2015 FESTIVAL

2015 Screenplay Award Winner & Finalists

BEST SCREENPLAY
Blackvoid
Joseph J. Greenberg

THE APOCALYPSE CHRONICLES
Nathan Ludwig & Charles Devin Hill

ASSISTED DYING
by Nick Chianese

LET IT BLEED
by Scott Selden

THE HOUSESITTER
by Suju Vijayan & Dave Palamaro

BLACKVOID
by Joseph J. Greenberg

ABOLITION OF THE SENSES
Carlos Burgaleta

ADIRONDACK HUNT CLUB
Marcus Dean Miller

THE APOCALYPSE CHRONICLES
Nathan Ludwig & Charles Devin Hill

ASSISTED DYING
Nick Chianese

BLACKVOID
Joseph J. Greenberg

THE COMMODE MONSTER
Joe McGarvey

CROC APOCALYPSE
Dain Chatel

DWELLER
Erik D. Harshman

THE HOUSESITTER
Suju Vijayan & David Palamaro

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
Ian Busch

LET IT BLEED
Scott Selden

MAN OF CLAY
Matt Nasatir

MOTHER'S BLOOD
Ben Kepner

THE NEVERUS
Adam Ruhl

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension premiered as the closing night film of the festival to over 700 attendees, playing in RealD 3D at the TCL Chinese Theatre Thursday, Oct. 22, the day before its wide release.

The premiere featured a red carpet with an impressive pre party held in the orange courtyard. Those fortunate enough to have the right ticket in hand got access to trendy food trucks, a pop up candy store, free tee shirts, and a dj pumpin the jams and handing out some killer raffle prizes.

The first Paranormal made its debut at the festival in 2007 so it was fitting that the final installment would conclude the festival. Screamfest founder and festival director Rachel Belofsky presented Oren Peli a gold skull trailblazer award prior to the screening.

“We are thrilled to have the Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension premiere close this year’s festival,” said Screamfest founder and festival director Rachel Belofsky. “We are so proud of Oren Peli and his success with the franchise. It’s great to have him back in the festival where it all began.”

“It's incredibly exciting, and somewhat surreal, to premiere the final installment of the Paranormal series at Screamfest where the first film premiered eight years ago,” said Peli “These films continued to be made because of the incredible fans that supported them from the very beginning, so I look forward to bringing the series back to its roots to honor them.”

The original film was released via “Demand It” fan screenings in 12 markets before its theatrical run in 2009. As a tribute to those fans, the new film PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION screened in the same 12 markets. Screamfest expanded nationwide with special advance screenings in Ann Arbor, MI; Baton Rouge, LA; Boulder, CO; Columbus, OH; Durham, NC; Lincoln, NE; Madison, WI; Orlando, FL; Santa Cruz, CA; Seattle, WA; State College, PA; and Tucson, AZ on October 22nd.

Check out fan photos at Online Instagram .

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa

HOLLYWOOD – Oct. 23, 2015 – We are pleased to announce the 2015 Festival winners at last night's Awards reception that took place at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres. The award winners were presented the coveted Screamfest Skull Award last night for winning in the following categories.

• The 2015 winners are:

  BEST SHORT: “Daddy’s Little Girl” (Director: Chad McClarnon)

• BEST STUDENT SHORT: “Massacre in San Jose” (Director: Edgar Nito)

• BEST MUSICAL SCORE: “The Hallow” (Composer: James Gosling)

• BEST EDITING: “Patchwork”

• BEST MAKEUP: “The Hallow”

• BEST ACTRESS: Tory Stolper (“Patchwork”)

• BEST ACTOR: Neville Archambault (“Slumlord”)

• BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS: “The Hallow”

• BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: “The Hallow”(Cinematographer: Martijn Van Broekhuizen)

• BEST DIRECTOR: Corin Hardy (“The Hallow”)

• BEST PICTURE: “Patchwork”

• BEST SCREENPLAY: “Blackvoid” (Screenwriter: Joseph J. Greenberg)

• To view the TOP FIVE SCREENPLAYS & Semi Finalist! Click here.

“This was an exciting year for Screamfest. We’re extremely pleased with this year’s selections and the audience’s reactions to them,” expressed Rachel Belofsky, founder and director of Screamfest Horror Film Festival. “This year’s Best Picture winner, ‘Patchwork,’ was definitely a fan favorite. We’re very proud of all the festival filmmakers and congratulate the winners.”

Check out fan photos at Online Instagram .
SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa

Screamfest Horror Film Festival runs for ten days in October and although films are the main attraction during the festival, we do have a few other tricks up out sleeves. This year we added additional attractions to the festival, including a wonderful dark art show featuring a different artist each day. Check out some of the photos of the art that was displayed. On Saturday October 17th, 2015, the talented artist Peter Goode painted live in the theater lobby. The Westgate Gallery featured some amazing vintage movie posters that even James Franco couldn't resist, purchasing a couple of the posters after his screening. In addition to the art gallery, we invited Madison Rhoades of the clever escape game called Crossroads Escape to entertain guest at the festival. Check out some of the pictures of their set up in the lobby. In honor of Wes Craven who passed away in August, we created a loving Día de los Muertos altar to celebrate the wonderful man that he was. When Screamfest was just beginning, Wes Craven joined our Advisory Board. Through his guidance, support and friendship, Screamfest grew. We will miss him dearly and are grateful for his work with the festival. If you attended Screamfest last year you probably ended up in the Psycho bathtub at some point for photos. This year our photo prop was the Shining "Here's Johhny" scene with Jack Torrance, complete with bashed in door and prop axes. You could either pose as Jack Torrance coming through the hole in the door or the scared Mrs Torrance on the other side of the door. We added some great photos of this set found tagged on our Instagram. Screamfest is a great place to meet some of your horror film idols, whether it's an actor, actress or behind the scenes director. Our photo gallery below includes some of our festival attendees experiences meeting the likes of Lin Shaye, James Franco, Joe Dante, Jeremy Sisto, Keir Gilchrist (It Follows), Scream Queen Barbara Crampton, Cabin Fever’s Cerina Vincent, Dawn of the Dead’s Ken Foree, legendary director Joe Dante (Gremlins), Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli, horror producer Jason Blum and more. Enjoy the photos and join us in 2016! Check out fan photos at ONLINE INSTAGRAM .

The world premiere of Jen and Sylvia Soska’s feature See No Evil 2 took place October 15, 2014 at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Hollywood.

In attendance for the event were the film’s directors, Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary), and cast members WWE Superstar Glen “Kane” Jacobs, Danielle Harris (Halloween, Hatchet II), Lee Majdoub, and Kaj-Erik Eriksen as well as actress Paula Lindberg (American Mary) and rockers Slash and Glenn Danzig.

A direct sequel to the 2006 slasher flick See No Evil, See No Evil 2 was penned by Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby and revolves around a group of friends who pay a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise Amy (Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) unexpectedly rises from a cold sub-basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives, and power saws.

Screamfest "See No Evil 2" Premiere-- Black Carpet and Q&A on Wednesday October 15th at Screamfest Horror Film Festival. Video courtesy of John Elfers. See No Evil 2 red carpet and Q&A photos by Angelica Ulloa.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

SEPTEMBER 03, 2015 10:00am PT by Borys Kit from Hollywood Reporter.

The scary movie will close out the horror film festival. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension will premiere as the closing night of the Screamfest Horror Film Festival, playing in RealD 3D at the TCL Chinese Theatre Thursday, October 22, the day before its wide release.

The move is a homecoming of sorts for the scary movie franchise as the first Paranormal made its debut at the festival, the largest and longest running horror festival in the U.S., in 2007.

“We are thrilled to have the Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension premiere close this year’s festival,” said Screamfest founder and festival director Rachel Belofsky. “We are so proud of Oren Peli and his success with the franchise. It’s great to have him back in the festival where it all began.”

The original movie, which Peli wrote and directed, had a platform release via “Demand It” fan screenings before going wide in 2009. In a nod to the importance of fans to the franchise, Screamfest, in a first, will simultaneously screen the movie in those original 12 markets

The markets include: Ann Arbor, MI; Baton Rouge, LA; Boulder, CO; Columbus, OH; Durham, NC; Lincoln, NE; Madison, WI; Orlando, FL; Santa Cruz, CA; Seattle, WA; State College, PA; and Tucson, AZ.

“It's incredibly exciting, and somewhat surreal, to premiere the final installment of the Paranormal series at Screamfest where the first film premiered eight years ago,” said Peli “These films continued to be made because of the incredible fans that supported them from the very beginning, so I look forward to bringing the series back to its roots to honor them.”

2007’s Paranormal was one of the movies that launched the found footage style of storytelling that proved not only compelling for the new social age but also hugely profitable. The story told of a family moving into a new home only to find a demon in their midst.

Screamfest runs October 13 to October 22. Ghost Dimension is set to open October 23.

Hollywood Reporter Original Article

After the sold out screening of Tales of Halloween, guest walked across Hollywood Blvd to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium for an evening of epic oddness & good times! Guest dined on a shrimp cocktail brain, prosciutto eyeballs, ghostly puffed pastry with goat cheese, tapenade & olive face, stake through the heart caprese skewers, bocconcini eyeballs with prosciutto, olive & parma ham and sweet mummy berries of white chocolate, cupcakes with body parts, an amazing Freddy Krueger cake and drinks from the fully stocked open bar.

Party guest had complete access to the world’s most unbelievable exhibits inside of Ripley's.

Not only did guest have access to the odditorium they could get a reading from our very own Screamfest clairvoyant on the house. Check out the photos of the body painters painting skeletons on live humans entertaining the guest. On their way out guest received a black tote swag bag courtesy of Destination America with some great goodies such as a Holy water bottle, dvd's from Scream Factory, collectible Pocket Pop horror figures of Freddy, Jason and Sam courtesy of Hot Topic.

Everyone had a great time and it was a great kickoff to the start of the festival.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa
And elftwinfilms aka Dave Reda who we borrowed 2 awesome instagram shots.

Check out fan photos at Online Instagram .

The sold out opening night film Tales of Halloween screened Tuesday October 12, 2015. Read Dread Central's review of the evening by Sean Decker.

Dread Central Attends the Screamfest Premiere of Tales of Halloween

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Sean Decker
Last night the highly anticipated Halloween-themed horror anthology Tales of Halloween (review) held its Los Angeles premiere to a packed house at the kick-off of the 15th annual Screamfest Horror Film Festival, and we were there to document it. Read on!

Comprised of ten tales of terror written and directed by “The October Society” (a gathering of some of L.A.’s more respected indie horror filmmakers, who hatched the film’s concept at the infamous Jumpcut Café in 2014) and releasing to select theaters and through video on demand this Friday, October 16, via Epic Pictures, Tales of Halloween debuted to a standing room-only crowd and to thunderous applause.

On the rather congested carpet pre-screening were Screamfest festival head Rachel Belofsky and Tales of Halloween directors Axelle Carolyn (Soulmate), Andrew Kasch (Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy), Dave Parker (The Hills Run Red), John Skipp (A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child), Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider!), Ryan Schifrin (Abominable), Adam Gierasch (Night of the Demons), Paul Solet (Grace), and Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III and IV).

And — take a breath — among the cast members who joined them were Lin Shaye (Insidious), Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), Marc Senter (The Lost), legendary director Joe Dante (Gremlins), Cerina Vincent (Cabin Fever), Clare Kramer (“Buffy the Vampire Slyer”), James Duvall (SLC Punk), Robert Rusler (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2), Elissa Dowling, and directors Mick Garris (“Masters of Horror”) and Adam Green (Hatchet), the latter of whom also moderated a filmmaker Q&A following the premiere.

Also on hand to lend their support were Unnatural director Hank Braxtan, original Night of the Demons filmmaker Kevin Tenney, the Wrong Turn series’ Declan O’Brien, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, and well, basically too many others to count. Check out our overflowing image gallery from the night below.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa