Nightmares Film Festival 2021 Official Selections

Country: United States
Language: English

The Midwest Premiere was presented at the Film Center on October 24, 2021, as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021.

“a remarkably insightful and powerful portrait of the human condition”

—Frank Scheck for The Hollywood Reporter

About the film:

Premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. Erik Blake has gathered three generations of his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare.

The Humans is writer-director Stephen Karam’s debut film adapted from his own Tony Award-winning play exploring the hidden dread of a family and the love that binds them together.

Images courtesy of A24

About the filmmaker:

Stephen Karam is an award-winning director, screenwriter and playwright with a talent for finding dark comedy in American culture. For his work crafting plays like “The Humans” and “Sons of the Prophet”—a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family—he received two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an OBIE Award and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. He also penned the screenplay for 2018 film The Seagull, an adaptation of Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov’s 1890s play.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

SyFy’s Day of the Dead (2021), Episodes 1 and 2 | Theatrical Exclusive | Run Time: 86 min. | The first two episodes of SyFy’s new Romero-inspired series — the intense story of six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead invasion — followed by a live Q&A with co-showrunners and executive producers Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas.

Country: United States
Language: English

The Midwest Premiere was presented at the Film Center on October 24, 2021, as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021.

About the film:

World Premiere at Fantastic Fest 2021. On Thanksgiving night, a group of disgruntled toy store employees begrudgingly arrive for work to open the store at midnight for the busiest shopping day of the year. This group of misfits soon find them themselves battling against hordes of holiday shoppers who have been turned into monstrous creatures hellbent on a murderous rampage on Black Friday.

Images courtesy of Screen Media

About the filmmaker:

Emmy Award-winning writer-director Casey Tebo got his start directing live concerts, concert films and music videos for Aerosmith. He directed commercials, promos, and live events for Disney, NFL, MTV, and more before crafting his 2012 sci-fi short film The Captivus which screened genre festivals around the world. In 2016, Tebo wrote and directed his debut narrative, the comedy horror feature Happy Birthday.

With a screenplay by newcomer Andy Greskoviak and a cast of genre film legends, Bruce Campbell described Black Friday as “The Breakfast Club with carnage and mayhem.” Read more from the filmmakers here.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

NFF sets itself apart from other genre fests by its deep year-round connection with a supportive horror filmmaking community. At the festival, you are invited to join your fellow creators to talk about the work and get inspired.

Country: Germany
Language: German

The Midwest Premiere was presented at the Film Center as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021 where Frederik von Lüttichau won Best Supporting Performance.

About the film:

Premiered at the 2021 FrightFest UK. Margot, who comes from a noble family, has inherited a run down castle that she inspects together with her ill-tempered husband Dieter. When they arrive at the keep, their relationship is put to a test, as their sanity slowly deteriorates.

“A gorgeous, ethereal movie full of surprising twists that deftly shift genres.”

—Megean Navarro for Bloody Disgusting

Images courtesy of MPI Media

About the filmmaker:

Kevin Kopacka is an Austrian-Sri Lankan director, painter and video artist. He grew up in Graz, Austria and moved to Berlin, Germany in 2006. In 2007 he started his studies of Fine Art at the University of Arts, Berlin in the class of Japanese artist Leiko Ikemura and graduated as Master Student in 2012. Based in Berlin, he has exhibited his art in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, France and the USA. His projects, including the short films Hades (2015), Everyonce (2015), and Dylan (2017), are often abstract and usually deal with paranormal and metaphysical elements.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Save Me From Everything (2021) | North American Premiere | Run Time: 83 min. | Emmy travels to Ireland in hope of finding the stranger who may be responsible for a family curse that has turned all her relatives dangerously insane.

The Fox (2021) | Run Time: 15 min. | A family moves into a dead relative’s home, only to discover that they are not alone.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Terror Trips (2021) | Ohio Premiere | Run Time: 84 min. | Six friends providing guided tours to famous horror film shooting locations discover the one spot where the terror is real.

Short film on 35mm presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Ivory Wave (2021) | World Premiere | Run Time: 30 min. | Presented on 35mm film with a live score. After a terrible discovery, a man on bath salts finds an ominous ventriloquist doll.

Tales of dark suspense | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Parricide | Run time: 7.5 min. | Just a routine sleepover at Jeffrey’s house. 

Feed Your Muse | Run time: 16.75 min. | An aspiring novelist purchases the “muse” of a famous dead author at a garage sale. But what does the muse want in return?

Marked | Run time: 12. 5 min. | A tattoo artist is forced to confront his past when a client knows the true meaning behind his tattoos. 

Movin Day | Run time: 4 min. | When a newly engaged couple moves in together, they quickly discover some skeletons should remain in the closet.

The Other Side of Fear | Run time: 20.25 min. | An excitable woman with a rare brain condition participates in a series of bizarre experiments with two ethically compromised neurologists.

Hazel | Run time: 17.5 min. | When her partner fails to support her, a new mother’s postpartum anxiety develops into a dangerous psychosis.

A Good Couple | Run time: 13 min. | After a blowout fight, Julia’s boyfriend is perfect but eerily unrecognizable.

Tales of terror and death | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Smile | Run time: 6.75 min. | When a young woman struggles to smile, her depression becomes something truly monstrous. 

Hannya | Run time: 28.5 min. | Ana enjoys finally meeting her lover’s social group, until his childhood friend Marie arrives.

Lake Forest Road | Run time: 7.5 min. | On their way home from a party, four friends find trouble in the woods.

I Call Upon Thee | Run time: 14.5 min. | Sisters from a broken family face irreversible consequences when they try to improve their lives with a summoning ritual.

An Uninvited Guest | Run time: 3.25 min. | When a Black man is assaulted by police, all but one guest at a dinner party consider the attack unremarkable.

Button Man | Run time: 24 min. | Inspired by true events. Sisters on a hiking trip in the Victorian High Country realize they aren’t alone.

Wrightwood | Run time: 9.75 min. | In desperate need of a relaxing weekend, Scott instead finds his friends exhibiting bizarre behavior that is either an endless prank or something more disturbing.

Tales of dark suspense | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Trust | Run time: 23.25 min. | Some books you just can’t put down.

Second | Run time: 11 min. | Twin sisters try to come to terms with their differences only to discover a haunting supernatural tragedy.

Snake Dick | Run time: 7.75 min. | Jill’s got the snake. Julia’s got the flute. Alone, they have nothing. But together, they have a secret weapon to fight the darkness.

Now That You’re Mine | Run time: 37 min. | An idyllic cabin trip turns into a nightmare as a suppressed memory, jealousy and paranoia turn three young women against each other.

Reklaw | Run time: 12 min. | A rogue prosecutor and his talented criminal team who destroy evidence to keep people from prison have their convictions tested when the killer returns during their crime scene clean-up.

Locally made shorts | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

1Drink/2Drink | Run time: 19.5 min. | Trapped in a new world together with nothing but impending doom and a bottle of tequila, an unlikely duo must work together to stay alive, but not sober.

Surprise! | Run time: 10 min. | A surprise party drags when the guest of honor is late, until a creepy pizza delivery guy shows up with strangely intimate knowledge of the guests.

Block Universe | Run time: 5 min. | After a bout of insomnia, a man has trouble deciphering what is real and what isn’t.

The Lost Clan of Bold Maneuvering | Run time: 4.5 min. | An innocent in a strange world is lured by the god-moon to find and release an ancient power.

Triangle | Run time: 24.5 min. | I don’t want to be the last man on earth. 

My Monster and Me | Run time: 11 min. | A match made in haste.

Le Carceri Uncanny | Run time: 5. 75 min. | A repressed human powers a machine in a forgotten underground space where a light above becomes hope for escape.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

2021 marks the return of NFF’s influential annual panels. Join us for a discussion on the new distribution.

Panelists will be announced soon!

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

2021 marks the return of NFF’s influential annual panels. Join us for a discussion on social progress through horror.

Panelists will be announced soon!

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

Join us for a live recording of the award-winning Fright Club podcast hosted by George Wolf and Hope Madden. RSVP here. Seating is first come, first served.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Peppergrass (2021) | World Premiere | Run Time: 92 min. | During a pandemic, a pregnant restaurateur tries to rob a priceless truffle from a reclusive veteran.

Strayed (2021) | Run Time: 6 min. | There are things you can’t run away from.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

APPS (2021) | Northern United States Premiere | Run Time: 92 min. | A horror anthology that tells four stories about mobile apps from hell.

Movie Night (2021) | Run Time: 7.25 min. | A couple on their first date watch a bootleg movie.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

The FP 3: Escape from Bako (2021) | World Premiere | Run Time: 70 min. | A calamity from the Wastes threatens to wipe humanity off the face of the Earf and only one family has what it takes to Beat it off.

Hell Hole (2021) | Run Time: 9 min. | A maintenance worker at the gate to Hell has a bad day.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Masking Threshold (2021) | Northern United States Premiere | Run Time: 90 min. | Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

Wee Woo (2021) | Run Time: 9.25 min. | A woman who awakens in a silent world hears a mysterious call that draws her deep into the dark woods.

Country: United States
Language: English

Watch the Q&A with writer-director Gia Elliot from March 4 at the Film Center.

About the film:

Ohio Premiere at Nightmares Film Festival 2021 where Gia Elliott won Best Director. Finding herself the victim of a violent monster attack, Jane launches a vigilante campaign to hunt the beast that tried to kill her. Jane’s efforts intensify, but her troubling history of drug use and mental illness bubbles to the surface causing her family, community, and authorities to question the authenticity of her account. Suddenly alone in her fight, Jane starts to doubt her own memory of the attack…to doubt if Monster exists at all.

“Fueled by formidable female talent both in front of and behind the camera”

—Tracy Allen for Pop Horror

Images courtesy of MPI Media

About the filmmakers:

Gia Elliot is a writer, director, producer, and cinematographer who works at the intersection of social impact and cinematic storytelling. She studied Creative Writing and Entertainment Industry Economics at Belmont University before attending New York Law School. Among her projects, she crafted the 2015 award-winning queer web series How to Not and served as a field producer on Comedy Central’s The Fake News with Ted Nelms and A24’s HBO series Pod Save America.

While attending Law School in New York City, Elliot was troubled by how the justice system handled sexual violence cases. After educating themselves on the effects of trauma on behavior, she teamed up with co-writer and star Emma Fitzpatrick to explore the issues through her debut feature film, Take Back the Night.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

FUKT (2021) | World Premiere | Run Time: 70 min. | Six directors diving into the most depraved corners of the mind in a specific genre that is currently underpopulated by women.

Midnight Snack (2021) | Run Time: 5 min. | At the stroke of midnight, a woman compulsively seeks out late night munchies only to become hypnotized by the Biblical dronings of a possessed television.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Bloodshot Heart (2021) | Midwest Premiere | Run Time: 90 min. | A mild-mannered driving instructor living with his manipulative and jealous mother descends into obsession and psychosis when a tenant half his age moves in.

The Truth About Hastings (2021) | Run Time: 9.5 min. | Strange things are afoot in a small Nebraska community.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

Competition films and screenplays compete for the coveted Night Mare, the festival’s beautiful hand-sculpted award honoring the dark horses of horror and genre filmmaking. The Nightmares Film Festival Night Mare is designed and sculpted each year by toy and figure artist Tony Simione.

Awards

The Film from Hell – best of the festival
Best overall feature/short
Best horror feature/short
Best thriller feature/short
Best midnight feature/short
Best horror-comedy feature/short
Best director feature/short
Best cinematography feature/short
Best writing feature/short
Best lead performance feature/short
Best supporting performance feature/short
Best Recurring Nightmare
Screenwriting: best screen play feature/short
Esprit de Gore

Audience favorites return with new shorts | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival

Pinky’s Dream | Run time: 9.75 min. | A traveling specialist who helps people relive memories stumbles on a couple’s dark secret.

Witches Midnight | Run time: 9 min. | A babysitter’s phone sex is interrupted when she notices something unusual on the baby monitor.

Venus | Run time: 2.25 min. | A stranger stops to help a woman stranded on the side of the road, but nothing is what it first appears.

Forgive Us | Run time: 14 min. | After years of estrangement, an embittered young man uncovers sinister threats when returning home with his boyfriend for Christmas.

Strange with Cats | Run time: 2 min. | Two lovely cats require a cat-sitter, and find just the stranger to care for them.

YouBuddy | Run time: 9 min. | Alone on her birthday, Christine searches the internet for connection.

Distance | Run time: 10.5 min. | In the near future, Peter and Amy’s relationship remains distant due to a virus that prevents human touch.

Posture | Run time: 3.25 min. | A young man has a transformative experience through his addiction to technology.

Tales of terror, death, and music | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

After Party | Run time: 9 min. | In the 1970s, a couple driving home from a party encounters a group of escaped mental patients and joins them in the dance number of their lives.

Macabre Night | Run time: 20 min. | A young couple caught amidst a prison break fights to return safely home throughout a bizarre night.

Possessed | Run time: 8 min. | An unhinged woman shows up at her virtual spinning instructor’s home unannounced.

Ad Lib | Run time: 11 min. | A dark drama in the world of karaoke.

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

The Woman With The Leopard Shoes (2021) | Eastern United States Premiere | Run Time: 80 min. | A thief is trapped in a home when dozens of people arrive mid-break-in for a party.

Breach (2021) | Run Time: 8 min. | Following a confrontation with her husband about his infidelity, a distraught wife pursues the woman complicit in his crime.

Tales of dark suspense | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Chaperone | Run time: 15 min. | As a mysterious pair settle into an austere rental house in the country, the details of their arrangement become disturbingly clear.

Believers | Run time: 9 min. | A woman interviews for her dream job, but the company needs her to be more than just an employee.

Body of the Mined | Run time: 15 min. | A reserved new tenant meets a reclusive engineer next door who is at the brink of completing a bizarre, extraordinary machine.

Cricket | Run time: 16 min. | A man wakes from a nightmare, only to be haunted by the sounds that inhabit his dreams.

Meet Cute | Run time: 10.5 min. | Unusual times create unusual ways of finding connection.

Upstairs | Run time: 17.25 min. | Jennifer Saint is adamant a sinister family secret resulted in her father’s death, but will anyone heed her warning?

Anniversary | Run time: 6.5 min. | Just married, it was supposed to be the best day of their lives.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Extraneous Matter (2021) | North American Premiere | Run Time: 60 min. | A woman suffering in a sexless relationship is visited by a strange creature.

Tales of terror and death | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Household Demons | Run time: 9.25 min. | A troubled young boy must confront the demon who possesses his mother. 

$trip | Run time: 11 min. | On her first night stripping in a secret underground club, Penny must decide whether to go all the way.

Don’t Touch | Run time: 3.5 min. | When Nina removes her neighbor’s laundry without permission, she finds herself in a load of trouble.

BOSSBABES | Run time: 13.75 min. | When one woman realizes the “perfect” life promised to her is actually all a cruel pyramid scheme, she seeks vengeance.

Crock Pot | Run time: 8.5 min. | Terror awaits a young couple as they fight over going to the young man’s parents’ house the next day for thanksgiving.

The Taste of Hunger | Run time: 21 min. | Seulgi can’t eat alone.

The Expected | Run time: 14.5 min. | After his partner miscarries, a father-to-be ends up in a feverish nightmare when a strange entity seems to be growing in the mother’s blood.

Hang Up | Run time: 3 min. | A late night phone call gets a little complicated.

Minimally Invasive | Run time: 10 min. | An anxious patient fears that his concerns are being ignored when his routine operation yields unexpected findings.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Ninja Badass (2021) | Ohio Premier | Run Time: 103 min. | Kill Bad Guys. Save Hot Babes. Eat China Buffet.

Tales of the Weird and Bizarre | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Son of La Llorna | Run time: 7.5 min. | An encounter between a woman possessed by the spirit of La Llorona and a man who claims to be the son she once drowned.

The Fuzzies | Run time: 7.75 min. | A man wakes up locked in a strange bathroom where something is lurking behind the walls.

290 Words Per Minute | Run time: 2.5 min. The world record holder for most words typed per minute shares the secret to his success.|

The Provider | Run time: 20 min. | A short course in agricultural economy.

Everything Go Round | Run time: 5 min. |Part three of an irreverent horror-comedy triptych shot entirely in isolation.

License & Registration | Run time: 10 min. | Elliott Nelson, a cop impersonator with good intentions, makes his first traffic stop.

Serratus | Run time: 2.75 min. | Figure skater Nastassia chooses a pact with a dark force to achieve the impossible.

Call for Me | Run time: 13.5 min. | A young woman trying to join a secret Hollywood society struggles with her skeptical boyfriend to pass the final test.

Womb | Run time: 10 min. | During her third trimester, a soon-to-be single mother is forced to face her anxiety and fears in her own personal hot pink hellscape.

Get Up and Eat | Run time: 12 min. | An unnamed priest, exiled in wilderness, struggles to rid himself of an ancient evil

Feature and short presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

The Whooper Returns (2021) | Ohio Premier | Run Time: 72 min. | Following the death of their mother, four estranged siblings find themselves fighting for their inheritance and for their lives when an eccentric stranger arrives, claiming their famous haunted childhood home was left to her.

Pastiche (2021) | Run Time: 26 min. | After a home invasion, a depressed father must save his family before they become prime time news.

Tales of Terror and Death | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

#NOFILTER | Run time: 13.25 min. | An insecure twenty-something begins to question true beauty when she becomes obsessed with an insidious filter.

The Lake | Run time: 5.75 min. | When a young man takes his girlfriend out on the lake to propose, they are faced with the dark spirits beneath the surface.

Myosotis | Run time: 26.5 min. | After a beekeeper accidentally kills his wife, then buries her in the vegetable patch, strange things begin to happen in the garden.

The Gloom | Run time: 13.25 min. | When a young man takes his girlfriend out on the lake to propose, they are faced with the dark spirits beneath the surface.

I’ll Be Back Tomorrow | Run time: 5 min. | A women and her partner unravel the eerie connections related to the nightmare that has awoken her in the middle of the night.

Fractures | Run time: 12.75 min. | When her daughter disappears, a mother broken by grief and her mysterious partner take justice into their own hands. 

Sink | Run time: 16.25 min. | After a horrific attack, a man begins to fall apart, as seen entirely from above the bathroom sink.

Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Bloody Sun | Run time: 34.5 min. | Independent Aussie horror filmmaker Chris Sun embarks on his next cinematic adventure “Boar,” a creature feature about a giant killer bush pig gone wild.

Three Ways to Dine Well | Run time: 23 min. | Horror’s relationship to eating, examined through more than seventy horror films made by women in the last century.

Audience favorites return with new shorts | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

He Left Instructions | Run time: 13 min. | Death brings family together. 

Watcher | Run time: 6.75 min. | Hoping for a quiet night in, an older woman encounters an unwelcome intruder.

Kiara | Run time: 11.5 min. | Von returns home to visit his sick sister, where he begins to suspect something dark has taken hold of her. 

In the Company of Crows | Run time: 19.25 min. | When a naïve autistic girl is victimized by her degenerate neighbor and classmate, she turns to the offerings of crows she’s befriended to save herself.

Ghost Note | Run time: 5 min. | What a man will do to see his lost loved one.

The Baby Next Door | Run time: 25.75 min. | The cries of a baby drive a man going through a breakup into drug-fueled madness.

Tapehead | Run time: 8.75 min. | Someone has taken their love of VHS horror one step too far!

Tales of Terror, Death, and Humor | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Sitting Duck | Run time: 8.5 min. | A wife spends her days plotting her oafish husband’s demise.

Sins of a Werewolf | Run time: 22 min. | When a seasoned parish priest is bitten by a mysterious animal, he begins transforming into a werewolf every full moon.

Wich | Run time: 4.5 min. | It was an ordinary day. Until it wasn’t.

Good Head | Run time: 30 min. | All this Hollywood star wants is for this movie to have a “happy ending.”

Miss Blueberry | Run time: 11.75 min. | Three finalists navigate the twists and turns of a pageant with a sinister secret.

Follow Me, Please | Run time: 16.5 min. | A struggling photographer stricken with comparison anxiety is visited by a poltergeist who promises him social media success.

Tales of terror and death | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

The Cruise | Run Time: 8 min. | On Halloween night, a gay couple takes a drive into haunted woods to summon an urban legend.

The Night Courier | Run Time: 20.5 min. | When a woman paid to feed people to monsters has her prey escape, one night becomes a hellish cat and mouse chase.

They’re Here | Run Time: 12 min. | A young girl sets out to convince her father that her grandmother is not who she seems.

Poor Glenna | Run Time: 17 min. | When her mutant son develops a taste for human flesh, a timid mother must find a victim to satisfy his ravenous appetite.

The Last Scan | Run Time: 4 min. | Just because you’re by yourself, doesn’t mean you’re alone.

Deep Red Dandelions | Run Time: 10.5 min. | A deranged serial killer abducts a young girl and takes her out to a field of flowers to meet a brutal end.

Processing | Run Time: 16 min. | The truth won’t always set you free.

Tales of the weird and bizarre | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Bobby Pinwheel |Run time: 3 min. |Birthday boy Reginald has a special visitor: the mime, mimic and maniac, Bobby Pinwheel!

Sweet Mary, Where Did You Go | Run time: 16 min. | An escaped convict lost in 1803 Australia encounters two immortal time travelers from our future, on a journey to understand mortality.

Thumb | Run time: 10.5 min. | The daughter of a controversial performance artist inherits her late mother’s home final piece.

Red Cap F30.2 | Run time: 13.5 min. | When we bury our ambitions, we are just surviving.

Death Valley | Run time: 11 min. | On New Years’ Eve 2080, a new age radiologist travels from outer space to practice yoga on an uninhabited Earth.

Bug Bites | Run time: 8 min. | Some house guests are a real pain in the ass.

Oh, For a Pack of Gum | Run time: 7.25 min. | A couple’s first date grows increasingly bizarre.

Eye Exam | Run time: 3 min. | A woman attending a free eye exam starts to suspect the optometrist has nefarious motives.

In the Soil | Run time: 15 min. | Karoline’s life is turned upside down when her father, Kjeld, manically starts digging a pit in their backyard. 

Eat Me! | Run time: 3.25 min. | To feed her unsated hunger, a hag tries different methods to lure children into her belly. 

Tales of the Weird and Bizarre | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

A Machine for Boredom | Run time: 3.25 min. | Isolation drives a man to rethink his position within a capitalistic society.

My Dinner with Werner | Run time: 18 min. |Inspired by the real-life “friendship” between Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski. A wildly bizarre story about a 1987 dinner date with a murder plot as the main dish.

#MEOWTOO | Run time: 6 min. |In the neon-drenched near future, anthropomorphic feline heroine Meow meets a sleazy film producer who intends to have her at any cost. 

Squish | Run time: 20 min. | Left to take care of their son while his husband goes on a work trip, Tom takes a wrong turn behind the wheel.

Kiss the Cook | Run time: 2 min. | A disturbed man prepares a gourmet feast.

My Brother Jeffery | Run time: 10 min. | Duke fights ghosts, witches, demons and depression in order to avenge his brother Jeffrey’s death.

Fruit Loops | Run time: 9.25 min. |An exploration of deep desire. 

Dystopia | Run time: 6.75 min. | A young girl’s fantasy becomes the playground for a gang of women set to create the perfect man, one limb at a time. 

Deep Learning | Run time: 14. 5 min. | There’s something wrong with Moira’s videos.

Tales of terror, death, and humor | Presented as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021

Guts | Run time: 8 min. | A guy with his guts on the outside of his body really wants a promotion.

Afterlife | Run time: 14.75 min. | A dead man wakes to discover he’s a vampire, only to struggle to follow through with his dreams of escape.

Bitch, You Thirsty | Run time: 9.75 min. | A girl will do anything in order to be a part of a small vampire clique.

Peter the Penguin | Run time: 9 min. | Nigel is on his way to meet his partner’s daughter Emily for the first time and he hopes to make a big impression.

The Curse of Pizza Mike | Run time: 16.25 min. | After a couple refuses a pizza they didn’t order, Pizza Mike uses his dark magic to terrorize them.

Lethalogica | Run time: 6 min. | Relationships can be killer, but the best advice for a successful one is patience and a short memory.

The Tip of the Spear | Run time: 11.25 min. | Starting a family in their new home, a couple discovers their neighbors are goat-sacrificing occultists after their unborn child.

Special Delivery | Run time: 3 min. | A delivery driver struggles with one simple direction: DO. NOT. OPEN.

Visitors | Run time: 16.25 min. | Three friends visit their bandmate at home after he loses contact with them. But his behavior is a little strange.

Country: United States
Language: English, Spanish

Celebrate the 40th anniversary with a screening of the new 4K restoration, previously presented at the Film Center as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021.

About the film:

After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Country: United States
Language: English

The Midwest Premiere was presented at the Film Center on October 21, 2021, as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021.

About the film:

“It’s a strong debut for both Schoenbrun and Cobb, capturing a profound sense of contemporary adolescent loneliness that many artists have tried (and failed) to portray on screen.”

—Hannah Strong for Little White Lies

World Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Alone in her attic bedroom, teenager Casey becomes immersed in an online role-playing horror game, wherein she begins to document the changes that may or may not be happening to her.

Images courtesy of Utopia

About the filmmaker:

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun is a non-binary filmmaker and champion for emerging storytellers. They served as Senior Film Lead at Kickstarter and Associate Director of Programming for IFP, and have produced numerous projects, including the 2016 SXSW selection collective:unconscious, the variety show The Eyeslicer featuring experimental content from over 100 indie filmmakers, Aaron Schimberg’s 2018 award-winning feature Chained for Life, and Beth Einhorn and Bridey Elliott’s 2020 Sundance selection The Starr Sisters.

No stranger to creepypasta — online horror storytelling — that can blur the line between fiction and reality, Schoenbrun previously directed A Self-Induced Hallucination, a 2018 archival documentary on the Slender Man mythos and the relationship of art and fiction. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is their debut narrative feature.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners
National Endowment for the Arts

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media

Country: United States
Language: English

The Midwest Premiere was presented at the Film Center on October 22, 2021, as part of Nightmares Film Festival 2021.

“A brash, gutsy, morbidly funny first feature”

—Guy Lodge for Variety

About the film:

Winner of Best First Feature at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival. While out apartment hunting, college pals Noelle and Addie stumble upon the deal of a lifetime: a posh duplex on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But soon after moving in, a more sinister picture of the apartment emerges when a mysterious woman arrives and claims the property used to belong to the infamous and recently deceased Jeffrey Epstein.

Images courtesy of Utopia

About the filmmaker:

Belarusian-American writer, actor and director Dasha Nekrasova made her acting debut in Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Wobble Palace, which screened at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival. Among her other projects, she has appeared in The Serpent and has a recurring role on the third season of HBO’s Succession. She is also co-host of the cultural commentary podcast “Red Scare” with Anna Khachiyan.

Co-writing with her co-star Madeline Quinn, Nekrasova channeled her feelings about Jeffrey Epstein into crafting her debut feature, The Scary of Sixty-First. Read more from the filmmaker.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media