The Horror Thread: Part 3D • Page 103

The Gate is a movie I wish I would have seen as a child. Fun entry level horror with fun practical effects.

 

Having trouble posting photos from my phone right now but in the meantime, here's a report on Eerie Horror Fest 2025 since I haven't been in here in like four days:

- Lots of people stepping away this year, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I think it's an opportunity for some new blood to jump in -- and I've been approached about taking over main event programming, which I would love -- but we have to figure out how to navigate funding moving forward (we lost 10k in grants this year)

- Josh Ruben was very cool, very funny, and very nice. There was some concern when there was a mixup picking him up at the airport, but we've since determined his booking agent was miscommunicating quite a bit with both of us. I had my friends do the podcast with him in my place since I would be doing 90 minutes of Q&A with him, and it all went amazingly. Packed house for Heart Eyes, lots of laughs and reactions in the crowd, and he loved watching it with them. Q&A was a ton of fun and when I ran out of questions, the audience kept him the full time. Plus, it was all really engaged horror questions - I don't know if anyone asked about Dropout. tbh. He signed my copy of Scare Me and our driver said he was gassing me and the event up all the way back to the hotel (he told several of us he would be happy to come back anytime)

- The new space we had to pivot to very last-minute was actually fantastic and fit our attendance much better - 250 people look better in a room made for 300 than it does in a room made for 1,000+. Good way to save on rental and AV costs, too.

- Not as many kids as we expected this year, a decent amount showed up for trick or treating and storytime but we can probably save money on a kids' movie next year. We dressed up my baby as Dracula (pics to follow)

- @Shakriel helped save our ASS this year because of some file formatting issues with the licenses we purchased this year, and shoutout to @wisdomfordebris for also offering to assist

- I did not stick around for Severin's Midnight Madness on Friday night because I had to be back at 9am on Saturday, but they showed Rats: Night of Terror, which I'm excited to check out (on Tubi).

- Adrienne Barbeau was incredibly sweet and took care of all staff and volunteers, even offered free posters to folks if they didn't have something to sign. Interviewing her was a treat. It's really wild to consider that she worked with so many greats (Craven, Romero, and Carpenter). She got choked up talking about Romero and his daughter and attending her premiere for Queens of the Dead. She's also incredibly progressive. In addition to us showing The Fog (decent attendance) and doing a Q&A with her, she screened a short she's in, Oddities (link below), which has been adapted into a feature that just wrapped and her and John's son, Cody Carpenter, is doing the score.

- My favorite submission this year was The Fright Stuff, a documentary about the haunt industry and haunted house workers. Any fans of similar docs, including The American Scream, are really going to love this one when it's released. Wormtown was another major highlight and it's hitting AppleTV or whatever on November 7th, so definitely check that out for a queer/political body horror flick about Amish folks and a worm cult (trailer below).

- Merch pickups this year were Mardi Gras Massacre from Severin, Game of Pleasure and a Dawn of the Dead VHS from VHShitfest, and a sick pride flag/skull shirt from Octopuss Design that says EXIST OUT OF SPITE. Seriously have no idea how I didn't realize VHShitfest was based out of Erie - I shot Dan a message to try and get in with them helping out with press or whatever. Would love to be a part of that. Game of Pleasure was insanely goofy and horny and fun.

...and I think that's it. I'll post pics when I can. Really happy with and proud of everything this year. I busted my ass and I'm pretty sure almost everyone -- guests, filmmakers, vendors, attendees -- left happy. I really, really hope we get the opportunity to keep it going next year (especially because I already have a tentative plan for programming), but if not, I'll be doing my best to at least keep small events going while we restructure for (hopefully) 2027.

 

Sorry for the novel, but now I can stop yapping about it in here lol

 

Hell yeah good work

 

Happy to hear it went so well! That sounds really amazing and I wish I lived closer so I could attend sometime. Also I haven’t watched the trailer yet but you sold me at “worm cult.”

 

Proud of the work yall do for your community @Aaron Mook

 

The Descent 20th Anniversary 4K SteelBook®
big day for my household

 

watched this for the first time last week and fuckkkkk it rules!

 

Hell yeah Aaron

 

watched Halloween for the first time! i kept thinking, wow, this would've been so scary if it was 1978 and this was the first slasher I ever saw. in 2025, tho, it's just really cozy. iconic music, iconic final girl. some really cool cinematography, how the camera would sometimes follow closely behind Michael or be from his perspective. i can see how this influenced every newer slasher i've seen before

 

glad it worked out!

 

really excited for some new Sam Raimi on my screen

 

That one awesome tiktok guy whose whole thing is "I am autistic and my special interest is Bela Lugosi's Dracula" must be so hyped.

 

Coyotes on VOD next Tuesday

 

Got a ton of new recommendations on Tubi of movies I’ve never heard of, but here I am tired and watching Freddy’s Nightmares instead.

 

Watched Vicious tonight. Not great. Solid idea. Felt familiar. Dakota Fanning was rad though. Too long for what it was.

 

The first 20 minutes is so cozy. I want to drive around town and smoke a joint with Annie.

 

Watched Wolf Creek, hated it. Yeesh.

 

Watched The Tunnel and Eden Lake tonight. The Tunnel was pretty fun, mockumentary/found footage done well. I was totally not prepared for how mean and bleak Eden Lake was. One of the more fucked up movies that I’ve ever seen. Definitely enjoyed it, but that was so brutal and hard to watch. I can’t remember the last time I felt so conflicted about a movie.

 

Eden Lake is truly one of those movies you watch once and never again lmao

 

Also hated Eden Lake, whatever that style is no thanks.

 

Haven’t seen Eden Lake yet but I’m curious lol

 

Eden Lake