Tag: Panic Fest
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Justin Streichman & Gustine Füdickar (Lady Puritan)
Surrealist horror takes monstrous shape in Justin Streichman and Gustine Füdickar’s Lady Puritan. It’s a film that injects a David Lynch sensibility directly into the veins. And that’s no easy feat. When images itch and swirl in your eyeballs, the short doesn’t let up. In a recent Zoom conversation, Streichman and Füdickar discuss their cinematic
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Steve Flavin (Wrathbone)
Horror has a serious horror/musical problem. Where are all the horror musicals?!? In a genre that has such foundational films as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Little Shop of Horrors, the genre sure does avoid comingling with musicals. Writer/director Steve Flavin agrees. Behind Wrathbone, in which Flavin also plays two characters, one of them
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Matt Webb (The Recluse)
The great thing about horror is that it’s every genre fused into one. There’s horror/comedy, horror/action, horror/thriller, etc. As with Matt Webb’s The Recluse, it perfectly teeters around the edges of horror/thriller, borrowing elements from both to make an impactful, character-driven story. In a recent Zoom call, the writer/director discusses existential dread, his draw to
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with M-Alain Bertoni (Closing Shift)
Work in retail for any amount of time, and you’ll know what dealing with a Karen means. In his new short, Closing Shift, writer/director M-Alain Bertoni takes things to extremes when a family of Karens terrorizes a movie theater. Bertoni hopped on a recent Zoom call to discuss the impetus behind the film, the state
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Panic Fest 2026: Shorts Roundup, Volume 3
Panic Fest 2026 finally closes with my final set of shorts reviews. In Volume 3, you’ll find reviews for three standout films. Spanning the supernatural and thriller, this last batch goes for the jugular. Several moments across this volume’ll leave your jaw on the floor. And you might not want to pick it back up
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Casey de Fremery (My Severed Arm)
In a post-Scream world, a slasher must completely upend expectations to break through the noise. There’s just no other way around it. Well, unless you’re Terrifier, which is more splatter flick than slasher. With his short film My Severed Arm, writer/director Casey de Fremery knows exactly how to toy with genre conventions and pull no
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Panic Fest 2026: A Coversation with Alexander Watson (Demonetize)
Reactions to Influencer Horror lie at opposite ends of the spectrum: you either love it or loathe it. There is no in between. Alexander Watson’s Demonetize aims for the former. During a rather chaotic Panic Fest, the writer/director hopped on Zoom to discuss his film, as well as paranormal TV influences and getting the horror
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Panic Fest 2026: ‘Dead Bloom’ blossoms with rich social themes
Domonic and Damien Paris’ Dead Bloom lives within the same realm as R.T. Thorne’s sci-fi/thriller 40 Acres. Both films use genre as a vehicle to explore deeper themes of systemic oppression and generational trauma. The monsters simply add to the horror already raging on the outside, layering on a thick coating of inner anguish that
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Benjamin & Sascha Montgomery-Pierson (Ekelbrode)
Ekelbrode emerges as among the more character-driven shorts out of Panic Fest 2026. Based in an apocalyptic world, two characters find themselves in a control room and discuss the morality of war. Filmmaking team Benjamin and Sascha Montgomery-Pierson dissect the long history of combat in the United States (and beyond!), crafting emotionally-rich characters, and their
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Panic Fest 2026: A Conversation with Bo Webb (UN-DEAD)
Zombie films are a dime a dozen these days. You really have to spin a deliciously unique yarn to make some noise. Writer/director Bo Webb lands with a cannonball splash with UN-DEAD, a short out of Panic Fest. It’s a bloody good time, and it features an actor you likely know, Brian Huskey, whose credits
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Panic Fest 2026: ‘Frankie, Maniac Woman’ delivers the female rage we need
Toss Maniac (1980), Violation, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation into a blender, and you get Pierre Tsigaridis’ ferociously biting and bloody Frankie, Maniac Woman. Co-written with Dina Silva, who stars as the titular character, the film burns Hollywood’s obsession with body image (specifically, the grossly dated skinny white woman standard) to the goddamn
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Panic Fest 2026: ‘Don’t Sleep Alone’ provokes sleepless nights
If you suffer from sleep paralysis, you know how debilitating and terrifying it can be. For many, a black shape creeps from the corner of the room and hovers by their bedside. Others might not see a figure at all, but rather a suffocating blanket of dread surrounding them. Writer/director Talo Silveyra excavates pure fear
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Panic Fest 2026: ‘Demonetize’ marries scares and silliness
Influencer Horror isn’t for everyone. From Deadstream to Super Host and Livestream, the subgenre applies exploitative behaviors to horrifying situations to explore the deterioration of humanity, social trends, and our complicity in brainrot. Writer/director Alexander Watson fits his new film, Demonetize, playing this year’s Panic Fest, snugly into a similar thematic box. The film’s title,
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Panic Fest 2026: Shorts Roundup, Volume 2
Panic Fest 2026 is still not quite over yet. As I dash to the finish line (I have a few films to watch, as of this writing), numerous reviews and interviews in the can confirm that this year’s festival might be the best in a long time. Various short blocks have been particularly rich with
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Panic Fest 2026: ‘Creature of the Pines’ redefines found footage
Found-footage freaks will want to put Creature of the Pines on their watchlist immediately. Playing this year’s Panic Fest, the film, co-written and co-directed by Tyler Transue and Chris Ruppert, makes camping scary again. It’s easy to draw comparisons to The Blair Witch, but that’s simply reductive. Creature of the Pines uses its 1999 predecessor as a
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It's definitely worth it. Gave me nightmares, no joke!
"Maybe the scary truth is that most of my sisters here aren’t failing because of male lead projects, it’s just…