Thursdays and Fridays at Nightmares Film Festival always each have their own distinct personalities. This is largely due to the fact that attendees are still arriving all throughout Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. Everyone is still getting into the festival groove again, whether they’ve attended others earlier in the year or haven’t been to one since last year’s edition of NFF.
Saturdays and Sundays, however, often sort of blur together. This is not a bad thing. Far from it. By the time things kick off on Saturday, everyone has slid back into the festival flow and it rolls right on through Sunday evening. Both days conjoined, shunting-style, into a joyous behemoth packed to the brim with feature screenings, short blocks, special interactive events, an awards ceremony, and copious amounts of food, drink, and conversation. Whether attendees are in a screening, hanging out in the festival lounge or the secret speakeasy, or venturing out of Gateway Film Center to find sustenance, the community is booming. It’s a special thing to both behold and participate in.
Saturdays are for Vampires And Wild Midnight Screenings
My own Saturday kicked off with a writers’ workshop spearheaded by filmmaker/author/podcaster/all-around-amazing-person Hope Madden (Obstacle Corpse, Killer Pictures). The subject was cross-platform writing and it was a deeply informative session. If you’re curious, you can check out a recorded version of it via Hope’s podcast, Fright Club!
What then followed was an interactive presentation of maverick filmmaker Jason Trost‘s new chose-your-own-adventure genre opus, Afar. The audience present for this event voted on the choices to make, as Trost himself selected them based upon their unanimous choices. It was an absolute blast of an experience and one that can actually be replicated at home with friends if you pick up Afar, which is now available. Seek it out! And if you’re feeling extra froggy, Trost also has novel and Steam game versions of Afar out there as well.
Next up was a screening of urban vampire thriller Landlord. Hailing from writer/director Remington Smith, this was one of my favorite films of the festival. Fans of classics such as Fright Night, Salem’s Lot, and The Monster Squad—among many others—will find a lot to enjoy here. If you’re a monster kid, this is the film for you, so keep an eye open (and some holy water ready) for when it arrives for all to see in the coming months.
For the third block of the day, I opted for an alien-themed shorts block and it did not disappoint. The entire block was great, with The Last Story on Earth and Blindsided standing out in particular for this writer. After that block followed the festival’s annual awards ceremony. The winners are listed below, but to paraphrase the festival’s overall view on awards, everyone’s a winner. That might sound like a platitude, but it really isn’t.
Anyone who imagined a story in their mind and actually wrote it is already a winner. Anyone who managed to take that script and film it is already a winner. Anyone who took the film that they made and decided to share it with the world is already a winner. And anyone who sat down to watch those films (or read those scripts)—whether they themselves are a filmmaker or not—is also a winner. Taking home an actual award after all of that is just a cherry atop it all.
Saturday night closed out for me with a screening of Pig Hill, the latest film from Willy’s Wonderland director Kevin Lewis. A backwater abduction/murder tale centered around a folklore tale about dangerous pig people, Pig Hill is a big new slice o’ grindhouse filmmaking that is sure to please many a Dread reader. It’s my understanding that it does not yet have distribution, but I can’t picture that remaining the case for much longer. It will undoubtedly see release sometime in the coming year and it’s sure to make its mark when it arrives.
There was an additional midnight block on Saturday night that I did not participate it. One that included a screening of Todd Rohal‘s X-rated adaptation of Johnny Ryan‘s infamous graphic novel, Fuck My Son!. I was bummed to miss out on it, as it’s a film that will reportedly never see a streaming or digital release and may well only ever be viewable at rare theatrical screenings around the globe. Speaking with some who did stay for this cinematic slice of sleaze, let’s just say it left an impression.
One particular attendee proclaimed that he wished he didn’t have eyes after watching it. Take from that what you will. Rohal will be roadshowing the movie around the US for at least the next year, so if the above sounds intriguing, you might want to keep an eye on listings in your local region to see if it ever passes you by. Remember though: you have been warned!
And with that, here are Nightmare Film Festival X’s Night Mare award winners (aka a big list of movies for your ever-growing watchlist):
Overall Feature
Pig Hill
Film From Hell
Afar
Esprit de Gore
Brooklyn Ewing
Horror Feature
If It Bleeds
Thriller Feature
Landlord
Horror Comedy Feature
The Mother, the Menacer, and Me
Midnight Feature
We Put the World to Sleep
Ohio Film
You Have Her Eyes
Lead Performance (Feature)
Suziey Block
Supporting Performance (Feature)
Duru Yucel
Cinematography (Feature)
The Red Mask
Writing (Feature)
The Curse
Directing (Feature)
Blood Barn
Overall Short
The Sequence
Horror Short
Sicko
Thriller Short
Up Close
Horror Comedy Short
As Pale As Death
Midnight Short
Murderbird
Recurring Nightmare Short
She Felt Like Murder!
Lead Performance (Short)
Claire Mack
Supporting Performance (Short)
Ali Appelbaum
Cinematography (Short)
The Necromancer
Writing (Short)
Trad
Director (Short)
Deep Cut
Short Screenplay
Baby Gate
Feature Screenplay
The New Yorker
Congratulations from the Dread Central team to all winners, as well as to all of the nominees!
An Epic Final Day
Sunday brought forth screenings of a less grassroots nature, outside of a big Ohio films block. Still, the options were just as intriguing: Shelby Oaks, Tinsman Road, V/H/S/Halloween, Queens of the Dead, and Interaction. I unfortunately missed out on V/H/S and Queens of the Dead, so I’ll have to catch them at a later date. Shelby Oaks is, of course, the debut feature from YouTube superstar Chris Stuckmann. It’s hitting theaters wide this weekend, so you’ll all soon be able to judge it for yourselves, but I really dug it.
Tinsman Road is the latest from The Outwaters director Robbie Banfitch. It is a found footage thriller that feels like it fell out of a portal from the later 2000s. While that particular subgenre isn’t really my forte, especially from that era, this one is sure to find an audience with found footage lovers.
Dallas Richard Hallam‘s Interaction was another stunner for me. It’s a thriller that follows a maid whose hobby is leaving recording devices in the homes of her clients and then constantly listening to their private interactions as she retrieves her devices after each session. Tonally, it feels a bit like someone threw Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and John McNaughton’s Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer into a blender. It won’t be for everyone, but those that key into its vibe will be over-the-moon for it. I can’t think of a better final film for me to close the festival out on.
That’s a wrap on a full decade of Nightmares Film Festival. I can confidently state that NFF has only gotten better with age, each year being even more enjoyable and vital than the previous one. As someone who has been attending the fest since the very beginning, I can only hope that I am still attending it another 10 years from now. In the meantime, I eagerly await whatever glorious madness that Nightmares Film Festival 2026 might hold…
Categorized: Editorials News
