Halloween International Film Festival 2025 Official Selections Unveiled
Halloween Daily News and OBX Entertainment are resurrecting the Halloween International Film Festival this October on the historic and haunted Outer Banks, North Carolina, where the town of Manteo is transforming into “Halloween Island,” and our 2025 Official Selections have just been unveiled, including six features and more than 20 shorts.
The festival features three days of independent horror and Halloween-themed films from around the world, as well as networking opportunities and extensive media exposure, all taking place as the kickoff event for the town of Manteo’s Halloween Island festivities, during which area restaurants, bars, and businesses transform into Halloween popups for October.
Films selected for the festival this year will be shown on the big screen at the legendary Pioneer Theater in Manteo, NC, including Q&A sessions with attending filmmakers, nightly meet and greets, photo ops on our Orange Carpet, an outdoor Halloween vendor market, and numerous Halloween Island festivities happening each day in easy walking distance throughout Downtown Manteo. Our iconic host venue dates back to 1918, originally showing silent films in the earliest days of moviemaking, later opening its current location in 1934, and is a truly independent cinematic landmark in itself.
A portion of proceeds from this year’s festival will be donated to A Pathway Forward, a locally based nonprofit charity that supports veterans.
2025 Feature Film Official Selections
2025 Short Film Official Selections
- A FRIENDLY REFERRAL – A babysitter discovers an evil secret about the family she’s working for.
- BOBBY CAME HOME – After being missing for several months, a woman’s husband suddenly returns home with no memory of where he’s been.
- COW – On their dream adventure, Sam and Kyle are attacked by a mysterious killer wearing a cow skull mask and have to fight to survive.
- GRANDMA, MAY I – An ancient, cunning spirit posing as a kindly grandmother offers solace and dark wishes to lonely children on Mischief Night. When a heartbroken boy stumbles into her grasp, she sees the perfect opportunity to fulfill his deepest desires—but at a chilling cost that will bind him to her forever.
- GRIN – Beneath his mask, a haunters twisted smile turns deadly-tonight the screams are real.
- JACK’S LANTERN – A lonely boy, who believes his jack-o-lanterns come to life, is drawn to carve a pumpkin on Halloween night. While his mother tries to shield him from the scary truth.
- JUST STAY IN – It’s Halloween in 2003. All that Jeremy wants to do is go trick-or-treating but his overbearing parents won’t let him go. So, he decides to sneak out with his friends. Some nights, it’s better to just stay in.
- HALLOWEEN HEADLINERS – At a remote campground, longtime drag rivals Elvirus and Betty Whitecastle face off as co-headliners of a Halloween show destined to be unforgettable. But when the lights go down, the night takes a deadly turn… and the battle for the spotlight becomes a fight for survival.
- HORROR SPELL – One year after witnessing her roommate’s murder, college student Haven joins friends for a Halloween horror marathon. Still haunted by her past and desperate to move on, she unintentionally unleashes a reality-altering spell from a mysterious book that brings the movies to life.
- LOOKING FOR MICHAEL – A Halloween super fan travels to Illinois in search of Haddonfield, the town where it all began.
- MOUSESHROOMS – A psychedelic experience in an abandoned warehouse is interrupted by a building inspector and a talking rat.
- PRETTY POLLY –Â A ghostly modern spin on a classic 18th-century murder ballad.
- ROUGH CUT – On Halloween Night, a video editor cuts a horror movie shot by Mr. Cackle… LIVE.
- SCRATCH – A Father/Son weekend adventure becomes a terrifying fight for survival.
- SLASH-O-LANTERN PART II – Kevin and James deal with the aftermath of their brush with death on Halloween night. As Hazel Falls P.D. arrive on the scene, they quickly realize the nightmare isn’t over just yet.
- THE BLOOD WITCH – Trying to impress his new girlfriend, Aaron tells Kelly the “legend” of The Blood Witch, not realizing he may be summoning the wrath of a bloodthirsty being.
- THE ENSUING – A group of hikers are invited to go check out an urban legend at an abandoned tunnel by Terri, their guide. They agree to go check it out but along the way things go terribly wrong.
- THE FIVE STAGES OF… – As a husband copes with loss, he soon realizes that things are rapidly going from tragic to worse.
- THE LITTERBUG – Park Ranger Charlie and her young recruit Ranger Casey track down a serial litterer, the Litterbug.
- THE PARCEL – Chad’s first day on a new job takes a gut wrenching turn.
- THE TALK – A young girl prepares for her “first time” and shares a heart to heart with her mother. Meanwhile, her father is left to attend to his daughter’s date for the evening. Needless to say, the night gets a little intense.
- WHITCH – After putting her daughter to bed, Aura finds that an elderly woman has broken into her house. The intruder, who acts strangely familiar, begins a ritual, summoning something dark into the living room.
The Halloween International Film Festival is happening October 2-4, 2025 at The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, presented by Halloween Daily News.
Tickets will launch and the screening schedule will be announced soon.
Sponsors of the 2025 Halloween International Film Festival include the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Gallop Funeral Services, Haunted Hill Farm, Toxic Coffin, Haunted Pamlico, Let’s Talk Terror, Weird Darkness, Lake Hickory Haunts, Fright-Rags, and Halloween Island. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available here.
RSVP on the official Facebook event page.
Related: [Interview] Director Jake Jarvi Talks ‘Haunt Season’, and Why Halloween Rules
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