NIGHTMARES FILM FESTIVAL Reveals Killer 2019 PROGRAM

Four-Day “Better Horror” Lineup Brimming with Premieres, Coveted Films from Around the World

Columbus, OH – If this is a Nightmare, horror fans won’t want to wake up.

Closely-watched Nightmares Film Festival has outdone even its most legendary stuffed-to-bursting programs with 2019’s lineup, which will pack 190 of the world’s best features and shorts from around the world into this year’s four-day event, Oct. 24 to 27.

“We are so honored the world’s best genre creators trust us to present their work,” said co-founder and programmer Jason Tostevin. “This year, we have assembled more ‘better horror’ for our Nightmares audience than ever before.”

Leading the lineup are 24 features from both beloved horror filmmakers and important new voices in genre film. Included are Hammer Films’s The Lodge, from the makers of Goodnight Mommy; Daniel Isn’t Real, from the producers of Mandy and The Greasy Strangler; VFW, from the director of Almost Human; Eat Brains Love, adapted from the popular novel; and closing night film Z, from the creators of It Stains the Sand Red and Still/Born.

The fest will also present a screening of Jörg Buttgereit‘s infamously banned necrophilic exploitation film Nekromantik … brand new horror comedy anthology Scare Package … She Never Died, the sequel to the 2015 Henry Rollins action-horror film He Never Died … the Carpenter Brut-scored Blood Machines … the world premiere of FX artist Marcus Koch (We Are Still Here)’s doc on the history of extreme cinema, Beyond Horror … and the world premiere of Tommy Faircloth (Dollface)’s newest film, A Nun’s Curse.

One of Nightmares’s best known traditions, the Late Night Mind Fuck — called “one of the most dangerous and challenging blocks of programming at any festival” (The Film Coterie), returns this year with two world premieres. First is The Obsessed from Italian extreme director Domiziano Christopharo (previous NFF winner Torment), a body horror freak-out based on the manic descent of Bjork’s stalker. And at 2 a.m. is the dark, harrowing and sexually explicit 29 Needles.

The festival’s reputation for presenting the best curated shorts blocks on the planet continues with a lineup of 150+ horror, thriller, midnight and horror comedy short films, including dozens of world premieres. Its Recurring Nightmares blocks are also back, highlighting NFF audience favorites returning with new work, and its Ohio shorts blocks will offer up some of the best locally made films.

Nightmares has also named the 13 finalists in its short and feature screenplay contests. These screenwriters will be given the chance to connect with selected filmmakers to explore production of their scripts through the NFF FinaLIST matching service.

All selected competition films and screenplays vie for a coveted Night Mare statuette, representing the dark horses of genre. The Night Mare is sculpted and painted by renowned toy and figure creator Tony Simione (Marvel, Star Wars, Godzilla, Alien).

A complete list of features, shorts and screenplay finalists follows below.

Want to make the pilgrimage to Nightmares this year? Some passes are still available, though they always sell out.

Nightmares Film Festival has been called one of the world’s best horror film festivals by every major genre outlet. It has maintained its position as the world’s top-rated genre festival on the submission platform FilmFreeway for 35 consecutive months.

 

NIGHTMARES FILM FESTIVAL 2019 PROGRAM

FEATURE FILMS

The Lodge

Swallow

The Girl on the Third Floor

VFW

Nekromantik

Eat, Brains, Love

Daniel Isn’t Real

She Never Died

Blood Machines

A Nun’s Curse

Reckoning

Antrum

1BR

To Your Last Death

Making Monsters

Z

Beyond Horror

Slaughterhouse Slumber Party

Ghost Killers vs Bloody Mary

The Obsessed

Scare Package

29 Needles

Puppet Killer

Lake Michigan Monster

SHORT SCREENPLAY FINALISTS

Bathwater – Kevin Talley

Demon Inside Me – Brandon Rutherford

Gender Reveal Party – Alison Parker

Hush Little Baby – Ricardo Bravo

Cave of Tits – Stephen Stull

Vuorwro – Ron Riekki

Boogeyman Bait – Kay Phillips

Field Test – Chris Hicks

Love as a Practice for Dying – Shayna Connellly

Mary, Dispossessed – Kristy Walsh

The Garden – Guillermo Ortiz

The Squirrels in the Attic – Rachel Thomas-Medwid

Who Wants Dessert? – Venita Ozols-Graham

FEATURE SCREENPLAY FINALISTS

Night People – Søren Budge

Mom Died – Michael Klug

The Chamber – Sergio Pinheiro

Timmy Cooke: A Cannibal Love Story – Aaron Barrocas

Persona – Jeffrey Howe

The Mothman – Jackson Murray

No Overnight Parking – Meg Swertlow

Serial Killers Anonymous – Robert Forsberg

Daughters of Virtue – Michael Escobedo, Greg Sisco

Third Date – Avishai Weinberger

He Brings The Night – Kevin Donner

Monger – David Axe

Girl Trouble – Devi Snively

HORROR SHORTS

Boo

Trust Me

Melody

In Sound, We Live Forever

The Tattooist

To Enter You Must

Off Fleek

Atomic Ed

Steve And The Dead Girl

Creaker

She Must Vanish

Inferno

Piggy

Lippy

A-Symmetry

The Burden

Destroyer of Worlds

Room 106

The Vicious

Water Horse

How To Be Alone

Night Crawl

Nest

Plainsong

Tick

Twig

Portraits of Fright

Z-GOAT: First Bleat

Asian She – Competitive Mourning

The Third Hand

She Fell

Songs My Mother Taught Me

Attention

MJ

Tagged

Ferine

A Doll Distorted

I Learned How to Drive at the End of the World

Limbo

Headcleaner

Check

The Orchestra

THRILLER SHORTS

Feeder

Nineteen Ninety Nine

Cassandra

Lili

Gaslight

The Taste of Blood

A Clown’s Tale

Man in the Corner

Prefigured

It Came Nameless in Spring

Mutiny

The Housesitters

We Die Alone

September

Maggie May

Communication is Key

Broadside

SICK

Chickens

One Bad Night

The Automaton

A Noise That Carries

Lock and Key

Buffalo & Trout

The Itch

Playtime’s over

Catfight

MIDNIGHT SHORTS

VR Food

Adams

Hot Dog

Existential Donut

Bennifer

Valerio’s Day Out

Demons

Cured

Together

Malacostraca

The Program

Herman

Mannequins

Changeling

Stucco

Little Willy

The Outsider

Farsight

Five Course Meal

The Animator

Imagine a World

Sasquatch

Breathe

The Guy

The Contract

Unholy ‘Mole

Diddie Wa Diddie

Daughter of Dismay

I See Through You

A Night Without

Dad

Jackie

HORROR COMEDY SHORTS

Killer Date

Dead Teenager Séance

Bad Fun

OverKill

Exhibit Man

NeckFace

Inflatio

Possessions

Zebra

We Got a Monkey’s Paw

Half-Cocked

We Follow You

Ghost Turd

Reunion

SHHHH

Blow Out

Scary Stories: Bloody Mary

Sleep Tight

OHIO SHORTS

Winter’s Blood

Forgive Me

Look Twice

Where The Shadows Fall

Drainage

Unknown Number

Madness’ by Black Liquid

Tea Time for Lions

Wake Up Mark

The Coffin

Benito’s Brew

The End of the World: An Update

Tethered

Weight

The Things With The Glowing Green Eyes