Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival Announces its Inaugural Lineup

Competition categories for the festival include Best Horror Short, Best Western New York Horror Short, Best Horror Feature, Best WNY Feature, and the “More than Horror” categories, which include other genres like crime dramas, westerns, and science fiction. In addition, awards will be given in the traditional categories: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Special Make-Up Effects, and Best Special Visual Effects.

“Good film festivals are not about awards though,” Novak explains. “They’re about audiences seeing movies they might not be able to see otherwise; they’re about filmmakers interacting with those audiences, and they’re about filmmakers interacting with other filmmakers. We want to be the most filmmaker friendly festival in the region.”

Buffalo Screams will screen several WNY horror films, including the feature HOUSE OF HORRORS: THE MOVIE, the shorts THE BLACK CAT and DAVIS, and the world premieres of WHAT ARE THEY and IT’S IN BACK.

A number of Canadian films will screen, including the feature WEREWOLF FEVER and the shorts RED, EYES BEYOND, THE FAMILIAR, and THE GALLERY. Other international films include the Australian feature EL MONSTRO DEL MAR! and the French short CABINE OF THE DEAD.

Non-horror films include the western DAMN YOUR EYES!, the local crime dramas BORN TO DIE and NO ROAD OUT, the Canadian superhero film AVENGING FORCE: THE SCARAB, and the psychedelic science fiction feature TRIPTOSANE.

Special “Showcase” films not in competition include the documentaries HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS: THE GODFATHER OF GORE and UNDER THE SCARES, the nihilistic zombie feature THE DEFILED, the short film THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF MISTER HOLLOW, Novak’s short ADRIFT, and Lamberson’s SLIME CITY MASSACRE. In total, 33 films will be shown over four days, climaxing in a casual awards dinner sponsored by My Tomato Pie.

The festival’s Guest of Honor is Debbie Rochon, the iconic actress who has appeared in over 150 films, many of them in the horror genre. Rochon writes a column, “Dawn of the Deb,” for Fangoria magazine and recently appeared as a judge on VH1’s reality series SCREAM QUEENS 2. She helped organize Troma’s POULTRYGEIST when it filmed in Buffalo and co-starred in SLIME CITY MASSACRE, which was shot around Buffalo’s Central Terminal Station.

“Debbie was our first choice as Guest of Honor,” says Lamberson. “Not only does she have connections to Buffalo, but she’s beloved by her colleagues and fans in the horror community, and she’s a fierce champion of independent filmmaking. She’s very down to earth, with no ego, and perfectly meets the criteria we want to set for our guests: someone who will watch the films and interact with the filmmakers and audience, fostering a community spirit. We’re lucky to have her.”