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Den of Geek is a media partner of Haunted House FearFest.
A crisp autumn weekend is the perfect time to relax in an old and potentially haunted theater for a marathon of horror films and video games. Now in its third year, Haunted House FearFest hosted its biggest festival yet on the last weekend of October, in the heart of New York City and before a sea of bloodthirsty fans. The three-day event showcased independent short and feature-length films, TV shows, and even video games—all highlighting the broad scope of today’s horror landscape.
Renee Huff, the festival owner and executive director, is a lifelong movie fan. She cites Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs as a formative film in her childhood. With a background in marketing and event planning when she saw that the burgeoning Haunted House FearFest was available to purchase from its original European owners, she jumped at the opportunity to turn her dreams for an indie-focused and inclusive film festival into a reality.
There are few women festival runners on the horror scene, and even more rare are Black women in the industry. Her corporate career gave her both challenges in being overlooked and opportunities to become more resilient.
“When I got passed over for promotions or I just had a rough time, I always still managed to observe what the other people were doing,” Huff tells us when we sat down on the last day of the festival. “So I took those lessons and pivoted more to what I really want to do. And then the festival came about.”
Finding a location for the event was another challenge, but this year’s venue, the Triad Theater, was the perfect partnership. Built in 1890, the historic scene has hosted some of the world’s most prestigious performers. Elizabeth Taylor, Robert De Niro, Saturday Night Live alums Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig, and Lady Gaga have all graced its ornate stage. The vintage jewel box of a theater, festooned in red and gold, and even pillars from the storied Chelsea Hotel, lends itself well to weekly cabaret and drag shows, but also to Haunted House FearFest’s immersive Halloween decor, including piped in haunted house music, blood spattered screens, creepy custom cocktails, and fun-sized Halloween candy scattered across the tables.
HauntTV was another festival sponsor, as many of the films showcased naturally had a paranormal element. Saturday’s festival premiere was the third season finale of Haunted Discoveries, a ghost-hunting show that aims to mix forgotten history and heart into its investigations. The third season spent a lot of time unearthing tragedy—and even lost graves—in Kentucky, especially in the coal-mining area of Harlan County, a region particularly familiar to fans of FX’s show Justified.
Show co-host and festival guest of honor Mustafa Gatollari was thrilled to have Haunted Discoveries showcased at Haunted House FearFest and teased what viewers can expect in the forthcoming season finale, airing on HauntTV this Halloween evening.
“We returned to the Conrad Caldwell Museum, which was our first investigation in Old Louisville, Kentucky, and was America’s most haunted neighborhood. It was a full-circle moment. We wanted to go back there and see if we can replicate our findings and honestly we got even more,” Gatollari says, grinning.
He also takes pride in the team, including noted physicist Dr. Harry Kloor, and not using devices that can be easily manipulated and have been debunked on their program. “Haunted Discoveries isn’t manufactured. We’re obsessed with telling the actual story.”
Other festival highlights were the mockumentary Curse of the Blair Witch presented by Blair Witch Project producer Michael Monello, who was on-site for a live Q&A, werewolf action movie Operation Blood Hunt, creepy forays into folk horror, including A Stranger in the Woods and Gretchen, the visually arresting Maldoror and The Wastelander Sector 23, and terrifying short films such as “The Queue” and “The Invisibles.”
Huff’s vision for Haunted House FearFest is big, so look forward to more films and video games, particularly games developed by women. She’s also hopeful for new categories, including horror soundtracks and FX makeup, another male-dominated field in Hollywood where some of the best work is actually being showcased on social media. Horror fans should keep an eye out for next year’s festival to get a first look at some of the genre’s most creative new visions and talents that hope to shape the future of horror all around the world—and for all horror fans.
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