Huge congratulations to all of our Screamfest 2026 Screenplay Finalists! Meet the talented writers below, and check back to find out who takes home the grand prize.
2005 Festival Film Guide
Film Category
2001 Maniacs
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Travelers who take a wrong turn wind up becoming the planned main course for the hungry residents of Pleasant Valley
Film Category
Antebody
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A body is recovered from the Los Angeles River , wearing nothing but a plastic bag over its head. It is identified by fingerprints as Martin David Ambro. Despite all the evidence, one disturbing fact prevents Lois Ambro from accepting the terrible news about the murder of her husband.
Film Category
Art of the Devil
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A mysterious and weird murder of a millionaire's entire family grips the attention of the general public. Not a clue is uncovered; not a person can be figured as the killer. The mysterious and gruesome killings baffle everyone. A crime reporter goes to investigate the murders. His probe leads to a beautiful and delicate lady. How can he convince the others that she is the master of the occult, someone who is skilled in The Art of the Devil!
Film Category
The Boarder
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Charlie Parker is an ordinary 12-year-old, but he knows when something sinister walks in the front door. His father away at war, Charlie's mother takes in boarders to make ends meet. But all Charlie wants is to learn the new boarder's secret and he'll do anything to find out, even if it means risking his own soul.
Film Category
Boo
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Some hospitals don't have a 13th floor. Santa Mira Hospital shouldn't have had a third. It's something a group of five college students discover when they enter an abandoned hospital on Halloween night only to discover that rumors about the place being haunted are very real. Running into other people who are trapped in the hospital, they uncover the truth about a vengeful spirit who is hell bent on making sure no one, except himself, gets out alive.
Film Category
Brasil (Brazil)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A blue production line worker finds out that his wife is unfaithful to him. The day before the split, his devious revenge starts...
Film Category
Breakfast At Barbies
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A night of heavy drinking for Rubix Smith results in an extended stay at the remote farmhouse of Barbie of the Moors - a giant, lovelorn madwoman. This is the story of the most horrific one-night stand in British bachelor history.
Film Category
Brumes (Mist)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Four urban youngsters are underway to remodel an old, abandoned country house. As they arrive on location, the group gets enveloped in an opaque and pale mist. There, hiding in the fog, stands the incarnation of their most primary fear, the Ankou, a boogie man from ancient Britanny. Its goal: fill its carriage from hell with the bodies and souls of its victims.
Film Category
Bushinsaba (Ouija Board)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A high school girl moves from Seoul to a remote village. She leads a terrible life at her new school because of constant harassment and bullying by classmates. In a desperate bid to escape the traumatizing experience and get back at the school bullies, she chants "Bunshinsaba," an incantation that is supposed to facilitate communication with a spirit. Over the next couple of days, her tormentors mysteriously begin to die. Due to the mysterious deaths, the entire village is gripped by horror and hysteria. But the elders of the village are hiding a dirty secret.
Film Category
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In Holstenwall , Germany , it is time once again for the town's annual fair. It is a beautiful day and two friends decide to enjoy the festivities. They attend the hypnotist Dr. Caligari's sensational exhibition a clairvoyant sleepwalker who can tell the future. But when one of the friends asks to have his fortune told, the prophecy is too terrifying to imagine! Death comes to Holstenwall, and the only way to stop it is by discovering the secret of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Film Category
Cookers
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Two young outlaw drug addicts steal a van-load of chemicals used to cook crystal-meth . On the run, the couple breaks into a rural farmhouse intent on cooking a batch of grade-A speed . But, strange and terrifying things start to happen at the house and they don't know if they're hallucinating from all the speed or if it's real!
Film Category
Cruel World
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Nine contestants are excited about the prospect of winning a million dollars on the hottest new reality show. At first it looks like it is going to be a blast, but things get dark very quickly. The contestants soon learn that a scorned reality TV show runner up has trapped them, and getting voted off will cost them their lives.
Film Category
Cry For Help
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A malcontent teen, an addled hippie throwback, beef jerky & circumcision: the inside story of the Rapture.
Film Category
Curandero
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Be the first to see the new feature film debut from Director Eduardo Rodriguez....a Screamfest 2003 alumni! CURANDERO was written by and executive produced by Robert Rodriguez! You don't want to miss this amazing Spanish film. (Shown with subtitles)
Film Category
Dead West
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In the Old West, a woman has just been thrown from her horse. Injured and disoriented, she wanders into a deserted town where she passes out from exhaustion. She awakens to find herself among a small group of people. They soon realize that they aren't alone and that this is no ordinary town. When the sun goes down they must confront a dark force that has the power to conjure the ghosts of their sinful pasts.
Film Category
Death Tunnel
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An upscale college initiation strands five girls in Waverly Hills Sanatorium, one of the scariest places on earth. Within five floors of this diseased hospital, haunted by five ghosts of it's tortured past, the girls, one by one become infected of its tragic history. A 500-foot underground body chute, built to remove the dead bodies of its patients reveals the real terror as the only way out is through the Death Tunnel.
Film Category
Delirium and the Dollman
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When a young girl crawls through a small vent under her bed, she finds herself lost in another world, a world ruled by the Dollman, a perverse man who turns children into dolls.
Film Category
Three Extremes
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An Asian cross-cultural trilogy of Horror films from accomplished indie directors.
Film Category
Facility 4
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Due to an accident in a bioweapons bunker, two Soviet Soldiers are met with the very weapons their government has engineered. The two must escape, before their entire facility is locked down, encasing them forever underground.
Film Category
Friday the 13th (25th Anniversary)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Relive the original terror and suspense in this classic 24-hour nightmare of blood. Camp Crystal Lake has been closed for over 20 years due to some vicious and unsolved murders. The camp's new owner and several young counselors are readying the camp for re-opening despite warnings of a "death curse" by local residents. The curse proves true on Friday the 13th as one by one each of the counselors is stalked by a violent killer.
Film Category
Happy End
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young writer moves into an old apartment complex because of a writing block. While searching for the right story for his new novel, he comes upon the remains of the previous tenant and suddenly the apartment seems to develop an uncanny life of its own. He digs deeper and uncovers the path of a well kept secret which robs him of his sleep and almost drives him towards insanity.
Film Category
The Intruder
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When Zoe, captive in her home and terrorised by a stalker, receives an unexpected visitor, she learns that when you're trapped in the past, you have no future ...
Film Category
Jeremy's Wake Up Call
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young student realizes skipping school is a bad idea when he and his friends are murdered with a writing utensil.
Film Category
Land of the Dead
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
The world has been overrun by zombies and some remaining survivors have barricaded themselves inside a walled city to keep out the living dead. As the wealthy hide out in skyscrapers and chaos rules the streets, the rest of the survivors must find a way to stop the evolving zombies from breaking into the city.
Film Category
Legion: THe Word Made Flesh
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A man of the cloth who has lost his faith tries to help an anguished mother free her daughter from an ancient demonic curse, but they are lost in an occult underground where nothing is as it seems... where no one can be trusted.
Film Category
Little Dead Girl
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A dead girl attempts to travel from the grave to a rock concert, befriending strange creatures along the way.
Film Category
Penny Dreadful
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An upstart couple come face to face with the supernatural after inheriting a beautiful townhouse in New York City 's West Village District. Does the house hold a terrible secret?
Film Category
Photomateurs (Photograbber)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Set in 1952 France , this is a tale about a unique camera that captures reality. When the photos rebel against the photographer (a charming, henpecked toymaker) a battle begins. Who will win? The photos or the photographer?
Film Category
Rats: A Sin City Yarn
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An emaciated war criminal lives in filth as Death comes knocking on his door.
Film Category
Reeker
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When a lonely highway is inexplicably closed, five students sharing a ride to a party in the desert find themselves trapped at a recently deserted travel oasis. Refusing to let the new circumstances interfere with their fun, they settle in only to be interrupted by odd, haunting visions of severely mutilated travelers. They are soon preyed upon by a decaying creature and as the body count rises, the bizarre mystery deepens.
Film Category
The Resurrectionist
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
The Deep South , 1847. A lowly grave digger struggles to provide for his family. At the urging of his wife, he steals a recently buried corpse to sell to the local medical college for anatomy study. Setting off in his horse-drawn wagon on a journey through the dark woods, he quickly realizes the dead man has other plans. Terrorized by supernatural happenings, he is at the mercy of an angry ghost at it reveals its chilling story.
Film Category
Save Virgil
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
"Save Virgil," a short film by Brad Ableson ("The Simpsons"), combines live-action and animation to tell the perverse story of Virgil (voiced by Adam Carolla), a cartoon character who is mysteriously born into the real world. Shunned by his classmates, nomadic biker father, and porn-star mother (Ginger Lynn), Virgil hitchhikes to Hollywood in search of his soul mate, Viking Girl, a voluptuous TV cartoon action-heroine he believes to exist. Along the way, Virgil deals with monkeys, motorcycles, marijuana, and learns from Gary Coleman the tragic price of fame.
Film Category
Severed
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A multi-national forestry company engages in genetic experimentation to increase logging yield in a remote section of forest. But the experimentation goes disastrously wrong, transforming a disparate group of loggers and environmental activists into the "infected" -- ravenous, zombie-like creatures who prey upon the few terrified survivors while they attempt to understand and control the disaster.
Film Category
Sigaw (Echo)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young man named Marvin moves into a unit of an old apartment building. Except for the occasional noise from an apartment down the hall, the place is almost perfect. The noise turns out to be an abusive husband who frequently beats his wife in front of their young daughter. Marvin musters up enough courage to find out more about the quarrelling couple, but he uncovers a secret that sets into motion a series of hauntings that follow Marvin and his girlfriend around. Marvin and his girlfriend must now confront the evil in the apartment building, or be forever haunted by its secret.
Film Category
Staring At The Sun
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When a fortune teller refuses to reveal her vision of a man's future, he becomes so obsessed with knowing the answer that he unwittingly fulfills his fate.
Film Category
Stephen King's: The Road Virus Heads North
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After purchasing a macabre painting at a local estate sale, a retired horror novelist suffers nightmarish consequences when he learns of the painting's mysterious origin.
Film Category
Still Life
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
London , 1940. A Crime Scene Photographer for Scotland Yard becomes obsessed with the gruesome remains of the crime scenes he photographs when he discover that his pictures reveal ghostly markings.
Film Category
Timothy
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A boy who's dreading a trip to the dentist encounters a furry creature with a sweet tooth. He quickly finds himself in a situation much worse than your average checkup
Film Category
Undisclosed
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After settling in to their new home, the happy existence of a young couple quickly begins to unravel. Jealousy, mistrust, and the deeds of a manipulative real estate agent eventually lead to a mysterious murder.
Film Category
Wolf Creek
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Three backpackers travel into the Australian Outback only to find themselves stranded at Wolf Creek crater. Once there, they are encountered by a bushman, Mick Taylor, who offers them a ride back to his place. Little do the three know that their adventure into the Outback would be a complete nightmare after the backpackers find a way to escape. Be the first to see this gem that Dimension grabbed for $3,000,000 before its Sundance screening in 2005.
It's intense!!!
It's intense!!!
Film Category
Zombie Movie
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
New Zealand 1986. The zombie apocalypse is here and three mates are stranded. The trusty Holden is out of gas. With only fast food scraps and a few cigarettes for sustenance, surviving each other may prove harder than facing the undead outside!
We couldn’t be prouder to celebrate the theatrical release of APPOFENIACS, hitting theatres nationwide tomorrow, October 2nd! Following its standout West Coast Premiere at Screamfest 2025, writer-director-producer Chris Marrs Piliero’s darkly comic techno-thriller is officially making its big-screen debut. Get tickets at AMC
Prepare for a night of horror and celebration! The 26th Annual Screamfest kicks off with the highly anticipated film, NIGHT DRIVER, screening on Opening Night at 7:30pm.
Discover the official 2026 Screamfest Horror Film Festival lineup, schedule, and event details. Read the full press release to get the latest updates on terrifying indie films, special screenings, and tickets.
Join Screamfest for a special 15th-anniversary Fears & Beers screening of The Cabin in the Woods under the stars at McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga on Sept 12, 2026! Enjoy an exclusive Q&A with actor Fran Kranz, grab a bite from Sarah's SammichesSaladsSides food truck (available for purchase), and sip on complimentary Golden Road Brewery beer for ticketed guests 21+. Plus, stick around after the screening for horror trivia!
Celebrate 25 years of Thirteen Ghosts on the big screen! Join Screamfest LA at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Glendale on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, for dinner, drinks, and sheer terror. Grab tickets now!
