Director: Benjamin Arfmann
Writer: Brian McAuley
Producer: Raphael Margules

Starring: Dylan Sprouse, Kent Osborne, Randall Park, Chris Bauer, Alycia Delmore

Director Statement: 

Director: Tony Jopia
Writers: Garry Charles, Andy Davie, Kristofer Dayne, Tony Jopia
Producers: Kristofer Dayne, Tony Jopia

Starring: Caroline Munro, Honey Holmes, Gary Martin, Dani Thompson, Kumud Pant, Sara Dee, John R. Walker, Lesley Scoble, Steve Aaron-Sipple, Kristofer Dayne

Director Statement: 

Director: Preston DeFrancis
Writers: Preston DeFrancis, Trysta A. Bissett
Producer: Rebecca Stone, Aaron Galligan-Stierle and David Hendleman

Starring: Marcienne Dwyer, Matt Dellapina, Eva Hamilton, John Odom, Chris Hill, Cameron Gordon, Sam Ashdown

Director Statement: 

The first time I heard about Blackout, the extreme haunted experience selling out night after night in Los Angeles and New York, I felt a little tingle at the back of my neck. That thrill of something forbidden, of something that was maybe just over an imaginary personal boundary. There wasn’t much information out there about it – mostly second- and third-hand whispers and conjecture. “You will be bound and gagged.” “They do really fucked-up shit.” “Their goal is to ruin you.”

What sort of person would volunteer – literally pay money to someone – and say, “I want you to ruin me!”

A lot of people, it turns out. Blackout gave way to The Great Horror Campout, The Tension Experience, and many others. The curiosity and attendance at these events seems to grow every October. It’s that time of year when legions of us horror fans are seeking something that will really scare us – frighten us the way movies did when we were kids, but fail to do now that we are adults and know we’re safe once the credits roll. Here was something that promised to truly scare us. And maybe even scar us.

That’s when inspiration struck me and my longtime screenwriting partner, Trysta. What if just a few people paid to re-live a “teens go camping” slasher movie, a la FRIDAY THE 13TH? We created the fictional event Slasher Sleepout: part escape room, part camping trip, part haunted house. But then, deep in the woods, cut off from technology… what if something went wrong?

That hook was enough to get us started. But what put us over the edge between “This is a cool idea” and “We have to make this movie” was when we created the character of Alex, our female protagonist. While she may appear to be the Virginal Heroine on the surface, just beneath is a deeply troubled woman trying her best to escape the mistakes of her past; a complicated, three-dimensional person, put in a situation far outside her comfort zone and forced to adapt. Maybe the thing that goes wrong at Slasher Sleepout is her.

While you are not likely to find many bigger FRIDAY THE 13TH fans than me, that paradigm was just a starting point. Our goal was to make something smarter, edgier, more character-based, but also an entertaining ride. We studied the structure of David Fincher’s THE GAME, the grounded style of Adam Wingard’s A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, and the personal, intimate work David Robert Mitchell did with his female protagonist in IT FOLLOWS.

Our small cast and crew descended upon Muskegon, Michigan for 15 grueling days of shooting, deep in the woods and on the shores of Lake Michigan. With us was my longtime creative producing partner, Aaron; my now-wife and our producer, Becca; executive producer, David; Marcienne, who bravely took on the challenge of playing Alex, both on land and underwater; a cast assembled from Los Angeles, New York, and local Michigan actors; and our director of photography, Jesse. We committed our vision to celluloid (er, digital), which was further brought to life in Post by our sound designer Josh and the music of our composer Holly.

What began four years ago as a tingle in the back of my neck is now a feature film for you to enjoy. If we’ve done our jobs, you’ll know at the end why we had to call it RUIN ME.

Director: Michael Mongillo
Writers: Michael Mongillo, Matt Giannini
Producers: Davis Mikaels, Thomas Edward Seymour

Starring: Jason Alan Smith, Carlee Avers, Margaret Rose Champagne

Director Statement: 

DIANE is a present-day supernatural horror/thriller that also tells a compelling and honest story about the human condition. The critical essays of Roland Barthes, the video art of Bill Viola, and the illustrations of Edward Gorey were all influences for the DIANE screenplay. Its cinematic inspirations were Stanley Kubrick’s supernatural drama, The Shining, Gus Van Sant’s crime and punishment road movie, Drugstore Cowboy, and Brian De Palma’s stylized suspense/thriller, Blow Out. Writer/director Michael Mongillo (Being Michael Madsen) confesses that the muses for his frequently chilling and occasionally humorous fourth feature film may not be readily apparent. In a 2016 interview with Fangoria Magazine, he admitted, ͞…Now I find myself describing [DIANE] in literary terms: to me it’s Stephen King meets Elmore Leonard.͟

Director: Simeon Halligan
Writer: Simeon Halligan
Producers: Rachel Richardson-Jones, Nick Leese

Starring: Elliot James Langridge, Jessica Barden, William Ash, Roxanne Pallett, Joanne Mitchell, Andrew Ellis

Director Statement: 

HABIT is stark and grimy. Lurid and ugly, with flashes of gaudy surrealism. Like Ken Loach shot a horror movie with gory inserts by Abel Ferrara, this is gritty, dark, real world stuff that uses the seedy underbelly of Manchester city as its backdrop. Much of the film takes place at night within the former Garment District area of the Northern Quarter, an area that is architecturally interesting with great alleys and side streets, almost like New York in places. Beneath the trendy bar and bohemian coffee shop exterior lies a layer of grot and sleaze, in the best way. Like the novel, the film has a low-key feel, offering fleeting glimpses of something really disturbing lurking behind something that is, well, pretty seedy and ugly to begin with. HABIT should leave the audience thinking “What the hell just happened?” It’s an elusive feeling captured so well in the book which focuses on character, atmosphere and mood. Cinematographer James Swift’s neon lit colour palette helps to conjure a garish enticing night time world that contrasts sharply with the cold blue saturated world that Michael leaves behind. Chris Gill’s editing skills have given the film rhythm, instinct and emotion. The subliminal power of his editing has helped to create a cumulative sensory event. Claude Foisy’s composed score, is at times, murky, oppressive and trance like, often suggesting the soundscape of Manchester at its most sordid and dangerous.

Director: Mitchell Altieri

Writers: Ken Arnold, Dan DeLuca, Jamie Nash

Starring: Ken Arnold, Dan DeLuca, Kevin Jiggetts

Cast: Kara Luiz, Max Gray Wilbur, James Remar, Matt Servitto, Diona Reasonover, Rain Pryor, Tiffany Shepis, Dan Franko, Matthew Bowerman, Gary Peebles, Travis Hudson, Donald Imm

Director: Richard Stringham
Producers: Richard Stringham
Writer: Richard Stringham

Starring: Greg Fallon, Jordan Phipps, Carmen Patterson

Director’s Statement:

Director: Lou Simon
Producers: Lou Simon, Alan Hanna, Todd Bruno
Writer: Lou Simon

Starring: Todd Bruno, Mike Stanley, Aniela McGuinness

Director’s Statement: “3” is something completely different from anything done — a psychological thriller that hopefully tests the audience’s values between right and wrong and keeps them searching for what truly happened.

Director: Thomas Aske Berg & Fredrik Waldeland
Producers: Thomas Aske Berg, John Iver Berg, Fredrik Waldeland
Written By: Thomas Aske Berg & Fredrik Waldeland

Starring: Thomas Aske Berg, Brigt Skrettingland, Kim Sonderholm, Marit Sanden

Cast: Sigve Aasland, Sutharsan Bala, Isabelle Cau, Siv Mary Espedal, Penda Faal, Espen Hana, Kathrine Junger Ims, Balder Scheen Jacobsen, Sham Jaff, Stian Joa, Jan Jonassen, Ruben Jonassen, Martha Kristine Kastad, Julie Saebo Larsen, Eileen Nesse Pedersen, Henrik Rafaelssen, Ingvar Skretting, Magdalena Szpyruk, Camilla Thorvaldsen, Linda Tveiten, Jarle Vangnes, Hanne Vasshus, Fredrik Waldeland, Astrid Braut Oksnevad

Director: Samuel Galli
Producers: Samuel Galli, Miguel Govea, Victor Molin, Tato Siansi
Executive Producer: Xavier Gens

Starring: Fernando Cardoso, Ricardo Casella, Reinaldo Colmanetti

Cast: Walderrama Dos Santos, Ademir Esteves, Maria Galves, Maria Clara Goncalves, Gabriela Grecco, Antony Mello, Sonia Moreno, Luara Pepita, Maysa Pettes, Thais Prates, William Salles, Nicole Silva, Shirley Viana