Welcome to Nightmares Film Festival!
a shout out to our sponsors
Thursday
october
26
6:00 PM
Screening Room One
Departing Seniors
w/ short film: The Night Editors
Ohio Premiere. Bullied senior Javier develops psychic abilities he must use to stop a mysterious serial killer targeting his classmates.
The Night Editors
On his first night working at a horror production company, Brian learns the hard way that not all found footage movies are fake.
Screening Room Two
2023 Horror Comedy Shorts Block
Hide Your Crazy | Run Time: 13.75 min. | A young man’s surprise birthday dinner for his girlfriend leads to the most frightful night of their lives.
Good Looking Out | Run Time: 2 min. | Getting lost on their drive leads Claire and Steven toward a darker destination.
Cut Me If You Can | Run Time: 21.25 min. | Stuck in the loop of a horror B-movie, two black stereotyped characters decide to fuck up the script, but the film has other plans.
The Management | Run Time: 13.5 min. | A lost tourist just wants a good old soy milk pumpkin spice latte. But something else is waiting in the back room.
Waka Chicka Waka | Run Time: 4.5 min. | Two young women hire a skeezy plumber to fix their kitchen sink.
Thin Skinned | Run Time: 13.75 min. | Two hidden camera pranksters infiltrate a funeral home, unaware that the mortician they’ve targeted has a dark secret of his own.
Batshit Crazy | Run Time: 14 min. | A Northeastern Indian man, assaulted by some racist thugs, discovers getting help can really suck.
Under My Bed | Run Time: 5 min. | A cowardly 9 year old tries to avoid being eaten by the monster under his bed by pretending to be a famous talk show host.
Suction | Run Time: 7.5 min. | A young woman is pitted against a demonic vacuum hellbent on tearing her perfect home apart.
8:00 PM
Screening Room One
How To Kill Monsters
with short film We Joined A Cult
United States Premiere. The sole survivor of a bloody massacre must team up with a rag-tag bunch of rookie cops and lawbreakers to fight off an invasion of monsters from another dimension.
They just wanted to play kickball.
2023 Midnight Shorts Block A
Cornerboy | Run Time: 6 min. | A bad guy gets possessed by a fly that may be the devil.
The Mobius Trip | Run Time: 17 min. | A dysfunctional family’s road trip descends into a claustrophobic hallucinatory nightmare.
F’ckin Nuts | Run Time: 12 min. | Sandy is forced to break it off with the boy of her dreams to keep him from meeting her unusual parents.
Didn’t Think I’d See You Here | Run Time: 13 min. | Rory thinks there’s a ghost in his shower—hope it’s not after him! Then, there’s that party.
Annihaltor | Run Time: 9.5 min. | A nihilistic young man’s obsession with snuff films evolves into a desire to star in his own.
The Mantis | Run Time: 10 min. | This girl’s got a kink for necks. Better pop your collar.
What Lies Within | Run Time: 13.75 min. | When a college grad returns to his estranged grandmother’s home, their strange history boils over.
Gummy | Run Time: 13.5 min. | Grappling with unrequited love and her manipulative father, a masochistic dentistry student pulls out her own teeth.
10:00 PM
Hundreds of Beavers
with short film Tooth
Ohio Premiere. A drunken 19th Century applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
Fed up with decades of scrubbing, a vengeful tooth launches a full scale attack.
2023 Horror Shorts Block A
Abominations | Run Time: 14.25 min. | A dark infatuation begins to fracture the bond between a man and his unusual companion.
Safe | Run Time: 10 min. | Somewhere in the US, a family hears an unsettling bump in the night.
Gnaw | Run Time: 7.25 min. | A pesky hangnail results in unsettling terror.
Alicia | Run Time: 6 min. | A young girl who has recently gone blind believes an old woman lives in her room.
Red Velvet | Run Time: 14 min. | With the apocalypse nigh, a lonely man calls an escort.
Janelle’s Baby | Run Time: 10 min. | An infertile woman will do anything to create life.
Night Work | Run Time: 8.25 min. | A new mother working late finds she is not alone in her house.
All Your Women Things | Run Time: 13 min. | Lingerie designer Anna discovers a grotesque source of inspiration.
Bookworm | Run Time: 13.75 min. | In 1979 Spain, an aspiring writer’s obsession with a ghost turns terrifying.
FRIDAY
october
27
2:00
PM
Love Will Tear Us Apart
with short film Nasty Videos
Midwest Premiere. Bizarre incidents begin take place around a pair of bullied students.
A found-footage animated horror satire inspired by vintage public information films and the “video nasty” craze.
Screening Room Two
Recurring Nightmares A
That Doll Ain’t Right! | Run Time: 1.5 min. | A spoof of killer doll movies in a trilogy of sequel trailers.
Surgical Precision | Run Time: 10.75 min. | When his home is invaded, a doctor researching telekinesis must decide whether to use his gift to help or to harm his attackers.
The Clogging | Run Time: 4.25 min. | A down-on-his-luck man who clogs the toilet at a house party must act fast to keep tensions from rising further.
Super Happy Fun Clown | Run Time: 7.25 min. | A miserable clown with an abusive husband turns her frown upside down.
Exit Package | Run Time: 13.25 min. | A Zoom meeting for a corrupt investment company goes horribly wrong.
Last Sacrifice | Run Time: 5.25 min. | Lenny, who’s has been feeding otherworldly beings through the Circle of Blood for nearly two years, tries to retire.
That Doll Ain’t Right Too | Run Time: 1.5 min. | A spoof of killer doll movies in a trilogy of sequel trailers.
All-Nighter | Run Time: 9.5 min. | With graduation quickly approaching, Andy must face his fears or sacrifice his sanity for society.
Shelter Half | Run Time: 3 min. | A naturalist investigating the disappearance of a black bear gets darker answers than he bargained for.
An American Family Calamity | Run Time: 12.5 min. | Shortly after the death of their patriarch, a rural American family realizes that they will forever be haunted by his legacy.
That Doll Ain’t Right III | Run Time: 1 min. | A spoof of killer doll movies in a trilogy of sequel trailers.
Dummy | Run Time: 13 min. | A CPR instructor embraces change when a respiratory dummy follows him home from work.
Sleep Tight | Run Time: 14.25 min. | A young boy whose parents are divorcing faces trauma caused by a sleep paralysis demon.
4:00 PM
The Choice
with short film Virga
Eastern United States Premiere. As the world reels from a near-future economic crisis, a bank clerk fights to survive and protect his family when he is taken hostage.
After deciding the police won’t help, a student confronts a classmate he believes may be planning violence.
2023 Horror Shorts Block B
Caustic | Run Time: 22 min. | Mother and daughter discover a terrifying cure for the mother’s paralysis.
Lands of Steel | Run Time: 14 min. | A mindless robot experiences genocide in an apocalyptic world.
Lake Sunshine 1989 | Run Time: 13.75 min. | An unexpected phone call forever changes the lives of two best friends on a cabin trip to Lake Sunshine.
Hims | Run Time: 16 min. | A single mother struggling to adjust to life after divorce discovers an evil entity living in her young daughter’s bedroom.
The Queue | Run Time: 11.25 min. | An internet content moderator confronts the darkness within the videos he screens.
Filter | Run Time: 9.75 min. | A young woman with body dysmorphia is stalked by a sinister presence in a facetuning Instagram filter.
Cover Your Ears | Run Time: 10 min. | Every night, two sisters practice a strange routine to avoid something unspeakable inside their home.
6:00
PM
The Festival Lounge
NFF2023 Filmmaker and Screenwriter meetup
Join your fellow filmmakers and screenwriters for a meetup in The Festival Lounge. VIP or Creator Pass required.
7:00
PM
Screening Room One
NFF2023 Killer Trivia
The state’s best trivia game comes to Nightmares with an all-new program created just for us! Name horror movie clips and songs with friends.
8:00
PM
Santa Isn’t Real
with short film The Spirit Became Flesh
World Premiere. A year after suffering a brutal attack on Christmas eve, a young woman and her friends fight to survive what might be a killer Kris Kringle.
An unbeliever returns to his old religious community to find them in the thrall of a creature they believe is God.
2023 Thriller Shorts A
tu:li: | Run Time: 11.25 min. | An ornithologist risks his lifetime of research and more when he becomes obsessed with a strange new bird.
Stolen Tundra | Run Time: 13.75 min. | A resilient snow creature protects the last chunk of natural ice left on a drying planet.
They Call It .. Red Cemetary! | Run Time: 9.5 min. | Two outlaws have a dispute over a bounty of cash amongst the crosses of an old cemetery.
Garbage Days | Run Time: 13 min. | A violent man faces the illusions of justice.
Caterpillar | Run Time: 14 min. | After a stranger shows up claiming to be his partner, Luke begins to fear he is changing, too.
The Watcher | Run Time: 8 min. | The last living member patiently awaits the resurrection of her small religious cult.
The Emissaries | Run Time: 18 min. | Three representatives of a new wave cult visit an old couple one night to convince them to sell their remote ranch.
That’s Our Time | Run Time: 9.5 min. | Danny’s sympathetic therapist tries to help him connect to others, not realizing the clock is always ticking.
10:00
PM
The Wheel of Heaven
Ohio Premiere. Upon discovering a mysterious book, a woman caught up in predatory relationships is thrown into a multi-layered world of choices.
2023 Horror Shorts Block C
Lure | Run Time: 20 min. | A young man working on a remote farm begins to suspect something deeply disturbing is happening involving the farmer and his daughter.
Honeymoon at Cold Hollow | Run Time: 14 min. | In the winter of 1974, newlyweds snowed in at an isolated wilderness experience mankind’s true evil.
Baby Fever | Run Time: 25.75 min. | A popular teen’s prom queen dream is threatened when she discovers she is pregnant with something even worse than a dumb jock’s offspring.
Get Away | Run Time: 15.5 min. | Friends at a remote desert vacation rental discover play a mysterious VHS tape and discover terrifying coincidences.
No Overnight Parking | Run Time: 10 min. | A woman fleeing from her abusive husband gets locked in an underground parking garage with a masked killer on the hunt for blood.
Skin Deep | Run Time: 12.5 min. | On the last night of summer in a sleepy seaside town, an insecure young woman finally reveals her true self to her crush.
SATURDAY
october
28
Noon
Trunk with short film Shut
United States Premiere. After waking up in a locked car trunk, a medical student wages a desperate fight for survival as the vehicle races toward a terrible secret.
A son tries to understand why his elderly father’s mental state has badly deteriorated, but doesn’t understand the danger he’s truly in.
12:00 PM
Screening Room Two
Panel Discussion: Social Progress Through Horror
Moderated by NFF Co-Founder Jason Tostevin
1:00
PM
Screening Room Two
Panel Discussion: The New Distribution
Moderated by NFF Co-Founder Chris Hamel
2:00
PM
Screening Room One
The People’s Joker
Midwest Premiere. Featuring the voices of Bob Odenkirk, Tim Heidecker and more. In a world where comedy is outlawed, a comedian grappling with her gender identity forms
a new anti-comedy troupe with a friend and finds herself battling a fascistic caped crusader.
2023 Recurring Nightmares Shorts Block B
Saint-Sacrifice | Run Time: 14.5 min. | A widower is faced with losing his soul to be reunited with his wife on the other side.
Candor | Run Time: 2 min. | A woman opens up to the man she just spent the evening with.
Influence | Run Time: 9.75 min. | When a meeting with a potential sponsor is unexpectedly interrupted, the dark reality of an influencer’s home life is exposed.
#Pizzagate | Run Time: 6 min. | The United States of Conspiracy.
Ride Baby Ride | Run Time: 7.5 min. | This Camaro was her dream car. Now it’s her nightmare.
A Suit and a Straight Razor | Run Time: 11.75 min. | Amanda’s is trying to move on from the death of her mother when an otherworldly Stranger enters her home, bearing a … let’s call it a “gift.”
Filet De Femme | Run Time: 3.5 min. | A visceral submerging into the experience women have been braving since the dawn of time.
Three Baths | Run Time: 7 min. | A woman must take three baths to get rid of a malevolent spirit that appears to be moving ever closer to her.
The Ossan | Run Time: 11.75 min. | When her wealthy older husband dies, a young woman finds herself alone in his mansion with his two dangerously resentful teen-aged sons.
Remembered | Run Time: 7.5 min. | Two young girls meander down a well-worn path of memories and lost dreams.
Engram | Run Time: 6.5 min. | A dog experiences auditory hallucinations of his master after coming in contact with an alien entity.
Fed | Run Time: 8.75 min. | A talented but arrogant young chef meets her match when a mysteriously implacable food critic visits her restaurant.
4:00 PM
Screening Room One
NFF2023 – Slay Ride: Holiday Horrors
Come Home | Run Time: 11.75 min. | A man’s shaky hand threatens his daughter’s Christmas gift. To steady it, he confronts an inner demon hellbent on his soul.
In The Heat | Run Time: 17.5 min. | When a man claiming to be Santa Clause is arrested for the murder of a child, the interrogating officers uncover an even stranger story.
Up on the Housetop | Run Time: 15.5 min. | After accidentally killing Santa on Christmas Eve, four recently reunited siblings must survive the night against his eight killer flying reindeer.
NFF2023 – Hairy Situations: Werewolf Short Films
Let It Kill You | Run Time: 15 min. | A disillusioned soldier fights to save an enemy fighter found in a tomb, only to discover his new friend may have been buried alive for a reason.
Scratch | Run Time: 24 min. | A father-son camping adventure becomes a terrifying fight for survival.
Full Moon | Run Time: 10 min. | Werewolf Mikey must face revealing his secret to his girlfriend when she throws him a surprise birthday party on the night of a full moon.
NFF2023 – Shocktail Hour
5:15
PM
2023 Nightmares Film Festival Awards Ceremony
Hosted by NFF co-founders Chris Hamel and Jason Tostevin
6:00 PM
Screening Room One
The Deep Dark
Midwest Premiere. In 1956 France, a group of miners trapped in the depths of a coal mine begin to realize that they are not alone.
Screening Room Two
2023 Thriller Shorts Block B
Tiny Thing | Run Time: 16 min. | It’s the tiny things that fuck us over in the end.
Make the Call | Run Time: 15 min. | Two former best friends reunite in a changed world, finally confronting the demons that ripped them apart.
Winder | Run Time: 5.75 min. | When the power goes, Clair and her wind-up flashlight head to the basement to reset the breaker—but she may not be alone.
In Your Arms | Run Time: 12.75 min. | A young man must learn that vulnerability is not the same as connection.
Caroline | Run Time: 13.75 min. | A man with schizophrenia trying to reach San Francisco is offered shelter by a stranger with a sinister secret.
POV | Run Time: 17.25 min. | An ideologically opposed couple attempt to survive a home invasion by a masked assailant on the single most dangerous night of the year.
Pruning | Run Time: 15 min. | When a political commentator discovers she has inspired a mass shooting, she must contend with her conscience.
8:00 PM
Cryptids
with short film Sempre Avanti
Ohio Premiere. A popular radio host (Joe Bob Briggs) listens to callers’s tales of bizarre cryptid encounters in this anthology feature.
Two U.S. soldiers plunge into a tunnel during the Vietnam War, only to awaken unparalleled horrors.
2023 Horror Shorts Block D
Rezar | Run Time: 28 min. | Bad things happen when four friends find an old cellar door in the woods.
Pest | Run Time: 6 min. | A woman calls an exterminator for an unusual infestation in her home.
Biters and Bleeders | Run Time: 22.5 min. | Bed bugs, generational trauma, bad husband—it’s time for Penelope to purge herself.
MK Ultra Violence | Run Time: 13.75 min. | Hopper’s mind has been shattered. They’re here to pick up the pieces.
Where’s Weirdo | Run Time: 9 min. | A young bookstore owner accidentally unleashes a malevolent creature who takes the form of a famous children’s book character.
Vespa | Run Time: 16.75 min. | After receiving an odd invitation, Luiza visits her estranged mother’s new home, inadvertently assuming her role in a peculiar natural cycle.
10:00 PM
Butcher’s Book Two: Raghorn
with short film Signal
World Premiere. After a bloody accident derails a group of criminals, they soon find themselves in the hands of brutal cannibals.
Trapped in her hospital bed, a badly injured woman tries to desperately to reach her partner when she begins to see a strange presence in the darkness of the room.
2023 Midnight Shorts Block B
First Blood | Run Time: 7.75 min. | A teenage girls goes through a bizarre transformation after she gets her first period.
Floater | Run Time: 14 min. | After his abusive father’s death, a troubled man builds a mausoleum to the relationship they never had… in his parents’ bathroom.
The Heritage | Run Time: 11.75 min. | A man makes a gargantuan discovery when meeting his biological father for the first time.
Toad Boy | Run Time: 13 min. | When a young boy has trouble at school, his principal gets him the help he needs.
Latex Lorenzo | Run Time: 2.75 min. | A couple discovers that a sinister (and frankly gross) urban legend is real.
The Little Girl Eater | Run Time: 12.75 min. | An eight-year-old misfit discovers a fisherman trapped under his shipwrecked boat on an otherwise deserted beach.
Hot Local Singles in Your Area | Run Time: 9.25 min. | A college student becomes infected with a pop-up virus and transfers it into the analog world.
Virgil’s Rings | Run Time: 3 min. | A she-devil with a taste for onion rings informs a newly deceased soul of his unfortunate situation.
Don’t Eat Candy at Night | Run Time: 6.5 min. | A young woman, alone at night, must face her fear when three men appear in her home.
Content: The Lo Fi Man | Run Time: 15 min. | “Filmmaker” Brian Lonano tries to talk about a beloved cult film. What happens next will shock you!
12:00
AM
Abruptio
with short film The Hunter
Ohio Premiere. After he wakes to find an explosive device in his neck, a down-and-out man is forced to carry out heinous crimes to stay alive.
This time the rabbit, not the hunter, gets to write the story.
2023 Thriller Shorts Block C
Everything Is Quiet Now | Run Time: 6.5 min. | A woman whose world has always been overwhelmingly loud experiments to find the quiet she’s been searching for.
Two Knocks on a Door | Run Time: 20.5 min. | A father grows suspicious that there’s an intruder in his house, only to discover something much darker.
Latchkey | Run Time: 9 min. | Two brothers are plunged into a fight for survival when one makes a horrifying phone call to the other: “Someone’s downstairs.”
Robbie Ain’t Right No More | Run Time: 18 min. | A young girl’s brother returns from war with a most disturbing souvenir.
Closing Time | Run Time: 17.25 min. | An estranged friend surprises his old college buddies with an unusual reunion.
Leaving Yellowstone | Run Time: 23 min. | A romantic trip to the wilderness turns ugly as a woman fights for her life in the frigid winter of Yellowstone National Park.
Sunday
october
29
12:00 PM
NFF2023 Ohio Short Films Block
Thingamajig | Run Time: 28 min. | Only the light can keep one man safe from what lies in the darkness—until it starts to flicker.
The Hanover Incident | Run Time: 13 min. | Set in rural Ohio in 1997 and inspired by the supernatural classics of that era, we explore the crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary.
Susi Q, Where Are You? | Run Time: 15.75 min. | A group of friends go looking for the missing high school sweetheart, Susie Q.
Tied Down | Run Time: 5 min.
Deadly Reunion | Run Time: 10.75 min. | When a long-lost identical twin suddenly returns, a promising author must fight for her perfect life before her twin erases it all.
I’m Going to Kill You | Run Time: 12 min. | A woman finds a man with murderous intention in her home.
Bedbugs Ate My Dreams | Run Time: 13 min. | An exterminator subjects a man to increasingly bizarre and invasive procedures to combat dream-eating bedbugs.
Partnr | Run Time: 12.25 min. | When her bionic boyfriend proposes, Jackie is thrilled—until a chance encounter with another human shows her how messy love can be.
Screening Room One
Saint Drogo
with short film Ringing Rocks
Midwest Premiere. A couple searching for their missing friend in an off-season Cape Cod town uncover a sinister secret its inhabitants are hiding.
A young man takes his grief-stricken boyfriend to recover at an idyllic desert resort, but awakens to an eerie new reality.
2:00
PM
Screening Room One
Panel Discussion: Pitching to Press w/The New York Times
Moderated by New York Times film critic, Erik Piepenburg.
Screening Room Two
The Beast of Walton St.
with short film The Beast
As the homeless population of an Ohio town is ravaged by brutal deaths in the dead of winter, two outcast women fight back against the deadly creature.
A woman is chased through a dark woods by a bloodthirsty monster. Cornered and helpless, her life may just depend on the most unlikely of heroes.
4:00 PM
Livescreamers
with short film Old Flames
Ohio Premiere. A dysfunctional group of content creators face the ultimate lesson in teamwork when a haunted video game kills them one by one.
A haunting portrayal of a recovering addict learning to live with her demons.
Murder Ballads: How to Make it in Rock ‘n’ Roll
with short film Wicked Image
World Premiere. Rock band Stack of Corpses’s attempt to jump start their career by stealing a song ends up with bloody and unexpected consequences.
Looking to remind the world they’re women, Lucifer, Satan, and the Devil meet with a corporate PR agent — who is somehow more evil than they are.
PANEL
discussions
Sat 12:00 PM
Moderated by NFF Co-Founder,
Jason Tostevin
Join us for a discussion on social progress through horror with filmmakers and experts working in this field today.
Sat
1:00
PM
Moderated by NFF Co-Founder,
Chris Hamel
Join us for a discussion on the new distribution with distributors, filmmakers, and experts working in this field today.
SUN
2:00
PM
Erik Piepenburg.
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.