Written by Mark Brennan
Happy Halloween!
It’s that time of year when, much like St. Patrick’s Day and suddenly everyone has a little Irish in them, horror fans and those who only dabble the rest of the year come out to play together en masse.
And quite right too! Horror is fun, exciting, scary, and the nights are darker, spookier, wetter (hi from the UK). So, with all that mixed into the cauldron, what’s cooked up is the perfect excuse to stay indoors and let the old masters and next generation of storytellers either turn our trousers brown or have us howling with their sinister cinematic delights.
However, for film festivals, horror is a year-round affair. So, what so some of the circuits established horror film festivals have to say about the current state of horror and what they’re looking for from it?
As with any horror film, the thrills come from being surprised by the unexpected. The cat leaping on a character from out of nowhere, closing the bathroom cabinet to see the Big Bad in the mirror behind you, leaning in close to inspect a dead body is really dead and then… you get the idea. In fact, what I’ve done here is listed some of the most used tropes for jump scares in horror to make the point that what might be surprising to the people onscreen is not always surprising the to programmers watching.
So, what are these festivals looking for when curating their programmes? I asked leading horror festivals FrightFest and Telluride Horror Show for their thoughts.
“Ideally? Something we've never seen before! The unexpected is always so rewarding to watch. Or if more of a straight-forward horror short film, a unique slant that makes the story or short or scares or gore or suspense feel fresh. The horror genre is one that is riddled with tropes, so when filmmakers twist or turn those tropes on their heads, successfully, it gets us - and the audiences - excited. But really, we don't want to know where your film is going...take us by surprise and somewhere new.” Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
“Ambition, perhaps something a little different, but basically, short. I read somewhere that a famous Hollywood director from the golden age of cinema said, "If you can't do it in 90 minutes, don't bother." When it comes to shorts, if you can't do it in 10 minutes, get the scissors out.” – Ian Rattray, FrightFest
There’s something a little unsettling about a horror programmer encouraging you to get your scissors out, and I’m here for it. So, what’s what they are looking for, but how about the opposite? What is they would like to see less?
“We don't necessarily pinpoint certain tropes - but if your film is recycling tropes, and not adding something new to them, or not subverting them, we - and the audience too - will see it coming from a mile away. And will be left disappointed if there's nothing new offered up. I would give that simple advice to horror short filmmakers - horror fans and, yes, programmers at a horror film festival, we've so many horror films, so any standard approach to the genre is likely to land with only a disappointed sigh.” – Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
“This is an easy one for me to answer, and it's personal. Found footage films. There is always the one that proves the rule, but please, tell me where I can get a camera that the battery lasts so long.” – Ian Rattray, FrightFest
I have my own found footage horror story involving a nauseous hangover and watching the first 15-minutes of Cloverfield on the big screen, which got grizzly, but that’s a story for another time. What we have here now is two of the biggest programmers of horror telling us exactly what they would/would not like to see, and that’s invaluable. Which also speaks to the value of watching as many horror short films as you can. It is easily the genre most specifically catered to on the festival circuit, so there is little excuse not to see what else is out there and helping that inform how you might find that new thing to show programmers. What makes this side of the circuit so popular?
“This is simple to answer. If you look at the people who run these events, just like us, they are fans. I would say 95% of the films shown at these events will never see a proper theatrical release. As such, they provide a platform for horror fans to experience them as they should be seen.” – Ian Rattway, FrightFest
FrightFest
“I would guess it stems from the fact that horror fans tend to be very dedicated fans, and that deep love of the genre inspires so many to want to support it, by doing what they can do showcase indie horror in their own towns and cities? And a large part too - horror movies work best with a crowd (or when you're completely alone at night, ha) - those shared screams and jumps (and laughs and groans) in a movie theatre - it's how horror movies were meant to be experienced. So, it makes sense that so many folks would want to organize a horror film fest to create that space for the filmmakers and audiences. Also, it's well known that the horror community is a welcoming, friendly, supportive community - so if you're part of that community already, you probably want to bring it close to your own home with a horror film fest - even if it's just a one-day event or much bigger. That strikes me as what might be some of the inspiration for some many genre fests.” – Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
Photo credit: Nicko Ferguson / Telluride Horror Show
There’s an irony not lost on me that the genre which is the most violent, blood-curdling, psychologically disturbing, and a window into the minds of every filmmaker bringing nightmares to life… is still so entirely built on love. And that love is undeniable. I had the privilege of premiering a short film I co-wrote, Bleep, at FrightFest a few years ago and it was by far my favourite screening to date. The enthusiasm from the crowd, the feeling that their rooting for you right from the off, was undeniable.
With that appetite for horror so strong, but seemingly in the minority when it comes to the Holywood box office, it was heartening to see the back-to-back successes of Backrooms and Obsession earlier this year. Much like Halloween, where they say the veil between the world of the living and the dead is at its thinnest, those two films brought the line between horror and mainstream audiences to the thinnest it’s been for a long time. What made these films so different?
Backrooms directed by Kane Parsons
“There's always been an appetite for horror films, but there is a ceiling to how much money they will take when playing to just horror fans. The reason Backrooms and Obsession dominated the box office was they crossed over to the normal audience for some reason. After a career of 40-odd years in the industry, if I could figure out why, I'd be sitting on my desert island in my deck chair with my cocktail in hand. In this case it was word of mouth and Mr. and Mrs. Ordinary decided they were for them.” – Ian Rattway, FrightFest
“Well, they were damn good horror movies! They were exciting and new and not reboots - and they brought some awesome scares and suspense and were so incredibly different from each other - it was a gift to horror fans, to have those two films back-to-back, while being so in their own worlds. And, hey, everyone loves a seemingly "overnight" success story (even though both directors, while young, have been at it for a while) - everybody wants to jump on what's cool, the next wave - and in this case, I really think it just boiled down to the fact that they were rock solid, very watchable, fun horror movies. They did good because they were good.” – Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
Obsession directed by Curry Barker
And speaking of good, what are some personal favourite short films the two programmers have enjoyed programming at their own festivals in the last few years?
“We're not answering that, ha! We love them all, for a million different reasons (wink, wink). No, we have a lot of variety in our shorts each year and it's too hard to kind of pit them against each other...back to our first answer to your first question...they're all so damn unique! But if you want a personal favourite over all the years...I'd still go back to The Procedure by Calvin Lee Reeder - he went for it...and that one is still so hard to top.” – Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
“Needleteeth by Daniel L. Martin. It was part of one of our short film showcases from 2025. We don't show short films in front of our features. We concentrate them all into showcases that last 100 minutes or so, and this one stuck out to me. Set on a farm in Ireland, the farm sheep suddenly begin to be found badly mauled and obviously dead. What I liked about this was the way the director got over the conflict within the boy as he slowly realises it might be him.” – Ian Rattway, FrightFest
And finally, to bring things back to what these horror festivals are seeing come through the door and for filmmaker to keep in mind moving forward to next Halloween, what have some of the recent trends in submissions been?
“They seem to be getting longer. Each film submitted to FrightFest crosses my desk just by the sheer fact that I monitor our generic email address before passing them on to our programming team, and this is the trend I have noticed. As the means of making films has become more widely available and cheaper, an iPhone's good enough these days, more people are making them and for most it's their first film. There is the odd first-time short film director who seems to arrive fully formed and seems to know the ins and the outs of how to do these things. But for most, they're learning as they go along. One of the things that I've noticed over the years of being part of FrightFest is we get so many written by, produced by and directed by films and they're probably not the best people to edit what they've made.” - Ian Rattway, FrightFest
“Tough question...since we're a film festival, and particularly with the short films, the films tend to be so far removed from what the studios are producing - while we do get some solid proof-of-concepts throughout the year, there are so many that are purely made for the art of filmmaking - or to entertain an audience without necessarily being a proof-of-concept for a commercial feature film. With the filmmakers' own voices front and center. Everything from horror comedy to gut-wrenching and brutal horror stories. Traditional filmmaking, stop-motion...the list goes on. So if we had to name a trend? The trend is that the vast number of diverse voices in the horror genre continues to grow.” - Ted Wilson, Telluride Horror Show
So, there we have it. Get the scissors out and show these festivals even more diverse voices coming through into a film space filled with blood, laughs, and above all, love.
