This October, the House is opening every door.
Haunted House FearFest®, a year-round virtual horror festival and entertainment brand built around a shared world known as the House, returns for its main festival season October 5–31, 2026, bringing together more than 40 selections across its horror film and indie game programs from creators around the world.
Rather than separating films, games and creator storytelling into standalone experiences, Haunted House FearFest connects its programming through the rooms of the House. Audiences can discover films in the Creepy Kitchen, descend into the Basement for indie horror games, and enter the Mirror Room to meet the people behind the fear.
A 13-Year-Old Filmmaker Enters the Creepy Kitchen
Among this year’s Creepy Kitchen film nominees is CAPTURE, written and directed by 13-year-old Max Tretta in his first film festival appearance.
The short features actress and producer Tiffany Shepis, whose genre credits include Victor Crowley, Tromeo and Juliet, The Hazing and Night of the Demons. Shepis also produces alongside Sean Tretta, whose credits include 12 Monkeys, Star Trek and Mayans M.C.
The Creepy Kitchen stretches beyond the United States with selections including Thanh Phong Ngo’s Silent Incantation from Vietnam and Canadian animator Reva Trikha’s WREN, an animated horror short about a gunslinging vampire hunter confronting the wife she thought she had lost.
The lineup also includes Twofer, directed by Jenny Waldo, and Text Me Back, Dammit, directed by Elaine Chu, which came to Haunted House FearFest through outreach to filmmakers in the Film Fatales community. Chu’s previous work includes The Purgation, distributed by Gravitas, while her shorts have appeared on Shudder, Roku and other digital platforms.
For Owner and Festival Director Renee Huff, the rooms aren’t simply categories. They’re designed to lead audiences deeper into the House.
“I created the House so every room could reveal another side of horror,” said Huff. “You might enter through a film in the Creepy Kitchen, discover a game waiting in the Basement, and then step into the Mirror Room to meet the person behind the fear. I want something from every room to linger with you and make you curious enough to open the next door. When a creator’s work is invited inside, it becomes part of the story we’re building.”
Downstairs, the Basement Is Waiting
Film is only one entrance into the House.
The Basement, Haunted House FearFest’s indie horror game showcase, takes audiences from psychological horror and interactive storytelling to survival, liminal spaces and retro-inspired experiences.
Among this year’s selections are Ashes, which combines graphic-novel panels and interactive puzzles in a story of murder and unease; handcrafted psychological horror adventure What Killed Rachel; and 13 MASCA, which blends deduction, surveillance and survival into a liminal horror experience.
The Basement also includes the VHS-inspired Dead Stop – No Vacancy and BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW, a first-person psychological horror game exploring social media and bullying through a surreal nightmare.
Inside the Mirror Room, Meet the People Behind the Fear
The House continues beyond films and games.
The Mirror Room, the interview series from the Looks Creepy Cool Podcast, takes audiences behind the finished work through conversations with horror and genre creators.
This season includes filmmaker Daniel Byers, whose second narrative feature, Appalachian folk-horror film Dark Hollow, arrives in theaters in September. Byers’ first narrative feature, Eradication, was released as a Tubi Original, and his horror screenplay Paradise received a jury award at the Austin Film Festival in 2023.
The Mirror Room also welcomes members of the team behind City of Masks, the British gothic romantic thriller heading to theaters in the UK and Ireland through BUFF Studios ahead of Halloween. Directed by Andrea M. Catinella, the film is a contemporary reimagining inspired by Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera and features performers with credits including Barbie, EastEnders, The Young Pope and Silent Witness.
Together, the conversations give audiences another doorway into the House: not just experiencing the fear, but meeting the people who create it.
The House Is Open Year-Round
October may be Haunted House FearFest’s main festival season, but the House doesn’t close when Halloween ends.
Year-round programming introduces audiences to horror films, games, stories and creators through screenings, showcases, original storytelling and the Looks Creepy Cool Podcast. As the House grows, new programming can enter through existing rooms—or open new ones.
The philosophy remains simple:
Every Story Has a Room.
Every Fear Comes Home.
Follow the Fear®.
Tickets & Festival Access
Haunted House FearFest® runs virtually October 5–31, 2026.
Audiences can enter the Creepy Kitchen with individual film tickets for $4 or explore more of the festival with a $35 Festival Pass.
Bloody Flicks 