UPDATE: VOTING IS NOW OPEN! Links have been sent out to badge holders and filmmakers.
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We will be sending out our #PanicFest2026 Audience Choice Awards link Thursday morning to badge and ticket holders to vote on their fest favorites!
Voting will continue until April 19th when our virtual festival wraps up to allow you to watch more films before voting!
Download the Panic Fest App to help organize your fest schedule!
Search “Panic Fest” in the app store.
Link in bio, stories and highlights “How to Fest”
#PanicFest2026
📸: @elementsbrandhaus
As our in-person programming is beginning to wrap up we want to remind everyone our virtual fest continues through April 19th!
Purchase a full virtual pass to watch all the films your mind can devour or snag some single tickets to catch a few movies at home!
Save 10% off by using promo code DRC10
@eventive_org geolocked to US only
/schedule
One of the highlights of doing our annual @panicfilmfest sabbatical is to have another geek-tactic conversation with @nerdsofnostalgia and @jenius_mcgee from Nightmare Junkhead and the episode is now LIVE!
We love talking with these guys and think you will enjoy this geek out discussing everything movies, Women in Prison, Ebola, PanicFest, Secret Screenings and Pie (or lack thereof)…It’s an Old Fashioned Nightmare Mashup!
(Link in bio)
@oldfashionedbecca@thejoelynch@armourtheater
Director Damien McCarthy has been a favorite of ours at Downright Creepy ever since we screened Caveat at Panic Fest in 2020, followed by Oddity in 2024.
Now he returns with another chilling story in Hokum, starring Adam Scott as novelist Ohm Bauman. Retreating to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, Ohm soon finds himself drawn into unsettling tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. That central mystery becomes the film’s greatest strength pulling both the character and the audience deeper into a growing obsession with what lies behind that door.
The familiar setup of a writer slowly unraveling in isolation evokes shades of The Shining, but McCarthy blends it with elements of murder mystery and witchcraft to craft a slow burning, tension-driven story that builds toward a satisfying reveal. As the creeping dread sets in, Hokum finds a way to grab on not let go.
Scott continues to show his range, often letting silence do the heavy lifting. His reactions carry key moments, anchoring the film’s scares through subtle, emotional beats rather than dialogue. The result is a performance that makes the film’s more unnerving sequences land even harder.
It’s not all dread, though. McCarthy threads moments of sharp, sometimes irreverent humor to break the tension only to pull the audience right back into the spiral of madness that takes hold in the second act.
One of McCarthy’s signatures remains his use of strange relics and eerie details. From unsettling witch figures in the inn’s lobby to a deeply creepy children’s show host appearing in supernatural flashes, each element adds to the film’s off kilter atmosphere. Everything feels intentional, building toward a world that is as strange as it is unsettling shrouded in mystery.
Hokum delivers a haunting, nerve wracking experience that lingers well beyond its final moments.
Catch it in theaters May 1st from @neonrated@mradamscott
Fresh off a screening at @panicfilmfest we now have the trailer for @saccharinemovie from #PanicAlum Natalie Erika James
Hana (Midori Francis), a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Filmmaker Natalie Erika James’ (RELIC) third feature offers a modern and timely take on toxic messaging around weight and appearance that permeates every corner of our culture. With her latest film SACCHARINE, James takes an intimate look into one woman’s struggle with body image, self-worth, and shame-driven compulsion, told through a supernatural body-horror with a queer lens.
Independent Film Company will open SACCHARINE in theaters across the U.S. on Friday, May 22nd followed by a @shudder streaming release in July.
Pitfall is coming to theaters nationwide on May 29, 2026 after a successful screening at @panicfilmfest Check out the official trailer right here! #PanicFest2026
SYNOPSIS:
After a young man gets separated from his friends in the woods, he falls in to a 20 foot deep pit of spikes, impaling him through his leg and leaving him trapped. He quickly learns that his fall was not an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
Purchase Tickets:
Argentinian horror goes hard!!
Don't Sleep Alone (2026)
@dontsleepalone_film
Directed by @talosilveyra
Watched at @panicfilmfest
After her father's suicide, Sami returns to her childhood home to reunite with her family. At night, she begins to suffer episodes of sleep paralysis, blurring the line between reality and nightmare, and is visited by a presence seemingly tied to what happened to her father. What Sami ultimately uncovers will force her family to confront a truth far more disturbing than her father's death.
#dontsleepalone #panicfest2026 #horror #argentina #horrortok
@darkhumorgirl
There must be something about the inherent danger in Australia’s flora & fauna that makes its filmmakers so good at telling horrific, unsettling stories about the darkest parts of human behavior. I went into the Panic Fest closing night screening of Leviticus knowing nothing, but once the title cards hit, I knew I was in for a bad time in the best way. What I didn’t expect was to feel as hopeful as I was devastated. With his debut, writer/director Adrian Chiarella takes a real nightmare for many young people & twists it into something even more terrifying than reality.
In a bleak factory town, Naim (Joe Bird, Talk to Me) & Ryan (Stacy Clausen) explore an abandoned factory when play turns into forbidden romance. When their parents part of the same cult-like evangelical church find out, the boys are subjected to a version of conversion therapy that leads to daily beatings by unseen forces & is irreversible. Only those under the spell can see their attackers, who take the form of the person you desire most & appear only when you’re alone. They soon learn others have died or been permanently broken, & must figure out how to survive apart or together.
What a time for a story like this. Pop culture is craving more complex queer romance, & horror is no different. The characters feel real, the town lived and died in. Bird & Clausen have palpable chemistry & deliver incredible performances. That emotional core cutting through escalating violence is what sets this film apart. Naim & Ryan learn what queer kids have always known, you can’t run from who you are & survive.
Leviticus is both beautiful & bleak and a stunning debut from Chiarella. In theaters June 19th from @neonrated
#PanicFest2026 First time covering a film fest… from my couch 💻🖤
7 features. 14 shorts. 13 hours of horror—and I barely scratched the surface 👀
From cryptids to chaos, #PanicFest delivered nonstop indie horror goodness, even virtually. The vibes, the films, the community… all top tier.
In-person next time… or pajamas again? 😈 Leave a comment and let me know!
👉 Full recap on LetsTalkTerror.com
👉 Follow @panicfilmfest + @letstalkterror (duh, me!) for more
#IndieHorror #HorrorCommunity #FilmFestival
#PanicAlum Time for a Midnight Snack…
Downright Creepy Presents Conspiracy Cruise. Link in our stories - Watch it now on our YouTube Playlist Midnight Snack: /@downrightcreepy
A short film by Brad Abrahams
Written by Brad Abrahams
SYNOPSIS:
The (partly) real story of a cruise ship vacation for conspiracy theorists that takes a turn for the surreal when their most outlandish theories come true on board. Starring Henry Zebrowski.
@drfantasty #PanicAlum @panicfilmfest
#PanicFest2026 REVIEW: @obsessionthemovie isn’t a love story, it’s a descent into madness!
@darkhumorgirl
A man falls hopelessly in love with a woman who only sees him as a friend makes a reckless wish that she’ll fall for him on a novelty toy called One Wish Willow. It’s the kind of setup horror fans know never ends well—but writer/director Curry Barker’s OBSESSION pushes that familiar idea into far darker, more disturbing territory than expected.
Michael Johnston brings a disarming sincerity to Bear, a genuinely sweet guy too afraid to confess his feelings to Nikki, played by Inde Navarrette. But the moment he wishes for her to “love me more than anyone in the world,” everything spirals out of control. What initially feels like it could be a twisted romantic thriller quickly reveals itself as something far more sinister.
At a packed Panic Fest screening, any expectations of fun were obliterated as Nikki begins to glitch between versions of herself, and her identity consumed by an obsessive, unnatural devotion. Watching her lose autonomy is deeply unsettling, and the tension builds as her behavior grows increasingly erratic and unhinged. Inde Navarrette delivers a breakout performance that will have horror fans squirming, gasping, and whispering “what the f*uck” long after the credits roll. long after the credits roll. The horror here isn’t just psychological, OBSESSION goes hard with visceral, stomach churning moments that had audiences screaming. One sequence in particular was so intense it sent a Panic Fest viewer rushing out of the theater to throw up. This one does not hold back and at times forces you to watch uncomfortable scenes while not being able to look away.
What makes OBSESSION truly land is Barker’s ability to balance internal and external horror placing us inside Nikki’s fractured experience while forcing us to witness it from the outside. It’s disturbing, unpredictable, and brutally effective. Calling it the horror movie of the year this early might sound bold but honestly, believe the hype and check it out for yourself May 15th in theaters everywhere from Focus Features.
