amazing Directors

Directors
Synopsis
A wild ride of an anthology reacting to the overturning of Roe v Wade through horror, dark comedy and sci-fi. Created by an all female filmmaking team, this 17-segment series focuses on the visceral gut reactions of each filmmaker to expand conversations about women's reproductive rights and the importance of bodily autonomy and also addresses the issues of a democracy that does not protect the needs of the majority of the population.
Film Category

The Goldsmith

Meet the Filmmaker

Vincenzo Ricchiuto

Synopsis
Three young robbers break into an elderly couple's country house to ransack their goldsmith's workshop. They will discover that the two old people are anything but harmless, and they will live the most terrifying experience of their life.
Film Category

GUT INSTINCT

Meet the Filmmaker

Stuart Edgeworth

Director/ Writer
Synopsis
Cold, alone and time is running out...A young woman wakes to find herself waist deep in ice and cuffed in place. She doesn't know how she got there, but she knows she needs to get out. Fast.

Struggling to break free, it becomes clear that the situation she's in is more complicated than first appears, but escape might be just within reach...
Film Category

Hairsucker

Meet the Filmmaker

Michael Jones

Director
Synopsis
At night when you sleep, it comes to eat.
Film Category

The Hangman

Meet the Filmmaker

Cameron Sun

Director
Synopsis
A woman returning home is stalked by a mysterious upside down figure.
Film Category

Heartbeater

Meet the Filmmaker

Rob Himebaugh

Director
Synopsis
A woman realizes she's been catfished by her worst nightmare.
Film Category

It Gets Darker

Meet the Filmmaker

Firas, Daniel Abou Fakher, Habib

Director
Synopsis
Lara has not been herself lately, a fact that everyone around mentions constantly. Little is known about the incident that led to her feeling this way, but when Vanessa, her childhood best friend, pushes her to join in a relaxing weekend in an isolated resort, Lara finally agrees. This idyllic retreat reveals its true intent when Amir arrives, Lara quickly finds out that this is nothing but a trap to silence her against speaking to the police about the incident with Amir, the cause of her recent situation. When a confrontation between Lara and Amir turns deadly, she must find her inner strength and fight her way through the night to make it out alive.
Film Category

The Jogger

Meet the Filmmaker

Daryl Denner

Director
Synopsis
A woman's jog through the park reveals horrors unimagined.
Film Category

The Keys

Meet the Filmmaker

Pann MuruJaiyan

Synopsis
Los Angeles 1949. Rupert, a young real estate agent, to prove his merit, pilfered an estate listing from his office. Upon arriving at the listed residence, he senses something amiss with the tenants of the house. Rupert is forced to consider, has his desperation for success cost him more than he can afford?
Film Category

KillHer

Meet the Filmmaker

Robyn August

Director
Synopsis
Mattie and her three besties--Eddie, Jess, and Rae--head into the woods for a weekend to plan Mattie's upcoming wedding and bachelorette party. Eddie, Mattie's roommate and an unrelenting practical joker, leads them to believe they will be setting up camp near Mattie's hunky fiancé, Jagger, and his friends. They soon realize the tent they've snuggled up next to belongs to a mysterious recluse named Mr. Rogers, rather than Jagger, and this is definitely his neighborhood! With zero cell reception and only a literal pot to piss in, their weekend camping trip is beginning to look like a bad idea. But it only gets worse when people start to die and a terrible secret is revealed. All these girls wanted was a killer pre-bachelorette party... and that's exactly what they got.
Film Category

Kin

Meet the Filmmaker

Sarah Gross

Director
Synopsis
Two sisters must fight off an unshakeable curse to survive in the desolate prairies of the 1800's
Film Category

La Nueva

Meet the Filmmaker

Ivan Villamel

Director
Synopsis
Maria is the new teacher who arrives at an old religious school. On her first day, she will have to teach a group of rebellious teens who are part of a punishment class. An unexpected event will turn the classroom into a real hell. Not knowing the lesson can cost you your life.
Film Category

The Last Christmas

Meet the Filmmaker

Ryan Port

Writer / Director
Synopsis
A mischievous 8-year-old girl unleashes a twisted Christmas nightmare, when her plans to capture Santa Claus go horribly wrong.
Film Category

The Leech

Meet the Filmmaker

Eric Pennycoff

Synopsis
A devout priest welcomes a struggling couple into his house at Christmas time. What begins as a simple act of kindness quickly becomes the ultimate test of faith once the sanctity of his home is jeopardized.
Film Category

Legs

Meet the Filmmaker

Celine Cotran

Director
Synopsis
Joy and Harry are trying to have a baby. One night, Joy swallows a spider in her sleep. When Joy subsequently develops an insatiable appetite for flies, it dawns on her that there may be more than one way of becoming a mother.
Film Category

Leopard Heels

Meet the Filmmaker

Chris Turner

Director
Synopsis
A job interview turns sinister when misogyny and malice constrict around Renée Hart. Is it a career opening, or the venomous jaws of a trap?
Film Category

The Lion and the Firebird

Meet the Filmmaker

Danie Byers

Director
Synopsis
RISING FIRE, an early human, flees with her daughter, pursued by a violent warband -- the LION MEN. When she is inadvertently saved by one of the last NEANDERTHALS, the two struggle to communicate and find trust. But when the Lion Men return, they become the key to one another's survival - and the future of humanity.
Film Category

Living With Chucky

Meet the Filmmaker

Kyra Gardner

Director
Synopsis
A filmmaker who grew up alongside Chucky the killer doll seeks out the other families surrounding the Child's Play films as they recount their experiences working on the ongoing franchise and what it means to be a part of the, "Chucky" family.
Film Category

The Loneliest Boy In The World

Meet the Filmmaker

Martin Owen

Synopsis
'The Loneliest Boy in the World' is a modern fairytale - with zombies. A satire and a celebration of family values, of the imagery of horror films, of suburban life, of the American Dream and of the ultimate taboo; death.
Film Category

Los Pies Fríos (Cold Feet)

Meet the Filmmaker

Samantha López Speranza

Director
Synopsis
Once upon a time there was a father and a girl who lived happily together. It could be a fairytale story, but it is not: the girl is going to die and her father will do whatever it takes for saving her. Including killing someone else.
Film Category

The Lost Boys (1987)

Meet the Filmmaker

Joel Schumacher

Director
Synopsis
Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire! When newly-divorced Lucy (Dianne Wiest) moves her sons to her father's house in Santa Carla, California—"the murder capital of the world"—her teenage son, Michael (Jason Patric), quickly falls in with the town's bad kids: a bike-riding, Jim Morrison-worshipping gang of blood-sucking vampires. Her younger son Sam (Corey Haim) and his buddies, the Frog brothers, are the only ones who recognize the signs of vampirism in Michael, and they plot to battle the legions of the night before they take over the entire town. Co-starring Barnard Hughes, Ed Herrmann, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz and Corey Feldman
Film Category

MAD HEIDI

Meet the Filmmaker

Johannes Hartmann & Sandro Klopfstein

Director & Co-Director
Synopsis
In a dystopian Switzerland that has fallen under the fascist rule of an evil cheese tyrant (Casper Van Dien), Heidi (Alice Lucy) lives the pure and simple life in the Swiss Alps. Grandfather Alpöhi (David Schofield) does his best to protect Heidi, but her yearning for freedom soon gets her into trouble with the dictator’s henchmen. The innocent girl transforms herself into a kick-ass female fighting force who sets out to liberate the country from the insane cheese fascists.

MAD HEIDI is an action-adventure exploitation spoof based on the popular children‘s book character Heidi and the very first Swissploitation film.
Film Category

Mama Retreat

Meet the Filmmaker

Eileen Álvarez

Synopsis
A weary mother-to-be attends an all-inclusive glamping retreat in the mountains, only to have her greatest fears about motherhood realized.
Watch the full video on the Screamfest YouTube channel by clicking Preview on the image above.
Film Category

Matriarch

Meet the Filmmaker

Ben Steiner

Synopsis
After an overdose nearly takes her life, Laura Birch (Jemima Rooper, The Girlfriend Experience, Flowers in the Attic: The Origin) escapes from the high-stakes pressure of the advertising world to return to her roots. Accepting an invitation home from her estranged mother (Kate Dickie, Game of Thrones, The Green Knight), Laura hopes the time away in the secluded English village will help calm the demons raging inside of her. She soon discovers that the locals of the town are all protecting an unspeakably dark secret"”a secret that involves not only her mother but her own terrifying destiny as well. Matriarch is from writer/director Ben Steiner and is a thematic successor to Steiner's 2018 20th Digital short Urn. The film also stars Sarah Paul, Franc Ashman, and Keith David Bartlett.
Film Category

Mean Spirited

Meet the Filmmaker

Jeff Ryan

Director
Synopsis
A failed vlogger buries the hatchet with an old friend who's possessed by a demon.
Film Category

Melchior The Apothecary

Meet the Filmmaker

Elmo Nüganen

Director
Synopsis
In medieval Tallinn, the famous knight of the Order who freed the Baltic Sea from pirates is murdered. The hero's head is chopped off and his mouth is stuffed with coins. The gold chain he bought the same day is missing. The Sheriff orders Melchior the Apothecary, who can talk to the dead, to investigate the crime. The clever young man discovers that the murdered knight was looking for a mysterious "Prisoner of Tallinn" and clues lead to the Dominican monastery. A terrible series of crimes is unleashed -anyone who comes into contact with this secret is in danger. At the same time, the apothecary has doubts about his apprentice, who seems to be hiding something...

The feature film Melchior the Apothecary is based on a popular novel known from the top of book sales charts. Screenwriters Indrek Hargla, Elmo Nüganen and Olle Mirme intertwined the characters and events known from the book "Apothecary Melchior and the Mystery of St Olaf's Church" with completely new and exciting twists and turns created for the film.
Film Category

Motion At Your Door

Meet the Filmmaker

Jared Rivet

Writer-Director
Synopsis
One year ago, a mother and child died in the apartment downstairs. If the neighbors hadn't ignored their cries, they might still be alive. Tonight, something stirs in the apartment downstairs...and this time, its cries won't be ignored.
Film Category

Naked Zombie Girl is Back

Meet the Filmmaker

Rickey Bird

Writer and Director
Synopsis
Barbara is naked. Armed with only a chainsaw, she must survive the zombie apocalypse.
Film Category

Next Exit

Meet the Filmmaker

Mali Elfman

Writer/Director
Synopsis
NEXT EXIT follows a research scientist (Karen Gillan) who makes national news proving she can track people into the afterlife - Rose (Katie Parker) sees a way out and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) sees his chance to finally make it. These two strangers, both harboring dark secrets, race to join the doctor's contentious study and leave this life behind. While Rose is haunted by a ghostly presence that she can't outrun, Teddy is forced to confront his past. As these two misfits humorously quarrel their way across the country, they meet people along the way who force them to reckon with what is really driving them. The film also stars Tongayi Chirisa, Tim Griffin, Diva Zappa, and Nico Evers-Swindell.
Film Category

The Night Nurse

Meet the Filmmaker

Tim Delaney

Director
Synopsis
Lonely wheelchair-bound Tallulah's sad nursing home Christmas turns deadly when a vampire comes to feed, preying on the blood of the elderly... and Tallulah's darkest fears.
Film Category

Night Shift

Meet the Filmmaker

Ali Mostafa

Director
Synopsis
On one fateful night, an ambulance worker embarks on his night shift, driving across the city. He happens upon a vampire, and upon realizing what he is, it is up to the human to save the lives of those that the vampire seeks to kill.
Film Category

Number 7

Meet the Filmmaker

Severin Eskeland

Director
Synopsis
A woman wakes up in the woods all alone. After a while moving carefully through the thick forest, she trips and falls. When she turns around she looks into the eyes of a dead person, What is her number?
Film Category

Pruitt & Igoe

Meet the Filmmaker

Rachael Daniels

Writer/Director
Synopsis
I like to describe "Pruitt & Igoe", as “Boyz N Da Hood” meets “Halloween”. The film’s central question is simple, what would happen if your typical slasher villain skipped over the suburbs and infiltrated one of the most dangerous streets in America? The residents of the fictionalized neighborhood, "Pruitt & Igoe", -named after the infamous St Louis Housing Projects of the 1950s- are no strangers to violence, so if you come to their hood, you better come correct. Shot directly on location in North St. Louis’s Walnut Park East neighborhood, Pruitt & Igoe looks to make its mark as a unique entry into the slasher genre.

Watch the full video on the Screamfest YouTube channel by clicking Preview on the image above.
Film Category

Old Time Radio

Meet the Filmmaker

Joel Harlow

Director
Synopsis
Intended as the introduction to a horror anthology. Riktus Grim, decaying away in a wretched squalor, awaits his only solace: a new tale from his Old Time Radio (voiced by Paul Giamatti). What wretchedly delightful tale will his host present to him this evening? As Riktus's lobotomized servant, Vincent, bumbles in... the Host speaks! It's time to prepare for a new terror!
Film Category

Old Time Radio-Your Move

Meet the Filmmaker

Joel Harlow

Director
Synopsis
We find ourselves back in the macabre world of Old Time Radio. Riktus Grim and his half-brother, Edward Mise, have once again managed to climb their way out of their graves and make their way up to the ancestral home for a simple game of chess. What could go wrong...?
Film Category

The Once and Future Smash & End Zone 2

Meet the Filmmaker

Sophia Cacciola

Director

Michael J. Epstein

Director
Synopsis
In 1970, Mikey & William both portrayed football cannibal Smash-Mouth in the influential cult hit, End Zone 2. Now, 50 years later, only one can wear the mask.
Playing with:
End Zone 2
Fifteen years after the events of End Zone, Smash-Mouth is back to finish off the cheerleaders who killed his mother.
North American Premiere
Runtime: 1h 1min
Country: United States
Directed by August Kane
Produced by Tex Beckerson, Jacques Renault
Written by L. Ray Hobbson
Main Cast: Percy Wynne, Bernadette Ryan, Dahlia Dimont, Patricia Ford, Melody Riviera, Mikey Smash, Randall Browning
Film Category

Otherkin

Meet the Filmmaker

Dawson Taylor

Director
Synopsis
A woman ventures to meet her biological parents, only to find they dress and act like foxes, and are dead set on her rejoining the family.
Film Category

PG 13

Meet the Filmmaker

Tiffani Holland

Director
Synopsis
In the 1990's four teenagers with latent superpowers band together one night to stop a serial killer stalking kids in their community just like them.
Film Category

The Powers that Be

Meet the Filmmaker

Gina Yull

Director
Synopsis
A young politician discovers a horrible truth about all the events in the world that change the course of humanity.
Film Category

The Ratcatcher's Daughter

Meet the Filmmaker

Jim Bryson

Director
Synopsis
In the bitterly cold streets of Petrograd, the daughter of an infamous Ratcatcher flirts with a revolutionist and is thrust into a nail-biting, journey into the dark, mysterious forgotten underworld.
Based on a tragic love story by Alexander Grin, 'The RatCatcher's Daughter' paints a grim tale of 1920's post war Russia, plagued by poverty, addiction and the threat of revolution.
Film Category

The Recipe

Meet the Filmmaker

Cameron Dexter

Synopsis
A housewife in the 1970's procures all the ingredients for a deadly dish that liberates her from not only her marriage, but reality itself.
Film Category

The Revelation (De openbaring)

Meet the Filmmaker

Chris W. Mitchell

Synopsis
At the start of the corona pandemic unemployed Jacob moves in with his elderly mother and falls under the spell of an internet conspiracy theorist. As his sister Magda looks on helplessly, Jacob becomes convinced that COVID-19 the beginning of the Apocalyps. A great sacrifice has to be made.
Film Category

Ride or Die

Meet the Filmmaker

Minsun Park

Director
Synopsis
Three teens are on a road trip when a dangerous man with a strange affliction jumps into their car. The story he tells them is hard to believe...
Film Category

RINGWORMS

Meet the Filmmaker

Will Lee

Director
Synopsis
After discovering her boyfriend's plan to propose on their weekend vacation, a young girl undergoes a crisis of commitment which attracts the attention of a sinister local cult.
Film Category

Robyn Hood

Meet the Filmmaker

Janeen "NEEN." Talbott

Director
Synopsis
A sultry succubus steals the belongings of an unsuspecting man to quench her insatiable thirst for his soul.
Film Category

Role Play

Meet the Filmmaker

Bill Neil

Director
Synopsis
A one night stand goes horribly wrong
Film Category

The Rotting of Casey Culpepper

Meet the Filmmaker

Daniel Slottje

Director
Synopsis
A girl battling leukemia and her single father fall into a well of paranoia when the girl experiences visions of a tumor-covered creature.
Film Category

Run Sweetheart Run

Meet the Filmmaker

Shana Feste

Synopsis
After what begins as dinner with a client, a single mom (Ella Balinska) finds herself hunted by a monstrous and seemingly unstoppable assailant (Pilou Asbæk) in this terrifying dark thriller.
Film Category

Sad Sally

Meet the Filmmaker

Doug Purdy

Director
Synopsis
Finding your soulmate in the internet dating world can be terrifying. Sally and Mason's date starts off like any other: wine, small talk, and a few laughs. However, when the heat turns up, things don't go exactly as planned.
Film Category

The Seance

Meet the Filmmaker

Jensen Rule Tierra

Director
Synopsis
Following the death of his husband in a freak accident, skeptical Alex (Andy Ur) is convinced by his friend Jason (Jared Boghosian) to visit with a mysterious psychic medium, Madame Sharma (Sapna Gandhi).
Madame Sharma conducts a seance and conjures the spirit of the dead husband, The spirit takes over her body and long buried secrets are revealed in this hilarious and spooky supernatural screwball melodrama.
Film Category

Seeing Diane Arbus

Meet the Filmmaker

Lindsay Zibach

Writer, Director, Producer
Synopsis
A movie theater projectionist with dwarfism has a fateful, frightening reunion with the famously voyeuristic photographer, Diane Arbus.
Film Category

Shaky Shivers

Meet the Filmmaker

Sung Kang

Synopsis
Two young women find themselves at an abandoned camp in the woods with a book of magical spells surrounded by classic monsters in this comedic send up of '80s horror films.
Film Category

Shut

Meet the Filmmaker

Niels Bourgonje

Writer/Director
Synopsis
When Jonas visits his father after a long time, he's shocked to find him in a confused state. Has his father's mental state badly deteriorated or is something more sinister going on?
Film Category

Slasher Squad

Meet the Filmmaker

Nathan Stone

Director
Synopsis
Amber's quiet night at home is interrupted by a chilling news report: A killer is on the loose in the area! Unsettled, she checks the locks and scans the outside. There's not a soul in sight. Perhaps a shower to clear the head... But Amber isn't alone and she's about to be put to the test. A deadly test she may not survive.
Film Category

Slayers

Meet the Filmmaker

K. Asher Levin

Synopsis
Kick-ass vampire slayer, Elliot Jones (Thomas Jane), made it his life's mission to take revenge on the bloodsuckers who murdered his teenage daughter. After years of tracking them, he has finally reached their secret and hidden base. But to get to them he will need to use a motley crew of social media superstars. Enter "˜The Stream Team': party-girl Jules (Abigail Breslin), gen-z pro-gamer Flynn (Kara Hayward) and their team of trend-makers and breakers! With a hundred million-plus combined followers, they have attracted the attention of reclusive billionaire Beverly Rektor (Malin Akerman), who invites them to party at her multimillion-dollar vacation compound. They soon discover these rich people are none other than the ancient vampires that Elliot Jones is chasing. When the team is being held captive in a house of horrors to serve the vampires plan to take over the world, Elliott is their only hope of survival. As he links up with Flynn, a slayer in her own right, will he take down the vampire hoard and save The Stream Team?
Film Category

Smiley Face

Meet the Filmmaker

François Ricard-Sheard

Director
Synopsis
Three young women experience the nightmare of being devoured by a humanoid creature.
Film Category

Something in the Garden

Meet the Filmmaker

Marcos Sánchez

Director
Synopsis
It's nighttime in the suburbs and the stillness is interrupted by a strange presence, a creeping being that lurks in the dark
Film Category

Song for the Pale

Meet the Filmmaker

Ryan Valdez

Director
Synopsis
Hannah runs a popular podcast titled "Attached". She collects haunted items from her listeners to then do extensive research and create episodes explaining its origins and backstory. Until one day, Hannah receives an unmarked item from a listener, that ends up leaving her speechless.
Film Category

Soul Casket

Meet the Filmmaker

Ethan Hunt

Director
Synopsis
A teenager's camping trip turns to horror as the unnerving discovery of an ornate box that has the ability to completely contain a human soul leads him to experience perplexing, unimaginable occurrences.
Film Category

The Sound

Meet the Filmmaker

Jason-Christopher Mayer

Director/Writer/Producer/Editor/Composer
Synopsis
Two years after a woman experiences sudden hearing loss, strange things begin to happen.
Film Category

South

Meet the Filmmaker

Carl Shanahan

Director
Synopsis
In the frozen expanse of the South, a weary scavenger discovers someone in need of aid.
Film Category

STATIC

Meet the Filmmaker

Tom W. Metz III

Synopsis
Trapped in his strangely unnatural house, time and reality blur for Max as he desperately unravels the mystery of his missing family.
Film Category

Sucker

Meet the Filmmaker

Alix Austin

Director
Synopsis
In a twisted story of co-dependence, two sisters are pitted against each other by a giant, abhorrent leech creature that uses its mind-controlling influence to puppeteer them from the inside out.
--
Sam discovers her sister Caitlin has been infested by a monstrous leech creature, that is slowly sucking her life force dry. Caitlin is reluctant to accept help and the sisters quarrel over how to deal with the parasite. Meanwhile, Sam struggles against the creature's hostile, telepathic takeover, only to find that she herself has become a host...
Film Category

SWALLOWED

Meet the Filmmaker

Carter Smith

Synopsis
After a drug run goes bad - two childhood friends must survive one horrific night in a backwoods hell of drugs, bugs and obscene intimacy in this body horror nightmare.
Written and directed by Carter Smith (THE RUINS), SWALLOWED stars Jena Malone, Cooper Koch, Jose Colon and queer horror legend Mark Patton.
Film Category

Sylvie Made It

Meet the Filmmaker

Adrien Orville

Director
Synopsis
In hell, labor is inexpensive, and the multinationals of the living world have found a profitable way to subcontract unpleasant tasks. Séverine, dead for 30 years, works in the customer service department of a large e-commerce company with the hypothetical promise of going to heaven if she works hard. Her only daily pleasure is to follow her son's orders as they are placed and to see him grow up through the purchases he makes. One day, her son dies in his turn but leaves for heaven. The contact is lost. Séverine will do everything she can to skip the steps in a company dehumanized by its hierarchy and get her ticket to heaven.
Film Category

Take 5!

Meet the Filmmaker

Joshua Sonny Harris

Director, Writer
Synopsis
A boy-band memorializes their dearly departed frontman. How else, but with a song.
Film Category

TESLA

Meet the Filmmaker

Edward Robles

Director
Synopsis
Late to work, a man unwittingly installs a dangerous software update in his car.
Film Category

Tistlebu

Meet the Filmmaker

Simon Valentine

Director
Synopsis
As a young urban couple volunteers at a remote farm in an attempt to get closer to nature, they are given the task of caring for a strange mushroom-like growth looming in the barn. Both develop relationships with this primordial power, threatening the integrity of their relationship, and their lives.
Film Category

Under the Ice

Meet the Filmmaker

Alvaro Rodriguez Areny

Director & Writer
Synopsis
After losing his father in an accident, Edur wakes up in the middle of a nightmare. A presence will haunt him with his worst memories.
Film Category

The Understudy

Meet the Filmmaker

Elizabeth Crummett

Director
Synopsis
An aspiring actress has an audition at a prestigious downtown theatre, but underestimates the sacrifice she needs to make to get the role.
Film Category

UNHEIMLICH

Meet the Filmmaker

Fabio Colonna

Director
Synopsis
During a rainy night, a girl wakes up after a nightmare. She will discover that things are not as normal as the house has become a surreal maze, with a sinister creature waiting in the shadows.
Film Category

THE WAKE

Meet the Filmmaker

Luis Gerard

Director
Synopsis
A restless 15-year-old has spent his life surrounded by death, raised in his parents' funeral business in a small town. Viewing his alcoholic father as profiting from the dead, our hero does him one better leading to some unexpected consequences.
Film Category

Wallpaper Man

Meet the Filmmaker

Amit Gupta

Director
Synopsis
Based on the popular short story, "The Wallpaper Man". A young girl, Emma moves into a new home with her abusive father after the tragic death of her mother. There, living within the walls is a creature who offers Emma the ultimate deal: he will take away her pain, in exchange for human life.
Film Category

Watchful Eye

Meet the Filmmaker

Kris Cummins

Writer/Director
Synopsis
A mother and daughter face a night of terror when a strange man hacks into their home CCTV.
Film Category

Witchy

Meet the Filmmaker

Liz Manashil

Writer/Director
Synopsis
A broken-hearted teenager learns an important lesson about fidelity and family from an immersive Halloween experience that may or may not be organized by an actual witch.
Film Category

Whaley House

Meet the Filmmaker

Julianna Robinson

Synopsis
Whaley is inspired by the Whaley House, the most haunted house in America. Thomas Whaley, Sr. had knowingly built on cursed ground, the family home haunted by the ghosts of all who'd been executed there. During the editing of the footage of this short story, the crew discovered a mysterious figure. During one lone take, our camera passed the old courtroom. At one of the benches was a figure whose silhouette you can see. Watch the end credits to see the footage.
This short was made by possible by a grant from the California Arts Council. Alumni from Screamfest wrote, directed and produced this short film.
Film Category

When the Time Comes

Meet the Filmmaker

Jondaniel Cornett

Director
Synopsis
A grieving husband chooses to fulfill his wife's dying wish by leaving the safety of his home and venturing into an apocalyptic landscape in search of a cherished memento.
Film Category

WHO GOES THERE

Meet the Filmmaker

MATT FACKRELL

Writer/Director/Producer/Editor
Synopsis
Things go from bad to worse after a woman attempts to dispose the body of person she may or may not have murdered.
Articles

News & Videos

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed eiusmod tempor incididunt.