Get ready for scary fun. The Austin Horror Film Festival has announced the first attack of titles for its inaugural year.
Running Oct. 17-19, it’s a new project from the ATX Short Film Showcase in partnership with Halloween fanatics Phantom Fest. The fest will titillate and terrify in equal measures, with three days of programming blocks, highlighting the best and wildest horror shorts on screens today.
As with all good Austin film festivals, the debut AHFF has unearthed terrifyingly great new films from the dark depths of the local scene, with new shorts from filmmakers such as Chris McInroy. The cofounder of horror collective Garth Manor has become a horror-comedy expert with shorts such as “We Forgot About the Zombies,” “We Summoned a Demon,” and “GUTS,” and he’s back in familiar funny-fearful territory with “We Joined a Cult.”
Ronald Short’s another familiar name, and while audiences may know him best from stoner comedy “Good Feels on Wheels,” he’s shown his skills around darker material with shorts like “The Rink” and “Dog Gone.” Now he’ll be greeting the scary season with “Body,” his new short about a Halloween decoration who does a lot more than just sit there.
They are far from the only local filmmakers on the roster. Nevada transplant Glenn Maxwell will be screening his short “I Will Not Go Gently Into the Night,” while John Goode gets gory for “The Slaughter Creek Slasher of the Dead.” Meanwhile, Leander-based filmmaking duo Joe Anderson and Nadine Vincent dare you to sleep through “Meet Evelyn, My Sleep Paralysis Demon.”
However, it’s not only local talent, even if there are familiar faces from out of town such as Denver’s Brad McHargue. A regular at Austin film festivals as both a filmmaker and journalist, he’s bringing his latest low-budget, high-ingenuity short “You Wake to Find Yourself Alone in the Woods” to the fest. However, it’s not just the geography that’s diverse. Victoria Andrea García Madera from Bushkill, Pennsylvania, brings animated nightmares with “Hunted” while North Carolinian Kiersten Houser takes a fresh bite out of the zombie genre with “Hunger Pang” as Laurie Dufort comes all the way from Quebec to screen her enigmatic chiller “The Hum.”
Austin Horror Film Festival 2024 runs Oct. 17-19 at the Ballroom, 2906 Fruth. Tickets and info at austinhorrorfilmfestival.com.
Body
D: Ronald Short
Jake swears he just saw one of his Halloween decorations move, and worst of all, neither he nor his girlfriend, Dawn, know where the damned thing came from.
Daughters of Evil
D: Adam Taylor and Natasha Pascetta
In 1966, a girl group consulted a spirit board in order to find the perfect band name. They got one, Daughters of Evil, but they also got possessed by demons. Decades later, a YouTuber accidentally summons the band to the land of the living by playing their album backwards.
The Hum
D: Laurie Dufort
In the valleys of Taos, New Mexico, David receives a strange call from his wife, Margaret, who is exploring an archaeological site in search of inspiration. Worried by her enigmatic message and the mysterious humming on the phone, he rushes to find her.
Hunger Pang
D: Kiersten Houser
A desperate and starving zombie woman finds a human baby, but her unlikely bond with the child poses a problem for her appetite.
Hunted
D: Victoria Andrea García Madera
Abruptly awoken by the shattering of her window early in the morning, Wendy forgets that even though she lives alone in the forest, the outside always tries to find a way in.
I Will Not Go Gently Into the Night
D: Glenn Maxwell
A young woman has to survive a sudden werewolf attack while out camping with friends.
Lavenza
D: Lauren Eden
When Lavenza, a 19th-century noblewoman, overhears her husband complaining about her looks. She turns herself into his ideal wife by thrifting the body parts from all the women he desires.
Meet Evelyn, My Sleep Paralysis Demon
D: Joe Anderson and Nadine Vincent
Jennifer tries to wake up before her sleep paralysis demon gets her.
A Moment of Your Time
D: Shannon Joy Rodgers
A Bible salesman solicits a 1950s Southern housewife.
Out of Body
D: Joseph Le
“Out of Body” is a short film about a sheltered woman, Lily, who wants to express her sexuality and freedom. However, she finds herself haunted by a possessed vagrant, whose spirit tries to take over her body. Lily battles her date’s growing expectations and the vagrant’s body-snatching attempts as she tries to retain control of her body.
The Slaughter Creek Slasher of the Dead
D: John Goode
In a world that has been taken over by a zombie apocalypse, there’s only one man who is willing to fight against it: Zombie hunter Duane Razor, also known as The Slaughter Creek Slasher of the Dead.
VHX
D: Alisa Stern and Scott Ampleford
A collection of home movies languish on a shelf, longing to be watched again. Little do they know, there’s a fate far worse than being forgotten.
We Joined a Cult
D: Chris McInroy
The story of two friends who just wanted to play kickball.
You Wake to Find Yourself Alone in the Woods
D: Brad McHargue
A lost hiker wakes up alone in the woods. Unsure of where he is and guided by an omnipresent and generally annoying narrator, he must find his way home before a masked serial killer finds him first.
You’re on Your Own, Kid
D: Michael Matsui
Sophia, 9 years old, is pursued by an entity in her home, and the terror is experienced from the imaginative perspective of Sophia. An imagination where all of her nightmares come to life, and what normally brings her comfort is personified into horror.
This article appears in August 30 • 2024.
