Nightmares Film Festival Is Back This October!
Ohio’s can’t-miss annual indie horror celebration, Nightmares Film Festival, returns to Gateway Film Center in Columbus for another four-day run from October 26 to October 29. This year’s must-see lineup includes 17 features, over 150 short films, and screenwriting categories that boast over 20 finalists.
This year’s program once again offers up a wide assortment of films showcasing new and beloved genre voices around the world. Highlights include the boundary-smashing queer coming-of-age midnighter The People’s Joker, notoriously pulled from TIFF; the world premiere for Zac Locke’s (#Float) psychological Christmas horror Santa Isn’t Real; the U.S. premiere of Stewart Sparke’s (Book of Monsters) wild creature-filled horror comedy How to Kill Monsters; the nightmare-fueled descent into anthropomorphic puppet madness that is Abruptio, and—in a big treat for fans of Shudder’s The Last Drive-In—a horror comedy anthology called Cryptids that features none other than Joe Bob Briggs himself as its host!
If that weren’t enough, there are also over a dozen themed blocks of short horror films, including Hairy Situations (an hour of werewolf shorts), Slay Ride (holiday horror!), and the alumni-centric Recurring Nightmares. The annual Social Progress Through Horror and The New Distribution panels will also be returning.
Not enough? NFF co-founders Jason Tostevin and Chris Hamel agree. They said,
“NFF has become known just as much for the camaraderie and welcoming community it creates as for our extraordinary genre lineup. This year, we wanted to build on those connections by bringing our audience together for fun, unique experiences that let them celebrate horror and one another.”
The Friday night live experience will be Nightmare Trivia, created exclusively for Nightmares and composed of horror-themed songs and movie clips. On Saturday the fest welcomes horror host Aurora Gorealis for the Shocktail Hour Halloween Mixtape, with lost horror video segments and Aurora’s Tournament of Terror game show. And Sunday’s live experience is a hands-on workshop on pitching your film to press with New York Times horror reviewer Erik Piepenburg.
All Nightmares Film Festival live experiences are free to badge holders. A limited set of VIP badges is now available for purchase through Gateway Film Center’s website while they last. Tickets for individual screenings will also be available beginning Friday, Oct. 13.
The complete Nightmares Film Festival 2023 schedule (subject to minor changes) and list of selected films and finalist screenplays are available here. If you plan on making the pilgrimage this year, be it a return or your first time, feel free to seek me out, as I’ll be there for the duration of the festival. I hope to see you there!
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