Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival unveiled today the programming lineup for its inaugural edition: 50 horror, sci-fi, thriller and fantasy shorts, curated from more than 500 submissions and organized into seven themed programming blocks. The festival launches online at ripcord.film on October 19 and is free to attend. Registered fans can watch every film and vote for their favorites through October 22 to help select the Top 10 and help change a filmmaker’s trajectory.
The Top 10 shorts will screen for a live audience at the TCL Chinese Theatre on October 29. The festival is awarding $200,000 in cash prizes, including a $100,000 first prize, the largest first-place cash prize in short film festival history, with another $100,000 shared among the rest of the Top 10.
“Fifty films made the cut from more than 500 submissions, and every one of them earned its spot,” said Charlie Cleveland, founder of Ripcord. “These filmmakers made something distinctive, and now it’s the fans’ turn. Watch, vote, and help decide which ten films take the stage at the TCL Chinese Theatre.”
Films were selected by the programming team for their quality, their distinctive genre voice, and their role in balancing the overall lineup. The 50 finalists are divided into seven programming blocks of six to eight films each. The blocks are loosely organized around themes that emerged from this year’s submissions, and each is balanced for tone and mixed in film length so every block plays like a complete night at the movies.
“We built each block around a theme, then worked to make sure it moves the way a great evening should: a little creepy, a little funny, and sometimes deeply strange,” said Vanessa Meyer, Program Director of Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival. ” We think audiences will find a lot here that will surprise and excite them.”
Ripcord also premieres the festival’s official collectible poster, created by Jim “TAZ” Evans, the acclaimed illustrator known for creating alternative movie posters, iconic rock music gig posters and album cover art. The poster will be available at the October 29 screening event at TCL Chinese Theatre and online at 12am.live.
The Programming Blocks
Sweet Dreams
Having trouble sleeping? Well this won’t help but at least you’ll feel less alone.
Guest curator: Freddy Krueger
DREAM CREEP (12:34), directed by Carlos A.F. Lopez: A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice.
CHÄIR (6:18), directed by Chris McInroy: Carl just wanted to sit down. The chair had other plans.
RESET (15:58), directed by Celine Tien, Jerry Hsu: In a world where citizens are reset to six at age 65, a young woman must care for her newly reset mother and find her estranged father before the state intervenes — only to discover that healing her family means reparenting the child her mother never got to be.
NAIL-BITER (17:33), directed by Joseph Burch: An anxious nail-biter confronts her overbearing mother about their family curse, a finger-devouring creature that preys on those who bite their nails, just as the monster arrives to take her as its next victim.
COWMAN (7:02), directed by Jiwoo Kim: A peaceful farmer and his beloved cow find their quiet life turned upside down when an unexpected alien abduction leads to a bizarre and surreal adventure.
IT HELPS (9:07), directed by J. Zachary Thurman: Spencer, sleepless due to her brother’s eerie sleep machine, discovers it isn’t designed to soothe — but to keep an unspeakable presence at bay.
CHARLIE IS NOT A BOY (13:17), directed by Pol Kurucz: Set within an allegorical America, in a crumbling household ruled by a perverted butcher of a father, a hushed soul clings to the magic of his eccentric grandmother, until his safe haven unravels, forcing him to choose between the masks he wears and his authentic self.
MONSTROUS ME (16:40), directed by Ariel Baska: When Ariel was a disabled and disfigured child of three years old, a bad babysitter brought over a bag of weed, her boyfriend, and a VHS of A Nightmare on Elm Street. From under the coffee table, through the railings, Ariel saw themselves in the face of Freddy Krueger, and decided there was agency in being a monster rather than a martyr.
Love You To Death
If you’d rather die than go on Tinder, this block is for you.
Guest curator: Alex “I’m not going to be ignored, Dan!” Forrest
RICHARD GOES ON A DATE (9:03), directed by Johnny Frohman: Richard goes on a date.
STAR-CROSSED (14:01), directed by Bud Myrick: A beautiful young woman craving connection risks revealing her true nature—only to fall for the wrong man, igniting a night of passion, poor decisions, and consequences you can’t sweep under a rug.
IT’S HARD NOT TO BE ROMANTIC ABOUT TIME TRAVEL (12:11), directed by Michael Charron: Armed with weed and a half-baked theory that love can bend time, two friends land five years in the past, totally unprepared for what comes next.
LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES (20:10), directed by John Roche III: In a society where love is regulated, a rejected woman discovers a violent method of becoming the people she envies.
MAKE ME A PIZZA (12:00), directed by Talia Shea Levin: BORED HOUSEWIFE seduces HOT PIZZA GUY for free pizza, but is desire worth $29.99?
OH SOLO VIOLET (11:59), directed by Carolina Gomez: Ghosted and alone in her remote family home, Violet feels her grip on reality slip as memories of her cringey ex bleed into the present and he begins appearing, always just out of reach.
IT HAD TO BE YOU (14:45), directed by Monisha Dadlani: A romantic night in isn’t all it seems when a man discovers his lovestruck date has a peculiar room full of male mannequins.
But I’m Popular
This one’s just for the likes.
Guest curator: Carrie
RAT! (16:48), directed by Neal Suresh Mulani: When a disgruntled music journalist accuses a global pop star of queerbaiting, the singer’s devoted fans descend on his remote cabin to seek retribution.
IDYLL (18:06), directed by Austin Cauldwell: A lonely young woman escapes her invisible life by stepping into the body of an adored celebrity through a VR platform, until she starts to prefer it.
BENNY’S SECOND BIRTHDAY (12:16), directed by R.J. Glass: When strangers arrive at her toddler’s birthday party, an expectant mother confronts her son’s unexpected popularity.
FOUR ITCHY BOYS (12:48), directed by Andrew Hebert: Four young men quarantined for an unexplainable, unrelenting itch prepare for a live-stream press event to prove they’re not the monsters the world believes them to be.
CHAMELEON (14:25), directed by Lily Kaplan: When a rebellious teen discovers a magical eyeliner that lets her transform into anyone she sees, a night of thrilling shapeshifting unravels into a haunting reckoning with identity, consent, and the terrifying rush of growing up too fast.
REBRAND (15:22), directed by Edoardo Ranaboldo: A group of camping YouTubers head to the woods to film their final video.
Die Already
We all see dead people, okay?!
Guest curator: Casper
THE BRAID (13:00), directed by Jon Watkins: At a creepy LA mansion, a celebrity, her assistant, and her hair stylist must confront a terrifying ghost with a deadly grudge.
BLOOD SISTERS (5:55), directed by Patrick Rea: As a family rushes to find help, a mother can only watch as her teen daughter succumbs to a mysterious illness that leaves her pale and barely able to take a breath.
THE MAGICIAN (4:00), directed by Joe Garber: Unlock a new fear you didn’t think you had in you: spider-like magicians that kidnap babies and make terrible life-partners.
LONG’S LONG LOST & MINI MART (17:53), directed by Julian Doan: In the back of a Little Saigon convenience store, a young customer reanimates his dead father for one last conversation.
SPANKED BY A GHOST (11:50), directed by Katelyn Douglass: Alone in her home, a woman is spanked by an unseen entity, awakening a force she cannot control.
THE GATES OF IRKALLA (4:14), directed by Alexi Tsitlakidis: Hired by a local governor, four mercenaries must rescue his daughter from undead cultists.
BLOSSOM NEEDS A RIDE HOME (9:19), directed by Tim Schwagel: After defeating a bloodthirsty maniac, Blossom needs a ride home. What a hassle.
TETHER (14:38), directed by Meredith Berg: On the first day of her job running a remote, isolated space station, Mickie receives mysterious transmissions and must quickly unravel their meaning with the help of a passing spaceship captain or an untold number of lives could be lost.
Mindbender
For the most adventurous of viewers…
Guest curator: the mushrooms you ate and then saw God
HAROLD EATS MAUDE (12:32), directed by Carl Fry, Maxwell Nalevansky: An unlikely friendship between the infamous cannibal Coffin Feeder, who can’t stop eating priests, and his cannibal-curious stalker Faith.
TRANSFERENCE (11:05), directed by Michael Zumaya: A hypnotherapy session with Heather, a traumatized woman, and Dr. Elizabeth Russell takes a strange turn as Heather’s memories appear to be connected to Russell, using a VHS camcorder as a conduit to connect.
OPEN WIDE (10:09), directed by Sam Fox: Phoebe, a pious young woman questioning her faith, matches with a charming couple on a flirty dating app and discovers that her curiosity has lured her into a threesome from hell.
DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING (9:48), directed by Michael Naizu, John Wilcox: While picking up his girlfriend’s reclusive brother, Calvin stumbles upon an otherworldly monolith and a secret he was never meant to uncover.
FRANKSLIST (14:19), directed by Christine Celozzi: A simple interview spirals into a nightmare of bizarre encounters and escalating chaos.
MISSING SOCKS (9:00), directed by Joe Anderson, Nadine Vincent: A mysterious laundromat owner (Nancy McLoughlin, Friday the 13th Part VI) tells her last customer of the night the truth about where all the missing socks go.
THE LORD OF ALL FUTURE SPACE & TIME (23:47), directed by Chris Paul Russell: A grief-stricken cowboy is saved by a duffel bag from the future; the rest is history.
We Did It To Ourselves
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine.
Guest curator: A John Waters impersonator
DEAD ENDERS (12:08), directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy, Tyler Walker: A disaffected gas station clerk finds out why they call it the “graveyard shift” after oil drillers set loose an ancient race of mind-controlling parasites.
DIRTY FUZZ (15:00), directed by Daniel Chimes: When an idealistic rookie cop accidentally shoots her corrupt partner in the slimy underbelly of Shit City, she must team up with a surprising crew of underworld characters to cover her tracks.
CIVIL SERVICE (15:30), directed by Tiffany Kimmel: Follow a single man in charge of “family services” through a typical workday as he denies requests for government assistance while being confronted by his psyche in the form of his dead mother.
KLEE (19:45), directed by Gavin Baird: An alien is sent to Earth and is tasked with a mission to invade, seduce, and terminate a family of colonizers in 19th-century Saskatchewan.
THE SEQUENCE (14:54), directed by Joe Bandelli: After experiencing a terrifying nightmare, a stay-at-home mom must confront her deepest fears as disturbing sequences from her dream begin to manifest in reality, proving that some nightmares do come true.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BALLOONS (5:44), directed by Jennifer Bonior: Dismissed by every adult in her life, a young magician unleashes an explosive final act that proves underestimating her is a fatal mistake.
THE LAST CHEAP HOUSE (10:36), directed by Meg Favreau: In 2021, popular home-renovation influencers Josh and Anna Connelly were found dead under their house; this documentary shares the shocking final footage the Connellys filmed.
Monster Party
Party like your life depends on it, because it does.
Guest curator: The Mothman
HAINT (15:15), directed by Jahmil Eady: When gentrifiers mysteriously begin to die, a Gullah Geechee handywoman who recently lost her home, must decide whether to help them or leave the newcomers to their fate.
STEAK DINNER (7:58), directed by Nathan Mark Ginter: Casey’s attempted surprise dinner date gets derailed when Taylor, her girlfriend, reveals she has brought home a strange, wounded creature she intends to nurse back to health.
VAMPIRE FOR HIRE (13:43), directed by Jaime Zevallos: A washed-up TV vampire actor revives his iconic role for cash—until the horror becomes real.
HOUR OF BLOOD (17:29), directed by Marcella Ochoa: In 1915 Texas, when ranchers mysteriously go missing, a young girl must defend her family ranch against the dark threat.
ZIPPY’S HOUSE (12:40), directed by Sophia Parella: Forced to attend his strange classmate’s birthday, a teen discovers he’s the only guest at a house where the host’s brother is in permanent time-out.
BREEDER (7:14), directed by Sapphire Sandalo: A woman on the fence about having kids is hunted in her home by a demonic horse-man of Filipino folklore.
RED RIBBONS IN THE HOUSE OF STAINED GLASS (12:00), directed by Jeff Speed: A small-time journalist, desperate for her big break, tracks down evidence that could expose the sex crimes of a deviant Archbishop, but can she trust her source, or is she risking her life for front-page news?
How to Watch and Vote
Registration for Ripcord’s Halloween Film Festival is free at ripcord.film. The online festival opens October 19, and voting closes October 22. Fans who register before launch are entered to win two tickets to the October 29 screening of the top 10 at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
The festival is open to films from the United States and Canada. Online viewing is geofenced to the United States and Canada.
