Nightmares Film Festival to offer variety of movies, events for Columbus horror fans
If you hear moviegoers gasping, shrieking and screaming with delight, you know it must be Halloween.
Since the start of autumn, multiplexes have been chockful of horror movies, including “The Nun II,” “The Exorcist: Believer” and the just-released “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” Meanwhile, countless cable channels and streaming services have given their programming over to flicks that seek to fright.
Yet few central Ohio cinema events promise more horror content per minute than the Nightmares Film Festival, which includes a bevy of feature films, too many short films to mention and several all-new ancillary events.
The annual festival will return to Gateway Film Center Thursday through Sunday.
To help set the stage for what is sure to be a nightmarish weekend at the movies, The Dispatch spoke with festival co-founder Jason Tostevin.
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Ohio audiences are hip to horror
In a movie landscape awash with horror flicks, the festival seeks to distinguish itself by shining a light on up-and-coming filmmakers and presenting films that are hard to see elsewhere, including several premieres. These choices are made in part to cater to Ohio horror fans, who, Tostevin said, are very savvy about the genre.
“Ohio has a really deep, sophisticated horror audience,” said Tostevin, who points to several reasons for area audiences’ sophistication.
“There’s something about the culture of the Midwest that makes us more interested in (horror),” he said.
Late-night TV horror hosts, such as retired Channel 10 host Fritz the Nite Owl, also contributed to the genre’s local popularity.
“People grew up on those horror hosts, watching B-movies (and) ’50s horror movies,” Tostevin said.
Horror a diverse genre
Although all films being shown fall under the horror genre, numerous subcategories are featured throughout the festival.
“We wanted to cover as much of that emotional ground as we could in horror,” said Tostevin, who books films under the following main subcategories: horror, thriller, midnight and horror comedy.
“The purpose of that is to let people feel like they can really find the thing they want the most in the program, but also discover something surprising,” he said. “That happens every time people come to Nightmares. Somebody comes away and goes: ‘I wouldn’t normally have watched that, but because it was under the roof, I gave it a shot and I loved it.’”
Feature films to include eye-popping picks
Among the most unsettling feature films to be shown this year is “Abruptio,” showing at midnight on Saturday.
“It’s a very violent crime drama told entirely with lifelike puppets,” Tostevin said. “That’s a fresh vision; that’s an unusual approach.”
Voices to the puppets were provided by a number of actors synonymous with horror, including Robert Englund and the late Sid Haig.
Also on tap is the world premiere of a slasher film called “Butcher’s Book Two: Raghorn,” which fulfills all the traditional elements of the genre, but departs from the norm in one significant way.
“It’s got a very nontraditional Final Girl, in that she’s a trans girl,” Tostevin said, referring to the horror movie trope of a single female character who survives to the end of a given movie. “The thing I absolutely love is that the movie makes no nod to it whatsoever — she’s just the Final Girl.”
“Butcher’s Book Two” will be screened at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
Also playing is the Christmas-themed horror tale “Santa Isn’t Real,” showing at 8 p.m. on Friday; and the horror comedy anthology “Cryptids,” starring Joe Bob Briggs, showing at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Short films also showcased
The festival includes numerous short film programs, which are arranged into categories. For example, “Recurring Nightmares” shorts will be shown at 2 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, “Slay Ride: Holiday Horrors” shorts will be shown at 4 p.m. Saturday and “Real Nightmares: Doc Shorts” will be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday.
“The joke is that the great thing about the shorts blocks are, if you don’t like this (film), there’s a new one coming in eight minutes,” Tostevin said. “You get this wide variety.”
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Other events on tap
In addition to the screenings, other events promise to keep attendees in a fun frame of mind.
On Friday, a game of Nightmare Trivia will test audience members’ knowledge of horror-themed music and audio clips.
“You play (the trivia) all on your phone,” Tostevin said. “You get your team together, and you text the answer.”
Horror host Aurora Gorealis will be on hand on Saturday for the Shocktail Hour Halloween Mixtape, which will include video clips; and the Tournament of Terror, a genre-friendly spin on game shows.
And on Sunday, New York Times film critic Erik Piepenburg will offer a workshop aimed at helping new filmmakers better present their films for potential coverage in the media.
“We’re telling (filmmakers), ‘Bring your stuff — bring your press release, bring your key messages for your film,’” Tostevin said. “(Piepenburg) is going to offer a perspective on those materials and help people make them better so they are more likely to get their movie covered in the press.”
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At a glance
The Nightmares Film Festival will take place Thursday through Sunday at Gateway Film Center, 1550 N. High St. VIP passes cost $149. For more information, visit gatewayfilmcenter.org/nff/.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nightmares Film Festival coming to Gateway Film Center
