Nightmares Film Festival 2024 Day One: Soul Eaters And Short Films Galore
Like an awe-inspiring Great Old One rising from the sea, Nightmares Film Festival has once again returned to the hallowed halls of Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio. And just like one of its sleepless man-fish monster children, I, too, have returned to an event that has been my horror-loving home away from home for almost a decade.
The festivities kicked off Thursday night with dueling screenings, forcing attendees to choose between the Midwest premiere of Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury’s excellent new serial killer thriller The Soul Eater and a curated block of horror shorts. The rest of the night’s offerings included Zac Locke’s new thriller Decibel and Benjamin Wong’s Faustian directorial debut, Ba. The shorts showings in the next screen over complimented these showings with themed blocks for horror comedies and wild midnight fare.
Dueling screenings are a Nightmares staple and the choice between what to see and what to skip is never one to take lightly. While the temptation to see a brand new feature before most others runs high, features tend to get wide distribution eventually, be it in theaters or on VOD. Shorts have a harder go of it outside of the festival circuit, with many living quieter lives on YouTube or Vimeo once their tour is over.
Also Read: Nightmares Film Festival 2024 Exhumes Its First Wave
At the end of the day, there’s no wrong choice, because the features and the shorts are equally wonderful. The features give attendees an early look at what next year’s indie horror film landscape will look like. The short blocks gift viewers with the cinematic equivalent of a moody concept album tailored to different corners of the genre (i.e. horror, thriller, horror comedy, midnight movie, etc.). Either way, you can’t go wrong!
Beyond the screenings themselves, the welcoming atmosphere of Gateway Film Center remains a constant. The staff are incredibly helpful and friendly. The drinks—of all varieties—are top-notch, as are the snacks. The festival lounge delivers loads of room for conversation between screenings and the hidden speakeasy is a cozy place to kick back and relax…while still chatting nonstop about film, television, sports, life, and wherever else the discussion takes you.
It feels less like a movie theater and more like college common are aimed at cinephiles. One that just happens to house eight screens showing off not only Nightmares Film Festival this weekend, but also restorations of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Vertigo, as well as screenings of Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3, Parker Finn’s Smile 2, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, Guy Maddin’s Rumours, and Ant Timpson’s Bookworm. So even if you sneak away from the festival to support GFC’s other programming, your options remain phenomenal.
Friday will offer up a 50th anniversary 4K screening of Larry Cohen’s monster baby classic It’s Alive, a rare theatrical screening 1911’s L’Inferno, and new features Daughter of the Sun, Solvent, and The Waves of Madness. On top of that, there will be 5 themed blocks of short films and an early peek at Joe Swanberg’s next film, Kenneled. All in all, it looks like another banner day.
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