MAY 19-21, 2023 • SPOTLIGHT CINEMAS 8 • COLUMBIA, SC
Click on the day for a complete list of films and events, or scroll down.
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2022 - DAY 1
12:00 pm: South Carolina Shorts Block #1
The Protected (5 mins) - In the wake of multiple missing person reports, a man must return to his hometown in an attempt to stop his younger brother from destroying the family name. Directed by Silas James Rowland
WOMB (10 mins) - During her third trimester, a soon-to-be single mother is forced to face her anxiety and fears in her own personal hot pink hellscape. Directed by Brittany Brock
Fame Fatale (20 mins) - A 40-year-old gay actor, Mike, has nearly reached his wit’s end with the film industry. After losing what would be his “big break,” he visits a horror convention to take his mind off 20 years of hardship. Little does he know, the convention isn’t exactly a safe space for aspiring actors. Directed by Michelle Iannantuono
Aplasia (27 mins) - A slasher that easily gets up under the skin. How far will one hard-up babysitter go to make some cash? Directed by Kenneth Perkins
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
2:00 pm: Feature Film
The Awakening of Lilith (1 hr 22 mins) - A woman finds herself in the midst of a dark mystery after the unexplained loss of a loved one. Her mind begins to unravel as her sense of reality begins to slip away. Directed by Steven Adam Renkovish
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
4:30 pm: Animation Shorts Block
Pumpkin Boy (2 mins) - This Halloween...he's born. Directed by Trent Shy
ME-EAT (6 mins) - Do you like Pizza? So did Anna, until she encountered a hidden world of horror in the most unexpected place - a pizza cafe. Directed by Mariya Pyter
RKLSS (15 mins) - Tank, a natural artist who is always drawing, runs into trouble with the law with his gang of friends. Tank is convicted, jailed, and subjected to solitary confinement and intense brutality. His art allows him to escape his terrible conditions. He discovers his own native spirituality while in jail, and through his art, finds a way to be in the world, and to reflect on his own reality. Directed by Tank Standing Buffalo
Let's Be Serial Killers! (28 mins) - After an inspiring drug trip, three nerdy high schoolers attempt to become serial killers to get attention from girls, only to become the target of an actual killer. Directed by Joe Weinberger
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
6:00 pm: Feature Film
The Incel Tapes (1 hr 30 mins) - (WORLD PREMIERE) After a failed suicide attempt, a self-proclaimed "incel" must get laid before his 26th birthday...or he's going to kill. Directed by Ethan Freel
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
8:00 pm: Feature Film
Malibu Horror Story (1 hr 25 mins) - A team of paranormal investigators search a sacred Native American cave for clues in the unsolved disappearance of four local teens. Directed by Scott Slone
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
End Day 1
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022 - DAY 2
10:00 am: Feature Film
Psycho Ape! (1 hr 5 mins) - A killer gorilla escapes from the Detroit zoo and goes on a murderous rampage. Directed by Addison Binek
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
12:00 pm: Thriller Shorts Block
RUN (6 mins) - A female jogger is approached by a strange man in the woods. Directed by J. Zachary Thurman
Anniversary (7 mins) - Rubin and Lily just got married, are expecting a baby, and are driving off into the sunset. It was supposed to be the best day of their lives. Directed by Craig Ouellette
The Naughty List (7 mins) - AWhen kids are being naughty, they have more than just a lump of coal for Christmas coming their way! Directed by Alex Popov
7 MINUTES IN HELL (14 mins) - Olivia and her friends sneak into an abandoned house to play a game of seven minutes in heaven. As luck would have it, she and her crush, James, end up in a closet together. However things go from awkward to terrifying when the closet goes dark and they are attacked by a shapeshifting monster. Directed by Shane Spiegel and Justin Reager
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
2:00 pm: Feature Film
ALCHEMY OF THE SPIRIT (1 hr 30 mins) - The Great American artist Oliver Black wakes to discover his wife Evelyn has died in their bed overnight. Brimming with magical realism, we enter a world in which the misconceptions of our belief in a solid reality are revealed. Space and time bend in a way to challenge the audience with what is real, what is illusion, and what is beyond. Directed by Steve Balderson
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
4:30 pm: Comedy Shorts Block
Home Alone: Jigsaw Origins (7 mins) - Kevin McCallister grows up to be the Jigsaw Killer. Directed by Beau Garner
The Fuzzies (8 mins) - A man wakes up locked in a strange bathroom where something is lurking behind the walls. Directed by Josh Funk
TAPEHEAD (9 mins) - A film crew follows a horror-obsessed VHS collector as he puts himself in dangerous situations to find his holy grail tapes. Directed by Jason Zink
Lethalogica (6 mins) - Relationships can be killer, but the best advice for a successful one, is patience and a short memory. Directed by Tony Reames
The Lake Parasite (15 mins) - Toxic waste runoff from a luxury resort creates a lake monster which wreaks havoc on the exclusive resort town. Directed by Joe Reilly
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
6:00 pm: Feature Film
Bloody Summer Camp (2 hrs) -In 1986, counselors at Camp Trustfall are preparing for the new summer. It's all fun and games until one of the new counselors goes missing. Now, an evil lurks in the darkness. Someone in a devil mask is killing off the counselors one by one. Is it the camp legend come to life or does someone have an axe to grind? Directed by David Kerr
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
8:30 pm: Slasher Shorts Block
Glitch (4 mins) - While FaceTiming her daughter, a mother spots something scary on the video feed that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Directed by Rebecca Berrih
The Mill Creek Strangler (6 mins) - A woman obsessed with a local serial killer finally gets to meet him one night when he shows up to her house to kill her. Directed by Aaron Egbert Allsop
Final Girl (10 mins) - Ten years after surviving a massacre, a Final Girl confronts the killer, desperately seeking some sort of closure and revenge. Directed by Edward M. Soto
Never Hike in the Snow (26 mins) - Set three months prior to “Never Hike Alone,” “Never Hike in the Snow” follows the strange disappearance of Mark Hill, a Crystal Lake resident who went for a hike in the dead of winter and never came home. Directed by Vincente DiSanti
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
End Day 2
SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2022 - DAY 3
11:00 am: South Carolina Shorts Block #2
Mother Folkin' Massacre (7 mins) - A folk band gets killed off one by one during rehearsal, but is everything as it seems? Directed by Cagney Larkin
What a Beautiful Wedding (9 mins) - A product of personal experiences as a Black man living in the south. It is the experience of many Black people. It is a testament to the psychological warfare of navigating a traumatic history that is ignored at best and celebrated at worst. The film is an exploration in short of an essential American experience. Directed by Michael Smallwood
That Feeling (34 mins) - A woman on her belated honeymoon deals with the transgressions of her past - and, ultimately, the consequences of her choices - as she struggles with deja vu at 16,000 ft. Directed by Paul Inman
Mama's Soup (20 mins) - Vanessa has been dealing with her abusive boyfriend Victor for years. He not only puts her down but is own mother does too. Vanessa finally gets sick of him and her mother in law too. Directed by Felicia Rivers
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
1:00 pm: Feature Film
13 Slays Till X-Mas (1 hr 36 mins) - On December 24th, five seemingly random men are invited to a dive bar by a mysterious e-mail. They decide to pass the time by resurrecting the old tradition of telling scary stories on Christmas Eve. Directed by P.J. Starks, Eric Huskisson, John Hale, Carlos Omar De Leon, Brittany Blanton, Shawn Burkett, Blair Hoyle, William Capps, Julie Streble, Sean Blevins, Alex Clark, John Mason, Drew Marvick, Jed Brian, and Robert Kern III
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
3:00 pm: Foreign Shorts Block
The Foul (UK/4 mins) - Some thing has to do something about all that dog sh*t. A corporate public information film about the importance of cleaning up after your dog. Come on guys, we're all this epidemic together- just pick it up the pup poop. Directed by James Button
The Shadow in the Attic (Australia/11 mins) - During the first night at their new home, a young couple find themselves exploring strange sounds coming from the attic. Events escalate as they discover something sinister already living there. Directed by Matt Jeston
They’re Back (Mexico/6 mins) - Isolated in the middle of the countryside and far from any kind of help, two young sisters must hide in their own house in order to survive the invasion of a menacing light that comes from the heavens. Directed by Ismael Capistrán
Smile (Canada/7 mins) - When a young woman struggles to smile, her depression becomes something truly monstrous. Directed by Joanna Tsanis
ANGST (Austria/10 mins) - In a distant future fear has been completely eradicated in order to find relief and peace beyond the hectic pace of life. That's where Bobby comes in: selling pills to those who wish to get back in touch with their primal instincts. Directed by Béla Baptiste
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
4:30 pm: Feature Film
Rondo and Bob (1 hr 40 mins) - Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert Burns was obsessed with cult actor Rondo Hatton. Bob was a normal-looking guy who was strangely creative. Rondo was a normal guy who looked strange. Both were looking for love. Directed by Joe O'Connell
Q&A to follow with filmmakers in attendance.
6:00 pm: CRIMMY Awards Ceremony
End Day 3