2015 FESTIVAL

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

Feast had its 10 year anniversary at Screamfest on Friday October 16th, 2015. A Conversation with director John Gulager, Diane Gulager, producer Clu Gulager, Chris Moore, writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, actresses Krista Allen and Jenny Wade, Nick Phillips, Duane Whitaker, Gary Tunnicliffe and Judah Friedlander followed the screening. Take a look at this great article by Jonathan Weichsel of MoreHorror.com.

By Jonathan Weichsel
MoreHorror.com

Feast is directed by John Gulager, written by Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton, executive produced by Wes Craven, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Moore, produced by Joel Soisson, Mike Leahy, and stars Balthazar Getty, Krista Allen, Jenny Wade, Clu Gulager, Navi Rawat, Diane Goldner, Judah Friedlander, Josh Zuckerman, Henry Rollins, Jason Mewes, Eileen Ryan, Eric Dane, and Anthony "Treach" Criss.

The screening was followed by a discussion led by Sean Decker with John Gulager, Diane Gulager, Clu Gulager, Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton, Chris Moore, Jenny Wade, Krista Allen, Nick Phillips, Duane Whitaker, Gary Tunnicliffe, Judah Friedlander and many more.

Ten years ago The Screamfest Horror Film Festival held the world premiere of Feast, a quirky, off-beat horror film and although the movie has gone on to become a cult classic, it never really got the recognition it deserved.

On Friday October 16th Screamfest held a ten year anniversary screening of the film, and after ten years, Feast holds up very well -- sort of like visiting your favorite Halloween Store. Feast is definitely a film that deserves to be revisited by the horror community.

Feast is about a group of mostly horrible people trapped in a remote bar who must fight for their survival when a bunch of very large, very strong monsters show up to eat them. What makes Feast stand out for me is how subversive and unpredictable it can be. Not all of the good characters survive, and not all of the bad characters redeem themselves. Sometimes good characters do bad things, and sometimes bad characters do good things. There is a feeling of chaos throughout the movie, both in the disjointed way the action scenes are shot, as well as the freewheeling way the story unfolds.

Feast was produced as part of season three of HBO's Project Greenlight, and the entire production was captured in minute detail in the reality TV show.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa

Check out fan photos at Online Instagram .

The feature film Condemned premiered on Sunday October 18th, 2015 at Screamfest. The stars of the film graciously signed posters for fans in the theater lobby. After the screening, Chris Hardwick of Nerdist (Talking Dead) moderated a Q & A with Lydia Hearst, Dylan Penn, Honor Titus, Genevieve Hudson-Price, Perry Yung, Kevin Kirkwood Smith and Ronen Rubinstein. Sean Penn was in attendance supporting his daughter Dylan Penn who stars in the film.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.

Photos courtesy of Angelica Ulloa

Check out fan photos at Online Instagram .