The 2022 Screamfest Horror Film Festival is here to scare up some movies this Halloween season. LA’s foremost horror film festival is on its way to frighten fans with its lineup of competitive independent features and short films. Screamfest will take place right inside Hollywood’s famous TCL Chinese Theater. From October 11th through 20th, it will premiere the movie world’s best horror films just in time for Halloween. The 22-year-old festival has been the stand-by place to find brand-new horror classics. There will be so many good movies it’s scary!
Screamfest will provide a huge lineup of industry and independent movies this season, giving everyone a great look at what’s to come for the world of horror. The shorts program will be quite amazing as it includes films like Legs starring Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey), plus the student film Crimson Ties by Francesca Scorcese, daughter of Martin Scorcese. Screamfest will also feature the world premieres of Slayers (Director K. Asher Levin) about vampire hunters teaming up with social media influencers, Deer Camp (Director L. Van Dyke Siboutszen) about an ‘80s Michigan hunting trip gone horribly wrong, and KillHer from director Robyn August. With titles like Prime Video and Blumhouse’s Run Sweetheart Run, and Kyra Gardner’s documentary Living with Chucky, it’s definitely going to be an exciting event for horror fans.
Screamfest 2022 Most Anticipated Films
Slayers (US, 2022) – World Premiere
Directed by K. Asher Levin / Written by K. Asher Levin, Zack Imbrogno
Vampire slayer, Elliot Jones (Thomas Jane), made it his life’s mission to take revenge on the bloodsuckers who murdered his teenage daughter. After years of tracking them, he has finally reached their secret and hidden base. But to get to them, he will need to use a motley crew of social media superstars. Enter ‘The Stream Team’: party-girl Jules (Abigail Breslin), gen-z pro-gamer Flynn (Kara Hayward), and their team of trend-makers and breakers.
With a hundred million-plus combined followers, they have attracted the attention of reclusive billionaire Beverly Rektor (Malin Akerman), who invites them to party at her multimillion-dollar vacation compound. They soon discover these rich people are none other than the ancient vampires that Elliot Jones is chasing. When the team is being held captive in a house of horrors to serve the vampire's plan to take over the world, Elliott is their only hope of survival. As he links up with Flynn, a slayer in her own right, will he take down the vampire hoard and save The Stream Team?
Deer Camp (US, 2022) – World Premiere
Directed by L. Van Dyke Siboutszen / Written by Bo Hansen, Riley Taurus
Six dumb shits travel from Detroit to northern Michigan in the fall of 1986 to partake in the annual (drunken) tradition of deer hunting. Upon arriving, the death of a Native American woman awakens a spirit, and the hunters become the hunted.
KillHer (US, 2022) – 2022 World Premiere
Directed by Robyn August / Written by Tom Kiesche
Mattie and her three besties -- Eddie, Jess, and Rae--head into the woods for a weekend to plan Mattie's upcoming wedding and bachelorette party. Eddie, Mattie’s roommate, and an unrelenting practical joker, leads them to believe they will be setting up camp near Mattie’s hunky fiancé, Jagger, and his friends. They soon realize the tent they’ve snuggled up next to belongs to a mysterious recluse named Mr. Rogers, rather than Jagger, and this is definitely his neighborhood.
With zero cell reception and only a literal pot to piss in, their weekend camping trip is beginning to look like a bad idea. But it only gets worse when people start to die and a terrible secret is revealed. All these girls wanted was a killer pre-bachelorette party… and that’s exactly what they got.
Matriarch (US, 2022) – World Premiere
Written and Directed by Ben Steiner
Just recently added, Matriarch is a Hulu original horror film. Afflicted with a mysterious disease after surviving an overdose, a woman returns to her childhood home to confront her personal demons but instead discovers a real one.
Living With Chucky (US, 2022) – West Coast Premiere
Written, Directed and Produced by Kyra Gardner
A filmmaker who grew up alongside Chucky the killer doll seeks out the other families surrounding the Child's Play films as they recount their experiences working on the ongoing franchise and what it means to be a part of the Chucky family.
Run Sweetheart Run (US, 2022) - Closing Night Film
Directed by Shana Feste / Written by Shana Feste, Keith Josef Adkins, Kellee Terrell
Initially apprehensive when her boss insists she meets with one of his most important clients, single mom Cherie (Ella Balinska) is relieved and excited when she meets charismatic Ethan (Pilou Asbæk). The influential businessman defies expectations and sweeps Cherie off her feet. But at the end of the night, when the two are alone together, he reveals his true, violent nature. Battered and terrified, she flees for her life, beginning a relentless game of cat-and-mouse with a blood-thirsty assailant hell-bent on her utter destruction.
In this edge-of-your-seat dark thriller, Cherie finds herself in the crosshairs of a conspiracy stranger and more evil than she could have ever imagined.
Other Exciting Films to See at Screamfest 2022
Do Not Disturb (Canada/US, 2022) - West Coast Premiere
Written and Directed by John Ainslie
Do Not Disturb follows Chloe and Jack’s honeymoon in Miami where a peyote trip to strengthen their marriage becomes a narcotic nightmare. As they confront their troubled relationship, they discover that this strand of peyote awakens a desire to consume human flesh. Their suite becomes an insatiable den of love, lust and carnal desire as Chloe comes to the realization that the only way to escape this toxic marriage is to literally consume Jack.
The Domestic (South Africa, 2022) – North American Premiere
Written and Directed by Brad Katzen
The Domestic tells the story of an upper-class, happily married couple who hire the daughter of their recently deceased housekeeper as their new helper, only for things to take a dark and macabre turn when she tries to destroy them from within.
Exploring themes of tradition versus modernity, African witchcraft and muti, and the extreme class differences in our society, The Domestic is a tense, disturbing descent into suburban horror.
Employee of the Month (L’Employee du Mois) (Belgium, 2022) - LA Premiere
Directed by Véronique Jadin / Written by Véronique Jadin & Nina Vanspranghe
Inès is the mainstay of EcocleanPro, a small wholesale company selling household products. She gives herself body and soul to her boss Patrick, in the love of a job well done. Although Patrick is proud of his 1992 Manager of the Year award, the laziness of his employees Jean-Paul and Jean-Pierre play shoulder to shoulder with the boastfulness of Nico, the tiresome salesman.
Under the blasé gaze of the new trainee Melody, the marketing phrases of the Benelux manager Anna Nilsson open up a new mental space for Inès: she is the only one who never gets a raise, even though she works harder than the others. Is it because she is the only woman in this boys' club? Ines takes her courage in both hands and for the first time insists on being augmented, but Patrick throws her out in two sentences. Ines gets screwed again; her frustration turns to anger. Ingesting Xanax and Viagra won't help. Ines wants her raise and all of EcoClean is going to pay cash for these years of exploitation. Mélody's internship will finally prove to be very instructive.
Everyone Will Burn (Y Todos Arderan) (Spain, 2022) – West Coast Premiere
Directed by David Hebrero / Written by David Hebrero and Javier Kiran
In a small village in Leon, Spain, María José (Macarena Gomez) prepares to end her life after failing to get over the death of her son years before. Everything changes when she receives a visit from Lucía, a strange little girl who might be connected to a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse. With the enigmatic girl by her side, María José faces the corrupt community, triggering strange events and a series of horrific deaths among the local population.
Follow Her (US, 2022) - West Coast Premiere
Directed by Sylvia Caminer / Written by Dani Barker
The disturbing but timely female-led psycho-sexual thriller centers on a struggling actress and live streamer who has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success.
The Loneliest Boy In The World (UK, 2022) – West Coast Premiere
Directed by Martin Owen / Written by Piers Ashworth
A modern fairytale, but with zombies. When Oliver is tasked with making new friends, he decides that digging a few up (literally) might be his best bet — as long as he and his newly deceased BFFs can avoid getting caught.
The Revelation (Netherlands, 2022) – North American Premiere
Written and Directed by Chris W. Mitchel
At the start of the corona pandemic, unemployed Jacob moves in with his elderly mother and falls under the spell of an internet conspiracy theorist. As his sister Magda looks on helplessly, Jacob becomes convinced that COVID-19 is the beginning of the Apocalypse. A great sacrifice has to be made.
Shaky Shivers (US, 2022) – West Coast Premiere
Directed by Sung Kang / Written by Andrew McAllister & Aaron Strongoni
Two young women find themselves at an abandoned camp in the woods with a book of magical spells surrounded by classic monsters in this comedic send-up of '80s horror films.
Swallowed (US, 2022) – LA Premiere
Written and Directed by Carter Smith
After a drug run goes bad - two childhood friends must survive a horrific night in a backwoods hell of drugs, bugs, and obscene intimacy in this queer horror nightmare.