In less than a month’s time, Nightmares Film Festival will once again return to Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio. This year’s lineup is even more gargantuan than the last, with NFF 2018 hosting 24 features and 164 short films over a span of four days. Among its wide assortment of chills, thrills, and blood spills, the festival will be showcasing the latest works from the makers of August Underground, Baskin, Berberian Sound Studio, Found, The FP, Goodnight Mommy, The Lure, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, The Rake, Thankskilling, Wyrmwood, and more!

The festivities begin on Thursday, October 18th at 7pm (EST) with a screening of Bill Lustig’s new 4K restoration of his gore-soaked classic, Maniac. Lustig himself will be in attendance. The fright-filled fun will then continue to run through the end of the night on Sunday, October 21st. In other words, go grab yourself some festival passes and stock up on your favorite energy drinks, because it’s going to be a non-stop sleepless ride of horror, genre comedies, thrillers, and midnight mindfuck cinema for the entire duration of the event.

So what exactly is playing? I’m glad you asked! Here’s the feature film lineup…

• Alive
• The Bad Man
• Be My Cat
• Betsy
• Book of Monsters
• Camp Death III in 2D!
• Clementina
• Confessions of a Serial Killer (the “lost” ’80s Corman gem)
• Dark Iris
• The Field Guide to Evil
• The Final Interview
• FP2: Beats of Rage
• Haven’s End
• The Head
• Kill Ben Lyk
• The LaPlace’s Demon
• La Puta es Ciega (aka The Whore is Blind)
• Livescream
• Maniac (4k restoration)
• More Blood!
• Never Hike Alone (rare theatrical screening of the F13 fan film fave)
• The Night Sitter
• Skeletons in the Closet
• Trauma

I can’t even begin to list the insane amount of shorts that will be running at the festival. Just know that they are all well worth your time if you are lucky enough to attend the festival. The short blocks are always packed to the brim with wild and interesting films that are oozing with the of the next big generation of indie filmmakers. There’s even a Stephen King block of “Dollar Babies” offerings this year! Hell, that’s why World of Death is joining forces with NFF once more to offer distribution to all award-winning shorts this year!

In less than three years, Nightmares Film Festival has grown from a grassroots event into one of the top horror film celebrations in the world. It is one of the highest-rated festivals out there among fans and filmmakers. While a lot of that has to do with their wide array of programming, I think the majority of it comes from the environment that it has created for fans and filmmakers alike. There is nothing snobby or elitist about NFF. Whether you’re a genre novice or an aging die hard fan, all are accepted and treated like family. You will be too, if you decide to pull the trigger and head over to gatewayfilmcenter.org/NFF to scoop up one of the remaining festival passes (or even just tickets to a few screenings). As I’ve stated many times already, I’ll be there covering the whole thing. Come play with us!