%20copy.png){kind=small}
our 2024 event was made possible by the support of our friends & sponsors at
2024 Wrap-up
The Knoxville Horror Film Fest would like to thank everyone involved in making our 2024 event extremely special: our festival crew Ian, Austin, Kim, Jamie, Julian, Jessica and Logan; our priceless contributors Mayra, Laurie, Jeremy, Abby, and Jamison; the culinary mavericks at Your Sugar Therapy and Slice Slice O'Baby; our gracious hosts at the Parkway Drive-In; our visiting filmmakers Elric, Jill, Maxwell, Sarah, Zachary, Anthony, Ashley, Steven, Erica, Sommar, Jackson and Bobby; our judges Keenan, Amelia, Andrew, Zack, BJ, Marisa, Brea, Patrick and Jason; our drive-in vendors Golbinhaus, HagCult, Nirvana Comics, Gemini Tvvinn, Part Flamingo Press and Knox Rad Retro; all of the filmmakers who submitted to our festival; and all of the wonderful people who support what we do by spending our five favorite days of the year with us. Stay tuned for more info on our plans for 2025!
2024 Award Winners
Feature Films
Best Performance: Alexandra Pica in DID I?
Jury Prize - "True" Crime Cosmic Occult Freakout: Strange Harvest
Jury Prize - Totally Out of Hand(s): RATS!
Best Script: Maxwell Nalevansky & Carl Fry for RATS!
Best Director: Elric Kane for The Dead Thing
Audience Award: Strange Harvest
Palm d'Gore (Best Feature Film): The Dead Thing
Short Films
Best Performance: Emily Bennett in The Thaw
Jury Prize - Best Monster: Night Feeding
Jury Prize - Design: Les Bêtes
Best Script: Don Swaynos for Roger Is A Serial Killer
Best Director: Ashley Lauren Thomas for Like Me
Audience Award: The Last Thing She Saw
Palm d'Gore (Best Short Film): Stinky Girls
Tennessee Terrors Regional Shorts
Best Actor: Tyler Weisenauer in The Fool
Best Actress: Haylee Meyer in It's Better This Way
Jury Prize - Best Sound: The Runner
Jury Prize - Hottest Spiders: The TV Game
Best Director: Dalton Turner for Michael Isn't Real
Audience Award: Michael Isn't Real
Best Regional Short Film: Catacombs
Grindhouse Grind-out
Best Narration: Electric Frankenstein In Heat
Best Performance: Brigitte Byron in Pheremone Trap
Jury Prize - Cutest Couple: Heavens To Betsy
Jury Prize - Best Bootleg VHS: Junjira!
Best Title: Somebody Stop That Raccoon!
Most Likely To Inspire Protests: Halloween 1978
Nailed It!: The Creature Of Blood Lake
Movie We'd Most Like To See: Electric Frankenstein In Heat
Audience Award: Somebody Stop That Raccoon!
Grand Prize (Best Trailer): Pheremone Trap
2024 Film Slate
Feature Film Competition
Sarah Tice's DID I? • Stuart Ortiz's Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire • Joshua Erkman's A Desert • Jill Gevargizian's Ghost Game • Elric Kane's The Dead Thing • Maxwell Nalevansky & Carl Fry's RATS! • Steven Hugh Nelson's Old Wounds • Martin Melnick's Lilly Lives Alone • Yannis Veslemes's She Loved Blossoms More
​
Short Film Competition
Don Swaynos's Roger is a Serial Killer • Chris McInroy's We Joined A Cult • Drew Underwood's Bloody Mary • Adam White's Stinky Girls • Ashley Brandon's Yummo Spot • Sarah Wisner & Sean Temple's The Thaw • Audrey Dunning's A Bone to Chew • Jackson Stofka's The Pledge • Curtis Waugh's The Moistest • Mike Williamson's Mr. Static • Gaston Diego Haag's Tragedium • Colin G Cooper's Bath Bomb • Sommar Ashleigh Boulware's Bloody Marian • Bobby Roe's Will Helm • Anthony Cousins' The Last Thing She Saw • Zachary Eglinton's You're an Angel • Ashley Lauren Thomas's Like Me • Alisa Stern & Scott Ampleford's VHX • Sarah K. Reimers' Night Feeding • Michael Granberry's Les Bêtes
​
Tennessee Terrors Regional Shorts
Dylan A. Young's The Fool • Lisa Margle's The TV Game • MK Kopp's The Runner • Dixie Gers's Peeping Patty • Kris Bell's What Dwells Beneath • Dalton Turner's Michael's Not Real • Chad Cunningham's Catacombs • Mary Beth Gray & Chris Davies' It's Better This Way • August Aguilar's Piglet Rising • Dylan Rutherford's The Dog From a Graveyard (feature screening out of competition)
​
Grindhouse Grind-out
Dirty Dime's Electric Frankenstein In Heat • Cathulu Crew's Jackpot • Fig City's Somebody Stop That Raccoon! • Kingdom of Nye's Heavens To Betsy • Herschel Gordon Losers' Halloween 1978: Curse of the Luna Tits, Bitch! • Stolen Thunder's The Creature of Blood Lake • Wyld World's Pheremone Trap • First Horizon's Junjira!
​
Repertory Presentations
John Carpenter's The Thing • Tulsi & Shyam Ramsay's Mahakaal • Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street • Wes Craven's New Nightmare • Wes Craven's Shocker • Doug Robertson's Hauntedween
​
​For more information on individual films visit our 2024 Letterboxd list.
2024 Awards Juries
We are humbled as always to have this year's programming surveyed by a distinguished group of critics, filmmakers, industry professionals and Knoxville-area notables, whose picks in a range of categories will be announced Sunday night.
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
BJ Colangelo
BJ Colangelo is an author, film critic, pop culture commentator, horror film aficionado, and co-host of the podcast This Ends at Prom. BJ has been writing professionally about film for over 15 years, having been published everywhere from Fangoria Magazine, Playboy, Autostraddle, Vulture, The Daily Dot, /Film, and Shudder. BJ has contributed to the books "Creepy Bitches," "When Animals Attack!," "Hidden Horror 101," "Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children," "Haunted Reels" and the “critical analysis book Sleepaway Camp" from DieDieBooks. She was a panelist for the San Diego Comic-Con "Queer Fear" legacy panel in 2019, appeared on El Rey Network's 'Top 5,' and was featured in the Queer For Fear docuseries on Shudder from Bryan Fuller. She often serves as a jury member for film festivals specializing in horror or queer cinema.​
Marisa Mirabal
Marisa Mirabal is an Austin-based writer and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic whose work has appeared on SlashFilm, IndieWire, Collider, Birth Movies Death, The Austin Chronicle, Austin Eater, and FANGORIA. She has a penchant for horror, documentaries, female-led films, and sci-fi. Her film analysis is geared towards amplifying marginalized voices, maverick filmmaking techniques, and the exploration of taboo subject matter through thematic storytelling. Currently, Marisa is the VP of Ad Sales at FANGORIA and serves on the board of directors for Austin Alliance for Women in Media.
Zack Hall
Zack Hall is a film and event programmer at Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre where he runs the midnight movie series and 12 Hours of Terror horror marathon among many other initiatives. Additionally, he works as a freelance editor with clients such as the Criterion Channel, Janus Films, and Third Man Records.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Brea Grant
Brea Grant is an award-winning filmmaker who most recently directed the horror thriller Torn Hearts for Blumhouse. She wrote/starred in the film Lucky, which premiered at SXSW 2020. The same year, she also wrote/directed 12 Hour Shift starring Angela Bettis and David Arquette, which premiered at Tribeca 2020 and won Best Screenplay at Fantasia International Film Festival. She has also directed for the CW and Netflix, written four comic book series, and acted in a number of films and television shows including Heroes, Dexter, Friday Night Lights and Halloween 2. She just wrote/shot an anthology entitled Grind.
Jason Shawhan
​Media Prophet Jason Shawhan, SEFCA, spent eleven years as the local film critic for Gannett (Nashville Rage, All The Rage, Metromix, The Tennessean) and is currently the senior film critic for The Nashville Scene. He was the founder of the Nashville Cinema Underground and host of the Midnight Movie series at The Belcourt Theatre. A graduate of NYU (Literature/Critical Theory/Cinema Studies) and Watkins Film School (Cinematography), his criticism and writing have also appeared in Dish Magazine, In Review, The Film Journal, Opposable Thumb Films, and about.com. His art and photography have been exhibited at The St. Mark’s Position Gallery and The Barney Building in New York City, The Rule of Thirds Gallery, and the Belcourt Gallery in Nashville, and online at IFC.com.
Patrick Bromley
Patrick Bromley is a freelance writer and journalist from Chicago, who founded and is the editor-in-chief of F This Movie!
TENNESSE TERRORS & GRINDHOUSE GRIND-OUT
Andrew Swafford
Andrew Swafford is a founding member of Cinematary, which is perhaps Knoxville’s longest running film podcast? By day, he teaches High School English Literature at the L&N STEM Academy, where he incorporates film into his curriculum at any available opportunity. He’s honored to be serving as a judge for KHFF for the second year running!
Amelia Winburne
​Amelia Grace Winburne is a young critic following her passions and honing her skills through various filmic endeavours. She has co-hosted for the last three years on local film podcast Cinematary, and co-created a new film podcast called Checkout Cinema. She has just returned from two back-to-back international film festivals, TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and Le Gironate Del Cinema Muto (Days of Silent Cinema) in Pordenone, Italy. With her Masters in Library Sciences, she's set her sights on film archives, restoration and preservation, and works closely with the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS). You can find her at your local library, the McClung Historical Collection to be exact, helping people find their family history; or at your favorite local bar, Public House, crafting fine cocktails. She is so excited to join Knoxville Horror Fest in her first year judging, this is surely the beginning of a long friendship.
Keenan Thomas
A journalist for Knox News, Keenan Thomas was born and raised in Knoxville with a love for movies. He’s attended the Knoxville Horror Film Festival since 2021, first as a reporter, then as a fan, and now as a judge. When he’s not at the movies, Keenan enjoys playing video games, drinking a damn good cup of coffee, or cozying up with a cat. If you see him, say hey!
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.
​
Please reach out via email to knoxhorrorfest@gmail.com if you'd like to contact us for any reason.