FEARnyc, New York City’s biggest horror film festival, will present its 2019 festival from October 24 – 31, 2019 at Film Noir Cinema in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and The Green Room 42 at The Yotel in Manhattan.
The event will feature more than 60 films and events, from world premieres to retrospectives and reimaginings, panel discussions, experiential events, and an award ceremony. Tickets are now available at www.FEARnyc.com.
Called “a huge, authoritative horror film festival” by Time Out New York film editor Joshua Rothkopf and “the best thing happening in the entire country this October” by Dread Central, FEARnyc was founded in 2016 by John Capo out of his lifelong love of horror movies.
“Our theme this year is Real/Surreal,” said John Capo, founder and festival director of FEARnyc. “From the morning commute to the evening news, New Yorkers are barraged by moments that are relentlessly real and surreal, often simultaneously. Our selections this year, which deal with everything from obsessive Instagram culture, conversion therapy, and a school shooting to several Grindr-gone-wrong tales, demonstrate that horror filmmakers are moving away from traditional let’s-kill-some-pretty-women tropes and focusing instead on the real life horrors that affect so many of us. In that sense, this year’s selections represent the maturity of horror filmmaking in 2019. I’m also excited to be spotlighting underrepresented groups in horror like the Native American, Latinx, and Queer communities and could not be more proud to present our annual Legacy Honor to iconic producer Debra Hill and our inaugural Trailblazer Award to the team behind Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.”
The FEARnyc Award Ceremony, which will take place at The Green Room 42 at The Yotel, will include the presentation of this year’s Juried Awards as well as the FEARnyc Honors. The FEARnyc Legacy Honor will be posthumously presented to Debra Hill, writer/producer/director whose credits include the original Halloween, Halloween II, Escape from New York, Clue, and The Fog. Featuring tributes by Paul Reubens and Hill’s producing partners, with Ms. Hill’s brother, Bob Hill, accepting the honor on her behalf, Ms. Hill will be recognized not only for her filmmaking but for her groundbreaking commitment to advancing the visibility and employment of women in film. Ms. Hill is only the third recipient of the Legacy Honor. Past recipients include Wes Craven and George A. Romero.
The FEARnyc Trailblazer Award will be presented to the team behind Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, the first documentary to comprehensively examine the history of the black influence on horror filmmaking. Producer/co-writer Ashlee Blackwell and executive producers Phil Nobile Jr. and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman will accept the award.
The FEARnyc Next Generation Awards will be presented to Terrifier writer-director Damien Leone for his work in using social media and relationship marketing to create a fandom around Terrifier’s villain Art the Clown (with Art the Clown actor David Howard Thornton live in person!) and to Brooklyn filmmaker Sydney Clara Brafman for her surreal short films including Spoiled Milk and The Only Thing I Love More Than You Is Ranch Dressing. Brafman will be presented her award by Larry Fessenden (Fear Itself, Until Dawn, We Are Still Here).
FEARnyc is proud to partner with AdaptLab, a video production company helping to pioneer career paths in the film industry for neurodiverse filmmakers. AdaptLab hires neurodiverse employees with a passion for creative storytelling and prepares them for careers in the industry. FEARnyc will also partner with the film students of teacher Jason Spagnuoli from NYC public high school Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, providing opportunities for AdaptLab’s employees and students from the Frank Sinatra School of Arts to be part of the festival team.
The FEARnyc Opening Night Event will be presented by Kinetic Film Group, a startup independent movie studio and intellectual property rights company. In mid-September 2019, Kinetic Film Group wrapped principal photography of their psychological horror movie Home, which stars Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek, 12 Monkeys).
FEARnyc’s partners include AdaptLab, Backstage, Blue Underground, Broadway Stages, Eventive, Film Freeway, Greenpointers, Grindhouse Releasing, Juno, Kinetic Film Group, Latin Horror and Terror Films.
Film Noir Cinema is a genre-lover’s dream located at 122 Meserole Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn off the G train (Greenpoint & Nassau stop) and the L train (Bedford stop) as well as the B43 and B62 bus lines. Or you can take a boat. The ferry landings at Greenpoint India Street and North 5th Street are both local to the theater. Just watch out for the piranhas.
The Green Room 42 is located at 570 Tenth Avenue (at 42nd Street) in New York City.
The FEARnyc 2019 Lineup
Feature Films
Blast
Director: Billy Bob Thompson
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
In this film by prolific SpongeBob SquarePants voice actor Billy Bob Thompson and Comedy Central’s Matt J. Weir, mysterious tough guy Joey Blast falls in love with a rebellious party girl who thrusts him into a world of violence to retrieve her ex-boyfriend’s coveted dick-pics.
Blind
Director: Marcel Walz
East Coast Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A former actress who lost her vision due to botched laser surgery tries to get her life together. When a stranger named Pretty Boy shows up, she realizes she isn’t as alone as she thinks. From Marcel Walz, director of Blood Feast.
Blood Puppet! Christmas ‘94
Director: Kangas Miller
World Premiere / Opening Night Film
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Present-day post-millennials find a VHS tape from the ‘90s. Cops from the future investigate an unsolved mystery from the past. A Halloween party in the desert is crashed by things that go bump in the night. The uncategorizable debut from Kangas Miller leaves you questioning time, life, deserts, youth, and the possibilities of horror filmmaking.
Happy Face
Director: Alexandre Franchi
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Desperate to become less shallow, a handsome teenager deforms his face and trains disfigured members of a support group to weaponize against contemporary beauty-obsessed culture. Often surreal and unshakably real, Alexandre Franchi’s breakout hit comes to New York directly from its premiere at Slamdance.
Hurricane Aaron
Director: J. R. Howell
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Two brothers’ sexual relationship with one another turns homicidal when one of their girlfriends goes missing in this psychosexual thriller by J.R. Howell.
Mope
Director: Lucas Heyne
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Candyman), Kelly Sry (Awkward), Brian Huskey (Veep) and David Arquette (Scream) star in Lucas Heyne’s tragic true story of best friends Steve Driver and Tom Dong, two low end porn actors who sought fame but gained infamy.
Red Letters
Director: Jim Klock
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
In the fight between good and evil, two private investigators embark on a journey that leads them into the hands of a darkness that neither is prepared for.
A Stranger Among the Living
Director: Christopher Wesley Moore
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A young teacher finds himself haunted after narrowly escaping a school shooting in Christopher Wesley Moore’s latest entry in his ongoing investigation into the horrors of real life.
Urban Fears
Director: Nicholas Michael Jacobs
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Made by a recent high school graduate with a cast of middle school and high school actors on a $1,000 budget, FEARnyc presents the film festival premiere of Urban Fears, a modern horror reminiscent of the rough and raw style of Larry Clark’s Kids. It’s representative of a young new voice in horror and demonstrates the creative possibilities of making a feature film with little more than the people and items around you.
Retrospectives, Reimaginings,
Panel Discussions and Special Events
Tingler 2.0: The Live Experience Sponsored by Greenpointers
Vibrating seats! Fainting audience members! People being taken out on stretchers! Producer William Castle used these gimmicks to sell The Tingler, the infamous 1959 cult classic starring Vincent Price. The film remains most well known for its use of Percepto!, a vibrating device in some theater chairs which activated with the onscreen action, as well as a live in-theater experience involving fainting audience members, strangers arriving on scene, and more surprises when the eponymous “tingler” — a parasite which feeds on fear — gets released into the theater. This Halloween Night event celebrates the 60th Anniversary of The Tingler with a screening of the film along with some of Castle’s most famous gimmicks unfolding around you — and maybe on you — in an unforgettable live experience.
Blue Underground and FEARnyc Present the Premiere of the New 4K Restoration of Dario Argento and George A. Romero’s Two Evil Eyes introduced by William Lustig (Maniac, Maniac Cop)
In 1990, Dario Argento and George A. Romero collaborated on adaptations of several Edgar Allan Poe works. In this 4K premiere, Romero directs “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” starring Adrienne Barbeau and showcasing the director’s traditional mix of horror with social commentary. “The Black Cat,” directed by Argento and starring Harvey Keitel, blends a number of Poe references into a new narrative. The film will be introduced by Blue Underground founder William Lustig, director of Maniac (1980), Maniac Cop, and Maniac Cop 2.
Damien Leone, Writer/Director of Terrifier, Featuring Art the Clown Live in Person!
Damien Leone grew up in Staten Island obsessed with horror films. After years of studying films and making a series of shorts, he wrote and directed Terrifer in 2016 and introduced the world to the instant-classic horror villain Art the Clown. Within months, Leone built a fandom around Art to the point that people were sharing photos on Instagram of their tattoos of the character. Join us for a discussion with Leone and David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) as we view clips from Leone’s early films and discuss how Leone made Terrifier on a crowdfunding budget and successfully created a fandom around Art the Clown using social media and relationship marketing. The event will feature a sneak peek at Terrifer 2, which is currently filming.
Queer Horror: A Discussion and Screening Curated by The New York Times’ Erik Piepenburg
Join curator and moderator Erik Piepenburg, who frequently writes about horror for The New York Times, for a discussion of queer characters, themes, and voices in horror filmmaking through time. Panelists include Monika Estrella Negra, co-founder of Audre’s Revenge Film, a collective of radical QTIBIPOC who aim to create a timeless horror and science fiction catalogue via the marginalized lens; Annie Rose Malamet, creator, host, and producer of Girls, Guts & Giallo, a podcast examining subversive and controversial films from a queer femme perspective, and J. R. Howell, writer/director of the LGBT psychosexual thriller Hurricane Aaron. The event will feature discussion, viewing of film clips, a Q&A with the audience, and the premiere of Kayden Phoenix’s short horror film about conversion therapy, Penance.
Serious Actors Reading Questionable Horror Screenplays
A group of serious actors live on stage. A case of beer. A bunch of questionable horror screenplays in their hands. What could go right? Featuring very serious readings of the campiest and cringiest scenes from your favorite 80s slashers, 90s schlock and beyond.
Making, Marketing, and Monetizing Fan Films: A Discussion and Screening Curated by Never Hike Alone’s Vincente DiSanti
Vincente DiSanti broke the mold when he posted his Friday the 13th fan film Never Hike Alone to YouTube in 2017. It seemed to defy all the conventional rules surrounding fan fiction. It was long — 54 minutes — not much shorter than a typical Friday the 13th feature film. It was carefully structured, sensitively thought out, and well executed. And it was received enthusiastically, with over a million views to date. Join DiSanti and guests for an interactive Q&A and screening of clips from some of horror’s most famous fan films including Never Hike Alone, Rene Rivas’ Spirit of Haddonfield, Cody Faulk’s Voorhees, Courtland Gordon’s Telling Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the new film from Cecil Laird of The Horror Show. Gain insight on how to make and market effective fan fiction in a conversation that’s relevant for filmmakers, fans of the genre, and for writers of all forms. Featuring never-before-seen footage and a sneak peek at the upcoming fan film Jason Rising.
The Surreal Short Films of David Lynch, Maya Deren, Luis Bunuel, and Sydney Clara Brafman
Journey through the short films of three masters of the surreal — David Lynch, Maya Deren and Luis Bunuel — as well as Brooklyn filmmaker Sydney Clara Brafman, recipient of this year’s FEARnyc Next Generation Award.
Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr with a Live Score Performed by The Flushing Remonstrance
Carl Dreyer’s 1932 silent classic Vampyr is screened with the world premiere of a new original score performed live by The Flushing Remonstrance. Based on elements from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s collection of supernatural stories In a Glass Darkly, the film was long considered a low point in Dreyer’s career. Modern critical reception has become much more favorable with critics praising the film’s disorienting visual effects and atmosphere, calling it “The greatest vampire film you’ve never seen.”
New Rules: Making Horror Films and Growing Your Audience in 2019
Discuss the modern-day process of making and promoting horror films with industry professionals. What are the new rules? What traditional tactics still work? Where is the genre headed?
Real/Surreal: Fritz Lang’s M
In Fritz Lang’s classic noir thriller M, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert’s heinous crimes are so repellent and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice. The film is considered by scholars as helping form the foundation of serial killer movies to come.
Short Film Lineup
Black Widow
Director: A. J. Callens
East Coast Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Kristopher Buckets is your ordinary God-fearing citizen. When his fidelity is tested by the Black Widow, his luck begins to change in this musical romp.
The Burial
Director: Jack Meggers
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
An American woman of Native American and Caucasian descent is called to her childhood home after the death of her estranged father. Tasked with burying a father she hardly knew, she discovers the remnants of an 1,800-year-old indigenous society.
Come Be Creepy With Us
Director: Beth Fletcher
Greenpoint Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A millennial nightmare that follows Anna, a young woman stuck in the midst of a quarter-life crisis who learns how to live after being haunted by the undead spirit from her past.
Come In
Director: Matt Emert
Brooklyn Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A faceless stranger lures three gay men to a vacant house under the guise of a hookup app resulting in a terror no one had anticipated in this LGBT homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Cyptina’s Spook-Time Variety Show
Director: Ryan Rigley
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Welcome to Cryptina’s Spook-Time Variety Show, a sketch comedy horror anthology series hosted by Cryptina, an albino mistress of the dark that introduces each sketch with the unwanted assistance of her ex-boyfriend Ghoulsby, a vampire permanently stuck in bat form due to a gypsy curse.
The Desecrated
Director: John Gray
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A young morgue attendant encounters an unwelcome visitor in this film by John Gray, creator of the television series Ghost Whisperer.
Drinking The Water
Director: Johan Rashid
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A photographer wanders through New York capturing splintered fractions of the city’s soul as she is thrust into its shadowy punk underbelly. Set to the new music release from In Swarm, Drinking The Water features Dani Miller of Surfbort, Saara Untracht-Oakner of Boy Toy, and iconic 1970s talk-show host Sonya Hamlin among its cast.
The Glory Years
Director: Garrett Burns
Brooklyn Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A former child star from a 90’s sitcom finds herself as the special guest at a 90’s nostalgia cult gathering.
Go Back
Directors: Matthew Barber and Nathaniel Barber
East Coast Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
In the fall of 1978, a distraught commuter travels a country road only to discover that its inhabitants have other plans in this film directed by brothers Matthew and Nathaniel Barber.
Esqueletos
Director: Nathaniel Garcia
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A Latino family’s secrets are revealed on the very day the patriarch commits a heinous act.
Gotas (Drops)
Director: Sergio Morcillo
New York City Premiere
Marta is a teenager whose parents died two years ago. One night, while alone at home, she will discover the truth about the pain that is tormenting her.
Horror Anonymous
Director: Jim Harkins
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A group of horror addicts attends a therapy session to try to chase away their demons in this comedic look at obsessed fans.
Hypertrophy
Director: Emily Tomasi
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
When Mike stops making progress at the gym, he discovers an unconventional protein source that leads him down a sinister path in this exploration of the dark underbelly of the vitamin supplement industry.
#NO_FILTER
Director: Michael Dupret
U.S. Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Anna navigates her social networks. Between food pics and selfies, she tries out some new Instagram filters. Bad decision.
The Only Thing I Love More Than You Is Ranch Dressing
Director: Sydney Clara Brafman
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker
Ranch. Dipped. Chicken. Fingers.
Playtime’s Over
Director: Tony Reames
New York City Premiere
The only thing little Dee loves more than classic horror movies is terrorizing the babysitter.
Penance
Director: Kayden Phoenix
New York City Premiere
Millennials usurp their conversion therapy class and take their justice.
POSSESSIONS
Director: Zeke Farrow
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Zeke decides to sell all his things on social media and make a documentary about it, but finds that some possessions are easier to let go of than others.
Psycho Path
Director: Daniel Robinette
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A backpacking vlogger takes a wrong turn. Trapped in the dark rain, she decides to spend the night, unaware of the madman who lurks nearby.
The Shadow
Director: Bridget Barbara
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A woman emerges from the woods and finds herself in a desolate town. The warm glow of a nearby window promises refuge. But not all promises are kept.
Spoiled Milk
Director: Sydney Clara Brafman
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
A stray cat drinks spoiled milk.
Squib
Director: Sydney Clara Brafman
World Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Filmmakers Shaun and Mac spiral into madness after stumbling upon a way to cut production costs by kidnapping and killing people for their indie slasher film.
Thirst Trap
Director: Steve Flavin
East Coast Premiere
As a vampire looks for his next hookup on a gay dating app, his night takes an unexpected turn.
Trust Me: A Witness Account of The Goatman
Director: Nate Ruegger
New York City Premiere
A woman follows her boyfriend into the woods for a romantic surprise only to discover something sinister that forces her to question who and what she can trust.
Upon Arrival
Director: Scott Perry
New York City Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Two volunteer EMTs respond to a bizarre crime scene and have to babysit a dead body .
You Too
Director: Teddy Tenenbaum
East Coast Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers featuring Sean Whalen live in person
Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs, Lost, Twister) stars in this film about a woman who is followed on campus until events take an uncommon turn.
Zoul
Director: Tom Cassese
Brooklyn Premiere
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
In search of a good soul to consume, a sharp-dressed demon decides to make a killer decision.
Music and Multidisciplinary Video
Withorwithout
Director: Benjamin Howdeshell
Benjamin Howdeshell partners with film icon Milla Jovovich who stars in this music video for the Berlin-based band Parcels. The fears of home invasion create an unexpected backdrop for a video fraught with tension.
Disobey
Director: Giovanni Bucci
Dark fashion and psychedelia converge in this stylish VFX music video directed by visual director/musician Giovanni Bucci and produced with Paola Rocchetti through their creative studio Void ‘n Disorder. The multidisciplinary video explores themes of Man vs. Machine, of Nature vs. Technology, and paints the Goddess Hekate as a 21st Century nightmare, ensnaring victims and bending them to her will.
Half
Director: Militia Vox
A NYC artist on a “trip” to fully understand herself chooses to embrace her other half — her dark side — by personifying her shadow self and engaging with her inner demons in an existential and surreal landscape. A psychedelic, psychological multimedia visual feast featuring anthemic alternative rock, industrial, and metal with messages of female empowerment, existentialism, and horror.
Allergic Overreaction
Composer: Brandon Walz
The score from Allergic Overreaction celebrates the tone of classic horror films, specifically 80’s slashers, as a bunch of horror obsessed fans find themselves in a situation much like the movies they love.
American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice
Composer: Alexander Cimini
German composer Alexander Cimini’s score reflects the themes of psychological trauma, emotional scars, self-harm and self-enlightenment from American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice.
The Orange List: The FEARnyc Unproduced Screenplay Series
FEARnyc annually presents an award to a promising horror writer’s unproduced screenplay. The writers will appear at the FEARnyc Award Ceremony to read short selections from their screenplays before the winner is announced.
Headway
Screenplay by Geoffrey JD Payne
A psychological horror that challenges views of mental illness and encourages the audience to explore their fears and expand their understanding of stigma.
The Understudy
Screenplay by Brendan M. Jesus
Sarah Banion moves to New York City with aspirations of becoming an artist, but her dreams are paralleled by manifestations of dysmorphia and self-doubt.
Sunshine State: Duende
Screenplay by Kai Thorup
When a young woman drops out of medical school, she goes on a much-needed camping holiday in a remote part of the Florida Keys, but things turn deadly when they disturb a bizarre and terrifying creature that savagely hunts them.
Roman Candle
Screenplay by Derek Abbott
A group of misfit kids battle a monster with a mysterious connection to a low-budget horror film on the last Friday of the summer of ‘95.
Night of the Living Hose
Screenplay by Christian Foley
A beach club staff party turns deadly when the hose comes to life looking for blood. With no way out, this group must find a way to survive…the hose.
Note: Red Letters is screening out of competition.
The Distinguished Jury of FEARnyc 2019
Filmmakers Branch
Chris Kentis, Writer and Director, Silent House, Open Water, Grind
Jon Recher, Director, American Horror Story, The Purge: Election Year, Drunk History
Jeffrey Reddick, Creator and Screenwriter, the Final Destination Franchise
Kate Siegel, Writer and Actor, The Haunting of Hill House, Hush, Oculus
Jen Soska, Writer, Director, and Producer, American Mary, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, Rabid
Sylvia Soska, Writer, Director, and Producer, American Mary, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, Rabid
Brian Spears, Make-Up and Special Effects Artist, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, V/H/S
Producer and Executive Branch
Arun Aura, Chief Executive Officer, Kinetic Film Group
Victoria Asness Coffey, Founder, LES Casting; Casting Director, MTV, truTV
Chris Gierowski, Producer, Don’t Fuck in the Woods, Head, Betsy
Jim Klock, Head of Acquisitions, Terror Films
Will Malitek, Theater Programmer, Film Noir Cinema
Peter Phok, Producer, Stake Land, In a Valley of Violence, The House of the Devil, I Sell the Dead
Thomas Vitale, Executive Producer, Slasher (Netflix); Former Executive Vice President, Syfy and Chiller
Performers Branch
Alex Brightman, Beetlejuice in Broadway’s Beetlejuice The Musical, Documentary Now’s Co-Op The Musical
Denis O’Hare, American Horror Story, Big Little Lies, This Is Us
Dee Wallace, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, The Howling, The Hills Have Eyes, Cujo
Journalist Branch
Jon Abrams, Editor-In-Chief, Daily Grindhouse
Tracy Gaboury Allen, Editor-In-Chief, Pop Horror
Melissa Hannon, Editor-In-Chief, Horror Geek Life
Tamika Jones, Senior Writer, Daily Dead, Syfy, The A.V. Club
Jay Kay, Host, Horror Happens; Writer, HorrorHound
Edwin Pagan, Editor-In-Chief, Latin Horror
Tori Danielle Romero, Editor-In-Chief, Pop Horror
Multimedia Branch
BJ Colangelo, Producer, Powerbomb, Comic-Con Queer Fear; Journalist, Bloody Disgusting
Todd Sokolove, Writer, Podcaster, and Photographer, Forces of Geek, Oh No They Didn’t
Jaanelle Yee, Multimedia and Podcast Producer, Thomas Tells a Story, Clown Zer0, The Orbiting Hum
But Wait…There’s More
Additional screenings, events, and guests will be announced soon.
