Halloween Intl. Film Festival 2026 Lineup Includes ‘Hallowarrior’, ‘Season’s Greetings’ 4K, and More

The Halloween International Film Festival returns to the historic and haunted Outer Banks of North Carolina for its 7^th incarnation in October 2026, and we are excited to announce the full schedule of official selections, including Hallowarrior, The Barn Part III, Jack-O 2, The Demonatrix, the new 4K restoration of Michael Dougherty’s original 1996 animated short Season’s Greetings, which first introduced Sam over a decade before he became a Halloween icon in Trick ‘r Treat, and much more.

The event takes place October 23-24, featuring two days and nights of horror and Halloween-themed shorts and feature films, at the Roanoke Island Festival Park theater in Downtown Manteo, NC, which will be transformed into Halloween Island, with 13 local bars and restaurants themed as Halloween pop-ups.

The 2026 feature films section of the program include the highly anticipated post-apocalyptic Halloween horror movie Hallowarrior starring Milly Shapiro (Hereditary); the North Carolina Premiere of Jack-O 2 starring Sybil Danning (Halloween, The Howling 2) ; The Demonatrix starring horror icon Doug Bradley (Hellraiser, Nightbreed); The Barn Part III starring horror icons Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn, The ‘Burbs), Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall, Night of the Comet), Felisa Rose (Sleepaway Camp, Terrifier 2), and Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th); the slasher Looky-Loo Part II; and Paranormal Investigations, filmed partially on the Outer Banks, NC.

Highlights of the short films section include the new 4k restoration of Michael Dougherty’s (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) original 1996 animated short Season’s Greetings, which first introduced the character Sam, who would later become a Halloween icon in Trick ‘r Treat, plus 25 other shorts from around the world, including the North Carolina premieres of the epic Fulci homage They Rose From the Grave and It Was… The Apocalypse from Italy, the eerily whimsical musical The Candyshop Girls from the U.K., the 1500s-set witch tale Forces From Beyond, the heartwarming horror comedy Dead Roommate with father-son filmmaking team CJ and Zachary Maxwell in attendance, the twisted thriller The Camper with writer/director/star Brianna Lee in attendance, the World Premiere of first-time filmmaker Vida Foruzan’s In Journal from Iran, and more.

The HIFF 2026 Official Selections total 31 films representing five different countries and 12 different states, with a third of this year’s selected films (10) made by female directors, while seven come from first-time filmmakers, five bring international flavor, and five were shot all or partly in North Carolina. This year is the most diverse program in the festival’s history, including two animated films, a musical, two throwback shorts from the 1990s, three period pieces, seven horror comedies, two films starring Doug Bradley, and one non-horror Halloween dark comedy, plus more pumpkin headed creatures than ever before.

See the full schedule below.

In addition to selected film screenings, the festival also showcases Q&A panels with attending filmmakers, as well as nightly meet and greets, and photo ops on the Orange Carpet, where Halloween costumes are always encouraged and you never know what characters you may see.

This year’s host venue, Roanoke Island Festival Park is where history comes alive with in-character costumed interpreters and interactive exhibits exploring the earliest English colonists to arrive on these shores and the mystery of The Lost Colony, anchored by the Elizabeth II, a working life-size replica of a 16^th Century sailing ship. The park also honors and highlights the indigenous Algonquian people who first called these shores home and preceded the arrival of the first English colonists by centuries, as the town of Manteo itself is named after a native man who returned to England for a time with the English explorers and became a translator for agents of the crown.

Known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, North Carolina’s Outer Banks is recognized as one of the most haunted places in America, with thousands of shipwrecks resting off the coast of these barrier islands. Roanoke Island, where Manteo and Festival Park are located, is the site of the ill fated first English settlement in North America in 1587, and its more than 100 colonists that vanished without explanation, today referred to as The Lost Colony, America’s first unsolved mystery.

The 7^th Halloween International Film Festival is happening October 23-24, 2026 at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, sponsored by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Gallop Funeral Services, Weird Darkness, Let’s Talk Terror, Kellogg Supply Company, Carnival of Darkness Film Festival, Backwoods Haunt, Four Sea-Sons Beach Cottage Rental, Halloween & Costume Association United Bank, Lake Hickory Haunts, Rare Bird Design, Halloween Island, and the Outer Banks Halloween Parade, an OBX Entertainment production, presented by Halloween Daily News.

Tickets are on sale now, with single day tickets, 2-day passes, and VIP 2-day passes that include an official poster print and two raffle tickets are available now online here.

RSVP on the official Facebook event page.

Check out the full schedule below.

FRIDAY, 10/23

12:30 p.m. – Check-In Open

1:00 p.m. – Shorts Block 1 – Horrors from Around the World (International Films)

• IN JOURNAL (dir. Vida Foruzan / Iran / 6min) [World Premiere] – A mysterious creature lives in an old Persian house and has a special journal filled with pictures of people. The creature tapes a picture of a girl to an empty page of the journal and the same girl comes to the house to shoot photos. (Zero dialogue and all suspense from a New Blood first-time filmmaker.)
• THEY ROSE FROM THE GRAVE AND IT WAS… THE APOCALYPSE! (dir. Domenico Montixi / Italy / 35min) [NC Premiere] – On Halloween 1980, in Dunwich City, USA, a couple mistakenly summons a heretic priest, killed 100 years earlier by four gunmen hired by the residents of what was then Dunwich Town, intent on revenge and opening the gates of hell. Will they be able to stop him? (A must-see for fans of Lucio Fulci.)

2:00 p.m. – Feature Film – PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS (dir. Raymond Wallace / NC/VA, U.S.  / 1hr 16min) – When the cast and crew of the popular series Paranormal Investigations travel to rural North Carolina to explore the infamous Hennesy House, they expect unsettling legends and creaky floorboards, not an actual nightmare. What begins as another shoot quickly devolves into chaos as a malevolent force within the house turns their equipment—and their own footage—into a chronicle of escalating horror. In the aftermath of their unexplained deaths, the footage is unearthed and released to the public for the first time, revealing a slow, brutal descent into terror that no one was meant to survive. (Filmed partly on the Outer Banks.) 

3:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 2 – Homegrown Horror (Filmed in North Carolina)

• ZOMBIE SPEED DATING (dir. Glenn Lissner, Rob Underhill / NC, U.S. / 7min) with asst. director, FX artist in attendance – He’s back from the dead and ready to mingle.
• THE LIGHT AT PACTOLUS (Eric Barcley, Gary Woolard, David Winstead / NC, U.S. / 20min) with directors in attendance – The story of the Pactolus Light, a mysterious glowing orb appearing on an abandoned railway line in North Carolina, believed to be the ghost of a young man murdered for his horse while waiting for his fiancée’s train in the early 1900s.

4:00 p.m. – Feature Film – LOOKY-LOO PART II (dir. Jason Zink / IN, U.S. / 1hr 19min) – The faceless killer who shocked the world with his debut returns with even grander ambitions. After his first film goes viral, the Looky-loo killer sets out to create a chillingly personal documentary starring his next victims. He stalks, films, and murders them, capturing their lives and deaths in excruciating detail. As public fascination grows and true-crime fans become disturbingly enthralled, he targets an aspiring filmmaker who may be his most compelling subject yet. But with rising notoriety comes greater risk, and completing his twisted masterpiece without being caught may be his toughest challenge.

5:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 3 – Deadly Dates and Terror Through Time

• IT’S PUMPKIN SEASON (dir. Zack Wilcox / PA, U.S. / 12min) – A serial killer on the loose on Halloween and the most awkward of first dates collide.
• DIETARY RESTRICTIONS (dir. Austin Torres / MI, U.S. / 13min) – When Hannah invites Maria over for a date, she cooks up a meal to die for.
• PROJECT N-TERRO (dir. Monique Efta / CA, U.S. / 15min) – In a dystopian future ravaged by corruption and genetic mutation, a tormented double-agent uses a forbidden psychic drug to interrogate a brutal trafficker, uncovering a conspiracy that forces her to confront her own dark past and the sinister systems controlling her world.
• FORCES FROM BEYOND (dir. Hagen Mattingly / GA, U.S. / 13min) [NC Premiere] – When Noma Doyle brings home a mysterious crystal that gets her tried for witchcraft, her accusers discover the true force of things.

6:30 p.m. – Meet & Greet, Orange Carpet Photo Ops

7:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 4 – New Blood (First-Time Filmmakers)

• FAIRY TALE (dir. Ann Heatherington / NY, U.S. / 18min) – A hard-living stripper is mistaken for a fairy by a grieving little girl. Will she shatter the girl’s impossible dream with a cold shock of reality – or meet her destiny as the Big Fairy who can magically bring mom back on Halloween?
• TRUNK (dir. Marisa Green / SC, U.S. / 7min) [NC Premiere] – When Alex is duct taped and thrown in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu by a sloppy daytime kidnapper, she does everything right.
• FOR JAMIE (dir. BreAnna Romero / GA, U.S. / 11min) – When horror buff Stephen gathers the courage to confess his love for his best friend Jamie, they find themselves in their own scary movie.
• THIS IS BOOK CLUB (dir. Robyn Okrant / CA, U.S. / 20min) [NC Premiere] – When lonely, socially anxious Jane joins a book club to make friends, she soon discovers that middle-aged women in sweater sets can be savage. At the center of it all is the club’s unnervingly perfect leader — the hostess with the mostess — Marilyn. She makes everything seem effortless. Jane is drawn to Marilyn and the possibility of being adopted into her gaggle of gal pals. However, as the night draws on, Jane begins to suspect that, in this cul-de-sac kingdom, fitting in might be the most dangerous thing of all.

8:30 p.m. – Making Indie Horror Q&A Panel

9:00 p.m. – Feature Film – THE BARN PART III (dir. Justin M. Seaman / PA, U.S. / 1hr 37min) [NC Premiere] – It’s been years since anything spooky has happened in the town of Helen’s Valley, and for good reason. Josh Harper has dedicated his entire life to making sure those barn dwelling monsters never come back from hell for anyone in the town or his sister, Heather. However, something far sinister is lurking in the shadows, trying to resurrect the legend once again. Starring Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn, The ‘Burbs), Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall, Night of the Comet), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp, Terrifier 2), and Ari Lehman (Friday the 13^th).

11:00 p.m. – After Party at Ghost Colony Tavern (aka Lost Colony Tavern)

–

SATURDAY, 10/24

12:30 p.m. – Check-In Open

1:00 p.m. – Shorts Block 5 – Horror in Any Language (International Films)

• KUMAN THONG (dir. Sasa Ng / CA, U.S., Hong Kong / 11min) – In a cramped Hong Kong apartment, Yating cares for her mother, who has terminal cancer. Desperate for a cure, she secretly raises a Kuman Thong spirit, an occult child-spirit charm from Thai folk belief, feeding it with her own blood and flesh.
• THE CANDYSHOP GIRLS (dir. Mel Blake / U.K. / 20min) – An eerily whimsical pop-up candy shop appears overnight, run by three mysterious girls who lure innocent souls into a bittersweet trap. (A horror comedy musical for fans of Adult Swim.)

1:45 p.m. – Hell Raising Doug Bradley Double Feature

• ON EDGE (dir. Frazer Lee / U.K. / 15min) – Horror icon Doug Bradley (Hellraiser, Nightbreed) stars as a decadent dentist, with Charley Boorman (Excalibur) as his hapless patient in this throwback short from 1999.

     Feature Film – THE DEMONATRIX (dir. Aurelio Voltaire, Jeff Ferrell / WA, U.S. / 1hr 30min) – A dominatrix looking to make some extra money holds a phony seance. When she unwittingly summons an incubus demon, the priest who presides over the church across the street joins forces with his demonologist mentor in an attempt to send the demon back to hell. Starring Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), Hannah Fierman (V/H/S, Siren) Larry Fessenden (Jakob’s Wife), and Nivek Ogre (Repo! The Genetic Opera, Skinny Puppy).

3:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 6 – Homegrown Horror Part 2 (Filmed in North Carolina)

• TREVOR LIES (dir. Joe Pellegrino / NC, U.S. / 10min) with director in attendance – The bizarre tale of a young boy and his puritanical family who must grapple with the morality and consequences of deceit.
• HOLIDAYS WITH CATFISH (dir. Spencer Bolin / NC, U.S. / 20min) – An anthology of holiday adventures featuring two passionate friends seeking internet fame.

4:00 p.m. – Feature Film – JACK O 2 (dir. Fred Olen Ray / FL, U.S. / 1hr 24min) [NC Premiere] – On the day before Halloween a bulldozer accidentally unearths the grave of an executed witch who returns to life using a Jack O’Lantern headed demon as her aide. Starring Sybil Danning (Halloween, The Howling 2).

5:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 7 – Twisted Terror

• INCANDESCENCE (dir. Osy Ikhile / CA, U.S. / 9min) – Obi and JJ discover their neighbor, Dani, frozen outside their apartment door, with a mysterious bag next to her. When she wakes in a panic, she begs them not to open it, but curiosity wins. Shot in one unbroken take, Incandescence is a real-time descent from friendly banter into absolute horror.
• TARA’S TREATS (dir. Kevin Leigh / VA, U.S. / 8 min.) [NC Premiere] with director, producer, actor in attendance – A young girl visits a home in the hopes of fundraising for her school library. What occurs next reveals a dark and sinister secret.
• THE CAMPER (dir. Brianna Lee / NY, U.S. / 12min) [NC Premiere] with director/writer/actor in attendance – Alone deep in the wilderness, a seasoned camper’s quiet retreat is interrupted by a desperate stranger who claims he’s been lost for days. As the campfire burns low, his story unravels—and terror takes hold.

6:00 p.m. – Horrors of Indie Filmmaking Q&A Panel

6:30 p.m. – Meet & Greet, Orange Carpet Photo Ops

7:30 p.m. – Shorts Block 8 – Comedy/Fantasy Horror

• NIGHT OF THE LIVING PUMPKIN (dir. Brandon Carter / NM, U.S. / 2min) – After carving a pumpkin, the tables are turned when the Jack-o’-lantern seeks revenge!
• GOSSAMER (dir. Hannah E Malkin / NY, U.S. / 5min) – A girl chases a butterfly through the woods late at night, but the deeper into the woods she gets the more she loses herself along the way. (Animated, from a New Blood student filmmaker.)
• DEAD ROOMMATE (dir. CJ Maxwell / NY, U.S. / 20min) [NC Premiere] with director, co-writer in attendance – A socially anxious college freshman forms an improbable bond with his new roommate, who died in the dorm half a century ago.
• NIGHT SHIFT AT NED’S (dir. Hagen Mattingly / GA, U.S. / 25min) [NC Premiere] – A seasoned waitress starts a new job at an overnight diner in the deep south, and learns new meaning to the term “customers from Hell.”

8:30 p.m. – Horror with Heart Q&A Panel

9:00 p.m. – Halloween Forever

• SEASON’S GREETINGS [4K Restoration] (dir. Michael Dougherty / NY, U.S. / 5min) – A darkly funny animated short about a young trick-or-treater on the hunt for Halloween candy. Created using a twist on traditional animation methods, each frame was hand-drawn, colored with markers, glued to clear animation cels, and shot on 16mm film. The character, named Sam, originated in this 1996 short and would later inspire the character in the classic horror film Trick ’r Treat (2007). For its 30th Anniversary, Season’s Greetings has been remastered in 4K with 5.1 audio.
• MORE SURPRISE TRICKS AND TREATS FROM SAM!

     Feature Film – HALLOWARRIOR (dir. Ben Sottak / NY, U.S. / 1hr 19min) – Pumpkin, the last girl on earth and sole survivor of a humanity-ending plague, scavenges the wasteland for supplies on the eve of Halloween. Her lonely holiday ritual is interrupted by the arrival of a savage gang of raiders at her doorstep led by the fearsome Thalia. Outnumbered and armed with candy, wit and weapons, Pumpkin must ferociously fight back to survive the night.  Starring Milly Shapiro (Hereditary), Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight’s Tale), and AJ Bowen (You’re Next).

10:31 p.m. – Closing

*Schedule subject to change.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW HERE!