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.
2025 Festival Film Guide
Film Category
Affection
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Ellie wakes to a living nightmare – she is suffering from horrifying and erratic memory resets, leaving her unable to remember her husband or child. Haunted with vivid memories of a life she supposedly never lived, Ellie is determined to get to the truth, no matter how gruesome the real tale may be. A gripping horror sci-fi starring scream queen Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day).
Film Category
Appofeniacs
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Enthralled with exploiting our instinct to believe what we see and hear, Duke (Aaron Holliday) sows havoc with a callous disregard of consequences as he goes on a frenzy of reckless deepfake creations for little reason beyond the fact that he can. Things quickly spiral into bloody chaos and Duke just doesn’t give a shit.
Film Category
The Baby
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A pregnant woman's obsession with motherhood spirals when she becomes fixated on another mother and her young son.
Film Category
Beautify
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a world obsessed with appearances, a young woman struggles to reshape herself to fit society’s impossible standards of beauty. As she alters and adjusts her reflection, she loses sight of who she truly is. Beautify is a visually striking animated short that explores the pressures of perfection, the fragility of identity, and the courage it takes to embrace one’s authentic self.
Film Category
Before the Fall (Tres Dias)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A giant meteorite is about to collide with Earth. The planet is gripped by despair and chaos. The inhabitants of Laguna listen to the news in terror. Ale, a frustrated young man who lives with his mother, decides to spend his last days shut away, getting drunk and listening to his favourite music. But his plans change when he is forced to help his mother to protect his brother's four children when Lucio, an ambiguous, disturbing stranger appears.
Film Category
The Betta Fish
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After a boy goes missing in a peaceful yet superstitious fishing village, a teenager begins to experience haunting visions, forcing him to question his sanity.
Film Category
Big Baby
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
"A nightmare involving a maniac killer in a baby mask serves as inspiration for horror writer Adam Lewis's new script. As more nightmares, visions and real life terror begin to challenge Adam's sanity, he finds himself in a desperate struggle to control his writing, his reality, and who will be Big Baby's next victim."
Film Category
Birth of a fire
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Romane and Marcus, childhood friends, are hiking in the German Palatinate forest. As Romane catches her breath, she spots a shadow in the distance, hidden behind the trees, watching her.
Film Category
Blossom Needs A Ride Home
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After defeating a bloodthirsty maniac, Blossom needs a ride home. What a hassle.
Film Category
BOT OR NOT
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a world where reality dating TV and AI collide, a brilliant young coder competes on BOT OR NOT! A groundbreaking show where contestants date both a human and a hyper-realistic AI. What starts as an exciting experiment soon becomes a tense game of trust and deception. As reality blurs, she must navigate a dangerous system where nothing and no one is quite what they seem.
Film Category
The Cauldron
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In 1918, during the Spanish flu pandemic, a young boy must protect his family from an unknown threat in their remote, isolated home. As fear closes in, he must confront not only the dangers outside but also the darkness within himself, facing his trauma and the shadow it casts in order to break free from the cycle of violence and become the man he is meant to be.
Film Category
Chopper
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In this modern-day reimagining of the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow, a troubled young bartender and her outlaw biker friends start seeing ghosts after taking a strange new drug with supernatural side effects at Daytona Bike Week. She is stalked by a headless ghost on a motorcycle who collects the souls of sinners in the afterlife.
Film Category
Clifton Park
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Mari loves The Ambassadors. The aspiring actress, and college undergrad, has seen every single one of their experimental theater productions in NYC, and now she has been chosen to travel to upstate New York with the famed theater troupe to work on their new play about a real-life sex cult.
When the group announces that they will be building this new show by staying in character all weekend, Mari salivates at the opportunity to show off her commitment to her craft. But when the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred in a deadly way, Mari must choose between giving over to the dangerously unconventional methods of The Ambassadors or escaping with her own life.
CLIFTON PARK is a short psychological horror that highlights the parallels between coercive communities and auteur directors while exploring the lengths that one will go to for their art.
When the group announces that they will be building this new show by staying in character all weekend, Mari salivates at the opportunity to show off her commitment to her craft. But when the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred in a deadly way, Mari must choose between giving over to the dangerously unconventional methods of The Ambassadors or escaping with her own life.
CLIFTON PARK is a short psychological horror that highlights the parallels between coercive communities and auteur directors while exploring the lengths that one will go to for their art.
Film Category
CognAitive
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In this Sci-fi thriller/horror commenting on the ever-growing concern of AI taking our jobs, a group of co-workers stay late at the office in preparation for the launch of their smarter, faster, more cognitive version of chat GPT; they quickly come to realize that the AI they've created has its own sinister agenda. In this bloody battle of the smartest, each of these genius' will have to outsmart "COGN-AI-TIVE" in order to survive.
Film Category
Cosmic Crash
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When an otherworldly being crashes near a lab, chaos is unleashed.
Film Category
Damned If You Do
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A group of friends who sold their souls to the devil years ago must reunite before their 25th high school reunion to try and escape Hell's grasp before the contract's deadline expires.
Film Category
Dance with the reaper
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Sofia, the most wanted criminal in the state, cannot avoid meeting her own fate after a manhunt. In this face-to-face encounter with Death, a dance begins, driven by love at first sight. But Death has a job to do: to reap Sofia's soul. It is at this moment that Death must make a crucial decision.
Film Category
Daughter (La Fille)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a remote Belgian town, Bernard struggles to provide for his daughter, Marie, whose survival depends on a sinister secret. As winter tightens its grip, he finds himself torn between his duty as a father and the weight of his own conscience. When a wandering poet crosses his path, Bernard sees a glimpse of the man he once was—but also an opportunity. As the night unfolds, so does a harrowing tale of sacrifice, guilt, and the terrifying lengths we go to for the ones we love.
Film Category
Dead by Dawn
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A group of actors invited to rehearse a new play in the mysterious theater of the Heissenhoff family, a well-known artistic dynasty with rumored ties to the occult. Soon, what should have been an ordinary rehearsal spirals into a desperate game of survival as a masked killer begins to stalk them. Unbeknownst to the cast, everything-the theater, the play, and the murders-is part of a dark, elaborate ritual.
Film Category
DEATHGASM 2: GOREMAGEDDON
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In this sequel to the 2015 cult splatter-metal classic, Brodie is washed-up, broke, and stuck in small-town purgatory. But when he learns that 'NoizeQuest', a battle-of-the-bands competition is coming to his town, he sees a shot at redemption - and maybe even a second chance with Medina. One problem: his drummer is missing an arm, and the rest of his band is, well... dead. Luckily, Brodie still has the pages of The Black Hymn, so raising his bandmates from the great beyond is just a riff away. But with every chord comes blood, guts, and the kind of apocalyptic chaos only DEATHGASM can unleash.
Film Category
The Devil Whispered My Name
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A decade after a tragic ancestral ritual claimed the life of her best friend, a young woman returns to her hometown in the mountains of Córdoba—only to discover that the evil forces she thought she'd left behind are still haunting her.
Film Category
The Devil's Flea
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A doctor arrives in a remote Mayan community to investigate a strange plague affecting its inhabitants. However, her scientific quest turns into a nightmare when she discovers that the cause of the illness is not natural, but a mythical creature known as 'The Devil's Flea.
Film Category
Devil's Prism
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Shown entirely from Gabi's perspective, the film follows a thief who joins her friends for a routine heist which finds her in an unsettling encounter with a mysterious object that unleashes a dark entity who possesses her.
Film Category
DIY
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
DIY follows Alex, a young woman
grieving the death of a beloved pet, as she decides to hang a new frame on her apartment wall. But
when she drills into the plaster… blood spills from the resulting hole?!
Bewildered, she runs next door, only to discover a strange man dead on the floor beside a bag full of
cash. Their common wall has been torn open, the hiding place for the loot. Then, right as Alex finds
neighbor Jerry ties and gagged in the bedroom, someone else steps through the front door: Gus, a
hitman running late for his first job with a new crew. When Gus mistakes Alex for ‘Sam’, the bagman he’s
meant to meet and is miffed she’s already ‘done his job for him’, Alex realizes her only hope of survival is
to play along…
grieving the death of a beloved pet, as she decides to hang a new frame on her apartment wall. But
when she drills into the plaster… blood spills from the resulting hole?!
Bewildered, she runs next door, only to discover a strange man dead on the floor beside a bag full of
cash. Their common wall has been torn open, the hiding place for the loot. Then, right as Alex finds
neighbor Jerry ties and gagged in the bedroom, someone else steps through the front door: Gus, a
hitman running late for his first job with a new crew. When Gus mistakes Alex for ‘Sam’, the bagman he’s
meant to meet and is miffed she’s already ‘done his job for him’, Alex realizes her only hope of survival is
to play along…
Film Category
Do No Harm
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When Moira, an off-duty nurse, is brutally attacked on her narrowboat by a hospital patient, the confrontation suggests a sinister history that binds them.
Film Category
THE DOLLMAKER
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a small rural town, a charming dollmaker becomes an unlikely suspect when a new detective investigates the disappearance of several women.
Film Category
Dolores
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Dolores is a 7-year-old girl who just wants to play, runs away from a fire demon and accidentally falls into a grave. There she meets two sinister corn husk skulls who want Dolores to stay with them and a curious armadillo who tries to get her out at all costs.
Animation / Animation: Pablo BEDOLLA, Nabí OROZCO, Dámaris CERVANTES
Animation / Animation: Pablo BEDOLLA, Nabí OROZCO, Dámaris CERVANTES
Film Category
Don't Be Afraid
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A ghost story about a depressed photographer making a comeback with newly taken photos at the location where his son once disappeared. At the exhibition, visitors discover that someone is actually standing in the background of the photos.
Film Category
Don’t Leave the Kids Alone / No Dejes a los Niños Solos
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A claustrophobic and psychological horror film about two competitive siblings alone in their new house. Newly widowed Cata attends a party, leaving her two young sons, Mati and Emi, alone at their new house. As the brothers attempt to find their games console their rivalry raises its head.
Film Category
Donor
Synopsis
After volunteering to be the egg donor for her now-pregnant friend, a woman grows to regret her choice in the aftermath of her own miscarriage—and considers taking back the only baby she has left.
Film Category
Dooba Dooba
Synopsis
Shot entirely on in-home security camera and drawing on elements of analog horror popularized on YouTube, Dooba Dooba follows Amna as she arrives for what she assumes will be a typical babysitting gig. She realizes she’s very mistaken when she learns that Monroe, the girl she’s babysitting, is not only sixteen, but suffers from severe anxiety after having watched her brother get murdered when she was a child. Monroe’s behavior becomes increasingly unbearable until Amna questions whether she wants to stay, not realizing she has no choice.
Film Category
Drink Up
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When Carter, a man celebrating three years of sobriety, loses his job, he’s lured into a mysterious bar offering free drinks in exchange for his recovery chip. But what begins as one drink turns into a nightmarish spiral through time, addiction, and guilt—until he realizes the true cost of trying to drown his demons.
Film Category
Empty Jars
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A lonely landlord falls in love with a charismatic spirit and helps him find a new body so he can feel again.
Film Category
Fisher Cat
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A third date camping trip goes awry when a couple hears screams in the woods.
Film Category
A Fisherman's Tale
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Legend says that years ago, nature thrived in harmony around the lake and its islands until evil arrived. Men, blinded by dark desires, brought fear, hate, and death. The fishermen call it 'La Miringua', the one that drags and drowns you in the lake for your sins.
Film Category
FLESH & BLOOD
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After a little girl loses the ability to speak, a determined Psychologist breaks into a secluded church to treat the mute child against her fathers wishes, but as she begins to unearth the source of her trauma, something much more terrifying rises to the surface ...and into the room.
Film Category
Franken Struck
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A reckless hand, a lethal play, a love so pure now ripped away. Forged hot from
rage and shocking light, the Creature’s love must set things right.
rage and shocking light, the Creature’s love must set things right.
Film Category
Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave!
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Frankenscience and religious ideology reanimate a cohort of recently deceased fetishists to create the perfectly subservient woman only to unleash hell on the patriarchy.
Film Category
Glasgow
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Cleo has amnesia. It’s Saturday and she has to balance between preparing her romantic getaway with Gaetan and the endless video calls with her obnoxious boss. When the stress become unbearable, the fragments of a buried trauma will give this day a sense of « déjà-vu ».
Film Category
The Gnawer of Rocks (Mangittatuarjuk)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Two young women out for a walk follow a trail of coloured stones left on the ground, which leads them to danger. They are trapped in the lair of the Mangittatuarjuk, the Gnawer of Rocks. The women are terrified when they realize what the monster has been doing. The young women and their village must use the teachings of the elders to defeat the monster.
Film Category
Good Luck
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Ke-Fang takes her daughter back to her late mother’s former residence to sort things out, only to discover that her daughter keeps receiving strange "elder-graphics" from the deceased grandmother. These messages trigger a series of mysterious symptoms. Upon investigation, Ke-Fang learns that her mother had also received similar "elder-graphics" before her bizarre death — and they may be connected. As the images keep coming, her daughter's health continues to deteriorate. Now, Ke-Fang must find a way to break the curse before it’s too late.
Film Category
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A hauntingly modern twist on the classic film, 20th Century Studios’ “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” will premiere October 22, exclusively on Hulu. In the psychological thriller from director Michelle Garza Cervera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as an upscale suburban mom who brings a new nanny (Maika Monroe) into her home, only to discover she is not the person she claims to be.
“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” which also stars Raúl Castillo, Martin Starr, Mileiah Vega, Riki Lindhome, and Shannon Cochran, is written by Micah Bloomberg based on a screenplay by Amanda Silver. The producers are Michael Schaefer, Mike LaRocca, and Ted Field, and the executive producers are Michael Napoliello, Maria Frisk, and Seth William Meier.
“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” which also stars Raúl Castillo, Martin Starr, Mileiah Vega, Riki Lindhome, and Shannon Cochran, is written by Micah Bloomberg based on a screenplay by Amanda Silver. The producers are Michael Schaefer, Mike LaRocca, and Ted Field, and the executive producers are Michael Napoliello, Maria Frisk, and Seth William Meier.
Film Category
Hellevator
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Two couples applying for their marriage licenses at city hall find themselves trapped in the liminal hellscape of THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR where they face trials and tribulations from demon bureaucrats that threaten the foundations of their relationships... and their lives.
Film Category
Hide
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
The story centers around Levi, a handyman for a wealthy family in the Hollywood Hills, who faces poverty, lives paycheck to paycheck, and occasionally sleeps in his car. One night when he believes the family is out of town, he decides to sneak into the property and take some money from the safe. He figures they'll never know and he'll replace it down the road. Unfortunately for him, he soon realizes the house may not be as empty as he thought when the sound of someone groaning in pain seeps out from the darkness of one of the rooms. He follows the sound and finds a young man he's never seen before. He's slumped in a wheelchair, seemingly drugged, and has chunks of his flesh cut out. Before he can try to help the guy, the family suddenly comes home. Levi hides just as they bring in several guests for what seems to be a pre scheduled dinner party. Levi soon realizes that his desperation for a quick pay day will soon turn into the most horrifying night of his entire life, which he's forced to witness from his hiding spot in the kitchen pantry.
Film Category
THE HIRING PROTOCOL
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In the near future, Agathe undergoes a job assessment. She soon discovers some unsettling new recruitment techniques—ones that will leave a lasting mark on her.
Film Category
Host
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Host follows Ing (Baipor), who is sent to an all-girls reform school on a remote island. Ing quickly learns that the school’s only rule is simple — total obedience to the school’s principal. The school operates under a strict hierarchy, with the principal’s favored student, Aim (Perth), at the top and Ing at the bottom. Shortly after her arrival, a series of disturbing incidents begin to unfold. As these unsettling events accumulate, Ing must confront a terrifying question: is she merely a victim of these supernatural occurrences, or could she herself be their source?
Film Category
Humanzee
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a quiet house in the suburbs, a lonely woman’s grizzly past comes back to haunt her when an old friend knocks at the door.
Film Category
I Beg Your Pardon
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A man commits a terrible crime and the consequences are not what you’d expect.
Film Category
IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Elías is a young man who, after a very successful start as a horror writer, is now filled with insecurities and creatively blocked. He goes to Mercedes, his trusted therapist. During a therapy session, Elías reveals what happened the last time he tried writing, along with the mysterious and terrible events surrounding his creative process. Is Elías suffering from impostor syndrome? Or is he being influenced by something ancient and terrifying?
Film Category
In the shadows
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
AS NIGHT FALLS, ALICE AND CLEMENT RUN BREATHLESSLY.
IN THE HEART OF AN OPPRESSIVE NATURE, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS IS STALKING THEM. THEY HAVE ONLY TWO CERTAINTIES: WHAT IS PURSUING THEM IS AGGRESSIVE, AND IT SEEMS TO SEE IN THE DARK...
IN THE HEART OF AN OPPRESSIVE NATURE, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS IS STALKING THEM. THEY HAVE ONLY TWO CERTAINTIES: WHAT IS PURSUING THEM IS AGGRESSIVE, AND IT SEEMS TO SEE IN THE DARK...
Film Category
Indian in a Box
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An Indian immigrant awakens inside a confined metal box, with the walls slowly closing in… unless he can do the work assigned to him.
Film Category
Influencers
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In Southern France, a young woman's chilling fascination with murder and identity theft sends her life into a whirlwind of chaos.
Film Category
The Inspector
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A fake gas inspector visits vulnerable elderly people to take advantage of them. It is now the turn of Carmen, a charming grandmother who keeps great antiques.
Film Category
INTERMISSION
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Things take a turn for the worse for the Prevue Time Quartet.
Film Category
Isolation
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
During the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, an unidentified fishing boat runs aground on a remote military island. Responding swiftly, the stationed soldiers assume it's another routine drill—until figures leap from the ship and gunfire erupts. This is no exercise.
The vessel carries not enemy combatants, but the undead. As the island is overrun by zombies, the soldiers’ ideals of duty and valor quickly unravel. Discipline falters. What once symbolized patriotic pride descends into chaos.
Cut off from reinforcements and with no way out, the young conscripts are forced to confront not only the flesh-eating enemy but the collapse of everything they believed in—order, brotherhood, and identity.
Blending military thriller with zombie horror, the film explores how the myths of war—especially those imposed on the young—shatter under extreme pressure. When the rules of engagement collapse, survival demands more than just combat skills. It demands clarity about who the real enemy is.
The vessel carries not enemy combatants, but the undead. As the island is overrun by zombies, the soldiers’ ideals of duty and valor quickly unravel. Discipline falters. What once symbolized patriotic pride descends into chaos.
Cut off from reinforcements and with no way out, the young conscripts are forced to confront not only the flesh-eating enemy but the collapse of everything they believed in—order, brotherhood, and identity.
Blending military thriller with zombie horror, the film explores how the myths of war—especially those imposed on the young—shatter under extreme pressure. When the rules of engagement collapse, survival demands more than just combat skills. It demands clarity about who the real enemy is.
Film Category
IT IS WATCHING
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A paranoid woman attempts to go about her day whilst being deeply afraid of a potential watcher who she fears is following her.
Film Category
Itch
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
'Itch' is a modern folk horror story for the dating app generation. When Jules arrives at Thomas' house for a second date, she's troubled by the sneaking suspicion that the first date may have landed her with an STI. That trepidation descends into outright terror, as a series of revelations are made throughout the evening...
Film Category
Jimmy
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After years away, Dilara returns home for the funeral of her childhood friend Jennifer. The town feels different, her old friend group even more so. Grief hangs in the air, but something else lingers too. The name no one says out loud: Jimmy.
Once convicted of a violent crime, Jimmy became the town’s urban legend. Now, his story is back in circulation: as a true crime podcast everyone’s listening to. Against her better judgment, Dilara starts listening too. But the voice in her headphones feels too familiar. Too close. And after listening, something seems to be triggered when Jimmy returns to set right what was done to him.
What begins as a search for answers slowly unravels into something dangerous. When another tragedy strikes during a memorial rave, Dilara realizes the past isn’t done with them and Jimmy’s story isn’t over.
Once convicted of a violent crime, Jimmy became the town’s urban legend. Now, his story is back in circulation: as a true crime podcast everyone’s listening to. Against her better judgment, Dilara starts listening too. But the voice in her headphones feels too familiar. Too close. And after listening, something seems to be triggered when Jimmy returns to set right what was done to him.
What begins as a search for answers slowly unravels into something dangerous. When another tragedy strikes during a memorial rave, Dilara realizes the past isn’t done with them and Jimmy’s story isn’t over.
Film Category
The King in Yellow
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
How do you read a play that makes you go insane? In this modern adaptation of the 1895 short stories by Robert W. Chambers, three grad students come up with a plan to split the dangerous work into thirds to safely perform research on the notorious play, The King in Yellow. But events take a sinister turn when one of them reads more than just his share.
Film Category
The Last Snow
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a ski resort where snow is starting to disappear, Isabelle and Guillaume find themselves stuck on a chairlift...
Film Category
Lights Camera Carnage
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When a group of ambitious film students summon a real demon to star in their movie, survival quickly becomes the only scene left to shoot.
Film Category
LOOKER
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Anna learns she is inexplicably cursed to melt away when not being perceived and must go to greater and greater lengths to be seen... with terrifying consequences.
Film Category
Love is the Monster
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Troubled couples head to a transformative retreat, where they fall prey to a sinister cult seeking to resurrect the Finnish ancient goddess of love.
Film Category
The Mannequin
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When aspiring fashion designer Sofia Rojas dies alone in a historical downtown Los Angeles building, most people accept it as a tragic suicide. Her younger sister Liana, however, remains unconvinced. When she returns to the site with plans to rekindle her sister’s ambitions, Liana begins to have paranormal experiences that quickly escalate from unsettling to downright terrifying. She discovers that the building is haunted by a serial killer who brutally murdered and dismembered his victims there over half a century earlier. Now that he’s marked Liana and her friends as his next victims, they have to find a way to escape the ghost’s deadly grasp before they lose their own body parts.
Film Category
Masks
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A husband slowly draws his wife from a long-standing catatonic state by having her wear a series of old Halloween masks. Driven by the hope of having her back, he pushes the experiment into dangerous territory, sending him towards a final confrontation he’ll soon regret.
Film Category
Meat Crayon
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A bubbly young girl meets an eccentric art teacher who encourages her to draw freely and embrace her creativity. But as the crayons wear down, the cheerful coloring session grows uneasy, hinting at something far darker lurking beneath the paper. Meat Crayon blends slasher menace with twisted humor, turning childhood innocence into a chilling canvas.
Film Category
Meat Kills
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In Europe, 133 million pigs suffer in cruel livestock farms. For Mirthe (19), this is unbearable. To prove herself worthy of joining ‘Animal Army’ a radical activist group led by the fearless Nasha (22), she secretly films the horrors of a local pig farm.
Her footage earns her a mission to free the pigs, but when Mirthe and the group return at night, they find the cages empty: the pigs already slaughtered. Enraged, Nasha shifts her focus to revenge, targeting and torturing the farmer’s children. Mirthe objects, but chaos erupts when the farmer returns, determined to protect his family as he hunts down the activists.
The farm becomes a bloody battleground while Mirthe is trapped between Nasha’s vengeance and the farmer’s fury. Mirthe must get her hands bloody if she wants to get out alive.
Her footage earns her a mission to free the pigs, but when Mirthe and the group return at night, they find the cages empty: the pigs already slaughtered. Enraged, Nasha shifts her focus to revenge, targeting and torturing the farmer’s children. Mirthe objects, but chaos erupts when the farmer returns, determined to protect his family as he hunts down the activists.
The farm becomes a bloody battleground while Mirthe is trapped between Nasha’s vengeance and the farmer’s fury. Mirthe must get her hands bloody if she wants to get out alive.
Film Category
The MenHeim Clinic
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Set in the 1940s, a young paperboy searching for his missing brother stumbles upon a clue that leads him to investigate a seemingly renowned doctor’s questionable clinic, only to find far more than he bargained for, with the price of his life being the debt.
Film Category
The Mortician's Daughter
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After her Mother’s death, Violet must fulfill her Mother’s final wish that she is embalmed by her own daughter. But as she prepares her Mother’s corpse in the funeral home she was raised in, long-buried memories resurface & Violet discovers a terrifying secret…
Film Category
Mr. Brown
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young family checks into a fancy hotel during its famous pie festival. At first, everything seems perfect — the staff is friendly, the food is great, and they even get a free upgrade. But things take a dark turn when the father suddenly disappears. As the mother tries to find him, their little boy goes missing too. The hotel staff act strangely, and a mysterious man named Mr. Brown always seems to be nearby. The mother soon realizes this hotel is hiding a terrifying secret — and not everyone who checks in gets to leave.
Film Category
NAILS
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Three ambitious podcast hosts prepare for their biggest episode yet, featuring Charlie Baker, the sole survivor of a brutal attack by Southern California's latest serial killer - The Beast. However, their pursuit of fame collides with the very horror they've been chronicling when they find themselves fighting to survive against a terrifying figure that may be The Beast himself.
Film Category
NIGHT SHIFT
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
An ordinary gas station employee finds himself facing a series of unexpected events during his night shift, uncovering the mystery behind the disappearances haunting the town.
Film Category
The Overnight
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After a long day on set, rising actress Scarlett heads to dinner with Roman, the arrogant director she’s been seeing. But when they accidentally run over a crew member in the parking lot, Roman’s panic turns violent. Abandoned to fend for herself, Scarlett must fight to survive.
Film Category
Pocongdorie
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After the death of their mother, Indonesian siblings Dwi and Daya have to clear out the parental home. In doing so, they come across a lot of stuff, including their deceased mother.
Film Category
Prends Chair
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Venance, an overweight teenager, faces remarks and teasing about his overweightness, in his neighborhood and even in his own family. His body reacts to become an outlet for his pain.
Film Category
PRICE
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Down-on-his-luck actor Price finally lands the role of a lifetime—playing Dennis, an unhinged murderer in a comeback film from once-renowned indie director Steinbeck. But when Steinbeck deems Price’s performance unconvincing and threatens to fire him, the director issues a chilling ultimatum: become Dennis or lose the role. Desperate to prove himself, Price locks himself away, practicing lines, mimicking Dennis’s habits, and sinking deeper into the killer’s psyche until he can't tell who is who.
Film Category
PROJECTION - An Experimental Horror
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Katie has escaped an abusive household with her dog and younger sister Haley, in exchange for a less than ideal temporary housing environment. They soon realize that someone is too eager to welcome them to the neighborhood.
Film Category
The Red Mask
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When outspoken queer screenwriter Allina Green is chosen to pen the final instalment of the legendary slasher franchise 'The Red Mask', anger, outrage, and online death threats from die-hard fans causes a rift in her relationship with reticent fiancé Deetz. Desperate for a creative breakthrough, the pair escape to a secluded Airbnb, where Allina concocts a dangerous game to play to unlock her writer's block. But when two uninvited houseguests crash the scene, the weekend turns dark and a twisted contest devolves into a duel to the death in a love letter to the stalk and slash genre.
Film Category
Redux Redux
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Irene Kelly travels through parallel universes, repeatedly killing her daughter's murderer. As she becomes consumed by vengeance, her humanity hangs in the balance.
Film Category
Reflections
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A displaced girl wants to go viral on social media to belong, and to do so, she decides to go live performing the ritual of the Brazilian legend of Loira do Banheiro. The consequences are unexpected. In collaboration with director Eli Roth.
Film Category
Sacred Beast
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
1764, France, a mysterious beast is brutalizing a rural village in the dark forests of Gévaudan, killing hundreds in ways never before seen. The king sent many hunters to slay the beast, but all failed. An aristocratic Parisian hunter is hired by the villagers as a last resort. But, these woods see through him. He is tried and tested on his journey, his perceptions of reality shaken, and it seems he is not the only hunter wandering this primeval forest. As he delves deeper, the truth rears its ugly head and he questions all he is. What must become of him in order to return to the outside world.
Film Category
SÁRÚ
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When a young girl moves into a secluded house on the edge of an ancient forest, she discovers a mysterious fairy ring hidden within. Drawn by curiosity, she crosses a threshold never meant to be broken - unleashing the preternatural, as the forgotten rules of the old world claw their way back.
Film Category
The Sequence
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After a terrifying and deeply disturbing nightmare, stay-at-home mom Taylor (Katie Parker) wakes in a panic, convinced that the horrific events she dreamed about must never come to pass. As she prepares for moving day, tension with her husband, Thomas (Andrew Pifko), and son, Mike (Braxton Alexander), only fuels her growing fear. But when eerie details from her nightmare start manifesting in reality, Taylor becomes desperate to alter the course of events, doing everything in her power to prevent her worst fears from coming true. Nothing will prepare you for when the final dinner bell rings.
Film Category
SHED
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
On Christmas Eve, a crazed, strange man with nothing to live for, embarks on a murderous rage, killing a family in cold blood. As he starts to take over the families property, unbeknownst to him is one more family member - a curious, courageous 10 year old girl Mia, who has found herself locked in the farms' work shed accidentally through a game of hide and seek . Mia must survive in the shed for days, without food or water, until someone comes for her - but soon that person will eventually be the insidious dying man and the two characters must come face to face. What unravels is a thrilling game of cat and mouse through desperation, revenge and incredible endurance.
Film Category
Sleep Tight
Synopsis
A woman suffering from sleep paralysis wakes up to find a strange noise coming from inside her closet.
Film Category
Slush
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Laced with magic and melancholy and set in the Pacific Northwest, SLUSH follows Frankie as she reunites with her estranged father, Kyle, and a town that's shunned their family for years. SLUSH explores themes of monstrosity and grief as this family confronts their collective traumas together.
Film Category
Spirit Slayer: The Rise of the Apprentice
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Wen Li, the lazy but talented grandson of two spirit slayers, is sent on an errand during a rare blood moon. When he carelessly botches a talisman ritual at the sacred Spirit Tree, a forbidden seal breaks , releasing Ling Yan, a seductive and vengeful fox spirit once imprisoned by his grandfather, Master Liu.
As Ling Yan possesses a young office worker and begins a trail of chaos, Wen Li must confront the spirit face to face aboard a city bus , with salt, rice, and very little clue what he’s doing. When Master Liu enters the fray, old secrets unravel, and the cost of past decisions comes due.
Blending Taoist rituals, martial arts, and supernatural comedy, Spirit Slayer: Rise of the Apprentice is a genre blending origin story set in modern day Singapore, where one reckless mistake awakens a haunting past , and forces a slacker to grow into a spirit slayer.
As Ling Yan possesses a young office worker and begins a trail of chaos, Wen Li must confront the spirit face to face aboard a city bus , with salt, rice, and very little clue what he’s doing. When Master Liu enters the fray, old secrets unravel, and the cost of past decisions comes due.
Blending Taoist rituals, martial arts, and supernatural comedy, Spirit Slayer: Rise of the Apprentice is a genre blending origin story set in modern day Singapore, where one reckless mistake awakens a haunting past , and forces a slacker to grow into a spirit slayer.
Film Category
Stardust Bowl
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Maci is blowing off her closing duties when she's ordered to clean the arcade. Little does she know, the task at hand is monstrously deadly.
Film Category
Strawberry Milk
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After a struggling new mom falls and bumps her head, she accepts the help of a friendly neighbor. But when that woman does the unthinkable, she finds herself in a vicious battle to protect herself and her baby.
Film Category
Striya
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In the middle of the night, the beis din of a small medieval town is embroiled in an argument over whether – and how – to put teenage Gele to death for an unnamed offense. Her father, Ansel, soon arrives to make his case for allowing her to live, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, Gele escapes and makes her way to the rabbi’s home, where the true horror of her supernatural transformation is revealed.
Film Category
Summer Teeth
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A student on the run from a bad employer comes to a remote island to harvest tomatoes, but there awaits a team of goofy people, one true love and a fight for his life.
https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/464670/
https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/464670/
Film Category
SWORD OF VENGEANCE
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a post-apocalyptic future a young warrior must take revenge on his enemies for the crimes they committed against his family.
Film Category
Telaraña
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In a mountain estate in Puerto Rico lives a family with hidden secrets. On a night of rebellion, Naomi, the young teenage daughter, confronts the eight-legged parasite looming in her home and must make a choice: conform to her family’s identity or forge her own path.
Film Category
Terroir
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young wine critic (Madison Hu) returns to a French vineyard one year after giving it a bad review. There, she and her friends become the target of a masked killer.
Film Category
Theater is Dead
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Sheltered Willow auditions for mysterious director Matthew's play, a Greek tragedy adaptation. Enthralled, she ignores dangers and undergoes self-discovery as the lead under his tutelage.
Film Category
Thinestra
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A miracle drug delivers the overnight weight loss you've always dreamed of. But will it turn you into a walking nightmare?
Thinestra stars identical twins Melissa and Michelle Macedo.
It’s a sweltering Christmas in LA. Penny—plagued by body dysmorphia and cycles of binge eating—impulsively takes Thinestra, a mysterious Ozempic-like drug. That night, she violently expels masses of fat in a painful and grotesque purge. But her discarded flesh returns…and like the Hyde to Penny’s Jekyll, PENELOPE is born. As her ravenous dopplegänger wreaks bloody havoc, Penny struggles to regain control. Can she overcome her hunger before it's too late?
Thinestra stars identical twins Melissa and Michelle Macedo.
It’s a sweltering Christmas in LA. Penny—plagued by body dysmorphia and cycles of binge eating—impulsively takes Thinestra, a mysterious Ozempic-like drug. That night, she violently expels masses of fat in a painful and grotesque purge. But her discarded flesh returns…and like the Hyde to Penny’s Jekyll, PENELOPE is born. As her ravenous dopplegänger wreaks bloody havoc, Penny struggles to regain control. Can she overcome her hunger before it's too late?
Film Category
TheThingsWeDo
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A young boy makes a cake for his mother and hopes it will satisfy her extreme hunger.
Film Category
The Trees Have Eyes
Synopsis
Among a mystical forest of ice and snow, a hunter reaps the consequences of what he sows.
Film Category
Trespassers
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A thief breaks into a house, only to find the TV showing three shadowy figures by the pool. They're waiting for him...
Film Category
VÄSEN
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Sweden, 1721. With food becoming increasingly scarce, two sisters turn to the maleficent
Gårdstomten for help. In return, he demands a simple gesture. A bowl of untouched
porridge every morning.
One day, Anna, crippled by hunger, takes a mouthful of porridge, much to the chagrin
of the Gårdstomten who unleashes a horrific evil in the form of the deadly Mylings.
Gårdstomten for help. In return, he demands a simple gesture. A bowl of untouched
porridge every morning.
One day, Anna, crippled by hunger, takes a mouthful of porridge, much to the chagrin
of the Gårdstomten who unleashes a horrific evil in the form of the deadly Mylings.
Film Category
Very Prosperous Men
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A struggling door-to-door Bible salesman navigates the haunting consequence of his actions.
Film Category
Vicious
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
When Polly (Dakota Fanning) receives a mysterious Box from an unexpected late-night visitor, it comes with a simple instruction: place three things inside: something you need, something you hate, and something you love. What begins as a strange ritual quickly unravels into a waking nightmare. Trapped in a terrifying world where reality bends and memory betrays, Polly must navigate a series of impossible choices. As time slips away, she’s forced to confront the darkness not just around her, but within her—before it consumes everything and everyone she’s ever known.
Film Category
WE DON'T KNOW OUR NEIGHBORS
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Cousins break into an abandoned mansion for a game. The screams echoing down the halls seem like their own harmless fun, but after unlocking doors, they find out the cries don’t belong to them. What began as a game turns into a desperate flight from a family secret that belongs closed away in this mansion.
Film Category
What the mermaid likes
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
As she struggles to cope with the departure of her older sister, Essie finds herself alone with her father. In the lake that borders the family home, she discovers a mysterious mermaid, which feeds only on gasoline.
Film Category
What the Night Hides (Lo Que Calla la Noche)
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In the dead of night, a woman wakes to find her mother speaking with an unexpected guest.
Film Category
When The Cold Wind Blows
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
While lost during a military training exercise in the Bruneian jungle, a young soldier seeks shelter at an abandoned resort - only to be seduced and haunted by a mysterious spirit who forces him to confront grief, desire, and a fate darker than death.
Film Category
Wonderland
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
In the aftermath of her father's funeral, a grief-stricken Alice falls into a haunting Wonderland, where an uncanny version of her father beckons her to stay.
Film Category
Worst Thing You've Ever Done
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
Highschool really sucks… and no one knows that better than best friends Aaron and Keith. So when they set out to crash a small graduation party, buried emotions and teenage tensions explode, forcing everyone to face the worst parts of themselves.
Film Category
You Can't Talk To The Dude
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
After moving into a newly renovated apartment, Rory's life falls apart when a mysterious old
man appears in his home.
man appears in his home.
Film Category
You Have Her Eyes
Meet the Filmmaker
Synopsis
A woman’s fears about having children begin to manifest as visions of her dead grandmother.
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!
