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October 15-19
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Knoxville's longest-running film festival returns Wednesday October 15 thru Sunday October 19 for its seventeenth annual horror cinema celebration, taking over Knoxville’s Central Cinema and Maryville’s Parkway Drive-In for three days and five nights of cosmic terror and violent delights!
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​This year's event kicks off Wednesday at Central Cinema with our extended Tennessee Terrors program of regionally-produced shorts, accompanied by Knoxville-produced features Amityville: Bed & Breakfast and Angel of Light. Thursday and Friday night we'll lean into this year's theme at the Parkway Drive-In with a pair of Science Fiction Double Features featuring Invasion of the Body Snatchers + Event Horizon (Thursday) and The Blob + TerrorVision (Friday, alongside this year's Grindhouse Grind-out). And we'll be running through the bulk of this year's stellar Feature and Short Film competitive sates Friday afternoon through Sunday night at Central Cinema, including additional sci-fi throwback screenings of Invaders From Mars and The Fly!​ (Full schedule & other info can be found below.)
All-access festival passes are now in short supply... grab yours now or risk missing all the fun!
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 15
at Central Cinema
6:30PM
Tennessee Terrors Regional Shorts
8:15PM
AMITYVILLE: BED & BREAKFAST
9:15PM
ANGEL OF LIGHT
This year's festival kicks off with a spotlight on area filmmakers via our Tennessee Terrors competitive regional short film program, presented as a semi-standalone primetime event to ensure that filmmakers, friends & family get a chance to see local talents shine on the big screen! This year’s shorts lineup includes Kara McLeland's Feed, Dalton Turner's To Fair Winds & Followed Waters, Spenser Fritz's Still Water, Corey Simpson's Sin Eater, Jennifer Bonior's We Need To Talk About Balloons, Kevin Keck's Keep Watch and Eric Bailes & Jonah Richani's Over Easy, followed by two local features: Varmint Hole's Amityville: Bed and Breakfast and Crue Scott Smith's Angel of Light.
Admission to our Tennessee Terrors program is included as part of our KHFF 2025 Festival Pass and Deluxe R.I.P. Pass; we plan to have a limited number of $15 general admission tickets available at the door prior to the screening.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 16
at the Parkway Drive-In
7:30PM
Cosmic Crash • INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
9:45PM
EVENT HORIZON
Our two-night stand of Science Fiction Double Features kicks off with Philip Kaufman's nightmarish 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (paired with animated short Cosmic Crash) and the deep space hellscape of Paul W.S. Anderson's Event Horizon.
Admission to Thursday's drive-in program is included with all KHFF 2025 pass types. Single-event admission (per person, not per car) is also available online or at the gate for $20.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 17
at Central Cinema
12:30PM
The Itch • Don’t Leave Me • Masks • The Baby • Affirmation • The Angel • SHRINE OF ABOMINATIONS
3:00PM
Borglesque • DEAD LOVER
Central Cinema's mainline festival programming begins with Ross Kennedy & Skinner's animated mini-feature Shrine of Abominations and Grace Glowicki's festival circuit hit Dead Lover, each accompanied by selections from our 2025 short film competition.
Admission to Friday's Central Cinema program is available exclusively to KHFF 2025 passholders.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 17
at the Parkway Drive-In
7:30PM
Giant Skeleton • Follow You • Skeeter • Wall Udder • GRINDHOUSE GRIND-OUT 2025
9:00PM
The Fling • THE BLOB
10:45PM
As Pale As Death • TERRORVISION
Night two at the Parkway showcases the results of our 2025 Grindhouse Grind-out filmmaking contest (in which teams have two weeks to produce a fake movie trailer from a selected genre) accompanied by a crop of the weekend's most outrageous short films... then the sci-fi fun continues with Chuck Russell's The Blob and Ted Nicolau's TerrorVision, each paired with a complementary short!
Admission to Friday's drive-in program is included with all KHFF 2025 pass types. Single-event admission (per person, not per car) is also available online or at the gate for $25.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 18
at Central Cinema
12:30PM
Next Show in 90 Minutes • Howl if You Love Me • The Last Ghoul • INVADERS FROM MARS
3:00PM
TOUCH ME
6:30PM
MOTHER OF FLIES
8:45PM
I Killed Osama!? • FUCK MY SON!
10:45PM
KHFF Sci-Fi Soiree Aferparty
This year's festival hits its crescendo with a jam-packed day of film fun, starting off with a program of shorts leading into Tobe Hooper's Invaders From Mars, then on to competition features including Addison Heimann's Touch Me, the Adams Family's Mother of Flies (with co-director John Adams in attendance) and Todd Rohal's Fuck My Son! We'll then close out the night by blowing off some steam at our traditional late night Saturday afterparty.
Admission to Saturday's programming is available exclusively to KHFF 2025 passholders.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 19
at Central Cinema
12:30PM
Slideshow • Damsel in Geekstress • Til Death • Glory Hole • [SECRET FEATURE SCREENING]
3:15PM
Pandora Inc • FROGMAN RETURNS (World Premiere!)
7:00PM
KHFF 2025 Awards Party
7:30PM
THE FLY
KHFF's competitive slate wraps up Sunday afternoon with our final burst of short films, plus found footage sequel Frogman Returns (with director Anthony Cousins in attendance) and a surprise feature debut from a friend of the fest... then we'll be handing out this year's awards and accolades before closing out the festival with David Cronenberg's 1986 masterpiece The Fly!
Admission to Sunday afternoon programming is available exclusively to KHFF 2025 passholders. Our Awards Party is open to the public, and limited admission will be available at the door for The Fly.
FILM LINEUP
FLASHBACK FEATURES
This year’s repertory lineup finds us exploring the outer reaches of horror with an emphasis on science fiction frights, including David Cronenberg’s THE FLY (1986), Philip Kaufman’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978), Paul W.S. Anderson’s EVENT HORIZON, Tobe Hooper’s INVADERS FROM MARS (1986), Chuck Russell’s THE BLOB (1988) and Ted Nicolaou’s TERRORVISION.
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
This this year’s Feature Film Competition slate of festival circuit standouts includes Grace Glowicki’s celebrated Frankenstein riff DEAD LOVER, Addison Heimann’s sci-fi addiction comedy TOUCH ME, Todd Rohal’s demented comix adaptation FUCK MY SON! and Ross Kennedy & Skinner’s stunning stopmotion mini-feature SHRINE OF ABOMINATIONS, plus new films from returning KHFF audience favorites the Adams Family (MOTHER OF FLIES) and Anthony Cousins (FROGMAN RETURNS, in its world premiere!).
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
This this year’s KHFF Short Film Competition includes James Smith's Cosmic Crash, Gordon Phillips's The Itch, Jennifer Saura's Don’t Leave Me, Andre LeBlanc's Masks, Taylor Bustamante's The Baby, Emily Bennett's Affirmation, Barrett & Jessica Burgin's The Angel, G. Wilson's Borglesque, Austin Birtch's Giant Skeleton, Alexandre Mullen's Follow You, Chris McInroy's Skeeter, Alexandra Hayden's Wall Udder, Jemma Cotter's The Fling, Ryan Kukec's As Pale As Death, John T. Hill's Next Show In 90 Minutes, John R. Dilworth's Howl If You Love Me, Travis Burdick's The Last Ghoul, Carl Fry & Maxwell Nalevansky's I Killed Osama!?, Jamison Braly's Slideshow, Renaud Parra's Damsel in Geekstress, Matt McGahren's Til Death, Andoni Fernandez's Glory Hole and Joe Lueben's Pandora Inc.
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For more information on individual films we invite you to browse this year's Letterboxd list!​​​​​​​
ALL ABOUT KHFF
Launched in 2009 with a single evening program of local & touring short films, the Knoxville Horror Film Fest has grown into a four-night extravaganza of exciting features and unmissable short films, including special events like live podcasts, trivia sessions and our annual Grindhouse Grind-out filmmaking competition. We’re proud to be not only East Tennessee’s longest-running film festival but also one of the Southeast’s premier annual genre film events.
After a decade of screening at local venues like the Pilot Light, Relix Variety Theatre, Scruffy City Hall and Regal Cinemas Downtown West 8, the KHFF crew in 2018 opened single-screen moviehouse Central Cinema, which now serves as the festival’s home base. Between our theater’s intimate 88-seat setting and high-profile festival screenings at larger venues like Downtown West, the Bijou Theatre and Maryville’s Parkway Drive-In, hundreds of horror fans from around the region enjoy KHFF’s offerings every October.
Despite its ever-growing scale, KHFF remains a DIY labor of love for the small crew that puts it on each year, and we like to think the result is a film festival clearly run by fans, for fans.
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Please reach out via email to knoxhorrorfest@gmail.com if you'd like to contact us for any reason.