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KHFF2024 Poster Image

OCTOBER 16 - 20, 2024

Thursday & Friday drive-in tickets still available at

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made possible by the support of our friends & sponsors at

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2024 Lineup

As in previous years, the 2024 Knoxville Horror Film Fest is scheduled as a single-track film festival in which there are no repeating or conflicting events; our core group of 75 festival passholders will enjoy the same five nights and three days of horror fun, joined Thursday and Friday night at the Parkway Drive-In by a broader audience of regional scare enthusiasts. Our full festival passes are sold out, but there's plenty of space left at the drive-in... vist FilmFreeway to grab single- or two-night passes, or come ready to pay at the gate! ($25/person)

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16

at Central Cinema

7:00pm
9:00pm

Tennessee Terrors Regional Shorts
The Dog from a Graveyard

This year's festival kicks off with a spotlight on area filmmakers via our Tennessee Terrors competitive regional short film program, presented for the first time 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 The Fool, The TV Game, The Runner, Peeping Patty, What Dwells Beneath, Michael's Not Real, Catacombs, It's Better This Way and Piglet Rising, followed by a screening of Johnson City-based feature anthology production The Dog From a Graveyard.
 
Admission to our Tennessee Terrors program is included as part of our KHFF Festival Pass; we plan to have a limited number of $15 general admission tickets available at the door prior to the screening.

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THURSDAY OCTOBER 17

at the Parkway Drive-In

7:30pm
9:00pm

Short Film Block + Grindhouse Grind-out
The Thaw + THE THING

KHFF 2024 kicks into high gear as we return for our fifth year at Maryville’s Parkway Drive-In! Thursday’s programming begins with short films Roger is a Serial Killer, We Joined a Cult, Bloody Mary, Stinky Girls and Yummo Spot alongside the 2024 KHFF Grindhouse Grind-out Filmmaking Contest, pitting eleven teams of local creatives against one another to see who can create the wildest fake movie trailer. And once the dust settles on the Grind-out showdown, we're thrilled to be topping off the evening with one of the greatest horror films of all time: John Carpenter's stir-crazy 1982 special effects feast The Thing, preceded by short film The Thaw!

 

Admission to Thursday's drive-in program is included as part of our KHFF Festival Pass; standalone per-person passes are available online in single ($25) and two-night ($45) configurations and will be available at the gate the night of the event.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 18

at Central Cinema

12:30pm
2:30pm
3:50pm

DID I?
Short Film Block
MAHAKAAL

Friday starts off our 2024 feature film competition with Sarah Tice's DID I? and continues the short film fun with a dedicated block featuring A Bone To Chew, The Pledge, The Moistest, Mr. Static, Tragedium, Bath Bomb and Bloody Marian... then we'll pregame for the evening's drive-in programming with bonkers 1994 Bollywood Freddy Krueger knockoff Mahakaal.
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Friday's Central Cinema programming is exclusive to KHFF passholders.

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 18

at the Parkway Drive-In

7:30pm
9:10pm
11:20pm

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Will Helm 
NEW NIGHTMARE

SHOCKER

We're headed back to the Parkway on Friday as Riot Printing Co presents a triple-anniversary lineup celebrating a pivotal decade in the career of legendary writer/director Wes Craven, pairing 1984's game-changing supernatural slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street with his 1994 franchise meta mic-drop New Nightmare (with short film Will Helm) plus a rare screening of 1989's underrated, not-unrelated Shocker!

 

Admission to Friday's drive-in program is included as part of our KHFF Festival Pass; standalone per-person passes are available online in single ($25) and two-night ($45) configurations and will be available at the gate the night of the event.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 19

at Central Cinema

12:30pm
2:15pm
4:15pm
6:45pm
7:15pm
9:25pm
11:15pm

STRANGE HARVEST
A DESERT
The Last Thing She Saw + GHOST GAME
Filmmaker Panel hosted by Elric Kane
You're An Angel + THE DEAD THING
Like Me + RATS!
Sweet Sixteen Karaoke Jam

The biggest day of the festival digs into our feature film slate with Stuart Ortiz's faux documentary Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland EmpireJoshua Erkman's A DesertJill Gevargizian's Ghost Game,  Elric Kane's The Dead Thing and Carl Fry & Maxwell Nalevansky's gonzo crowd-pleaser RATS! (The last three will be paired respectively with short films You're An AngelThe Last Thing She Saw and Like Me.) We'll also be breaking up the all-day movie marathon with our Filmmaker Panel (moderated by friend of the fest Elric Kane and featuring a number of our guest filmmakers) and winding things down with a late night Sweet Sixteen Karaoke Jam!​
 
Saturday's Central Cinema programming is exclusive to KHFF passholders.

Filmmakers in attendance

KHFF 2024 is pleased to host our biggest-ever cohort of short and feature filmmakers, many of whom will be making themselves available for post-screening Q&As and/or participating in our Saturday afternoon filmmaker panel. Guests expected to attend include The Dead Thing's Elric Kane, Ghost Game's Jill Gevargizian, RATS!'s Maxwell Nalevansky, DID I?''s Sarah Tice & Zachary Beckler, Old Wounds'  Steven Hugh Nelson, The Last Thing She Saw's Anthony Cousins, Bloody Marian's Sommar Ashleigh Boulware and Like Me's Ashley Lauren Thomas.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 20

at Central Cinema

12:30pm
2:45pm
4:45pm

7:30pm
8:00pm

VHX + OLD WOUNDS
Night Feeding + LILLY LIVES ALONE
Les Bêtes + SHE LOVED BLOSSOMS MORE
KHFF 2024 Awards Ceremony
HAUNTEDWEEN

The final day of KHFF 2024 winds down our feature competition with Steven Hugh Nelson's found footage creeper Old Wounds and Martin Melnick's Jeffrey Combs-starring Lilly Lives Alone, and Yannis Veslemes's time-bending She Loved Blossoms More (paired respectively with short films VHX, Night Feeding and Les Bêtes.) Then join us after dinner for our 2024 awards ceremony and a special closing night screening of 1991's Bowling Green, Kentucky-produced fratboy slasher oddity Hauntedween.​
 
Weekend programming at Central Cinema is exclusive to KHFF passholders, but we invite Tennessee Terrors and Grindhouse Grind-out filmmakers to attend our awards ceremony, and walk-up ticketing may be available for Hauntedween.​

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2024 Short Film Slate
Screening Thursday thru Sunday

This year's touring short film lineup includes 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 and Michael Granberry's Les Bêtes

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These films will screen throughout the festival, either paired with complementary feature presentations or grouped into dedicated blocks; see above for details. 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!

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TICKETING INFO

Tickets are available now via FilmFreeway for Thursday and Friday’s events at the Parkway Drive-In ($25/person or $45 for a two-night combo pass.)

 

We will also have a limited number of general public tickets available at the door for Wednesday's Tennessee Terrors program (7pm) and Sunday's closing night presentation of Hauntedween (8pm)

Past Festivals

PAST FESTIVALS

Click through the posters for Letterboxd lists detailing each year's lineup, winners & more!

About KHFF

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.

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