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HALLOWEEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL RESURRECTED
Halloween Daily News is excited to announce the resurrection of the Halloween International Film Festival in 2025, showcasing shorts and feature works from around the world that celebrate the strange, the unusual, and the horror of the most hallowed of seasons, taking place on the historic and haunted Outer Banks, North Carolina, home of America’s first unsolved mystery, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, at a legendary theater that dates back over a century.
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 pop-ups for October.
Films selected for the festival are shown on the big screen at The 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.
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 the Pioneer Theater is located, is the site of the ill fated first English settlement in North America, and its more than 100 colonists that vanished without explanation in 1590, today referred to as The Lost Colony.
A portion of proceeds from this year’s festival will be donated to A Pathway Forward, a locally based nonprofit charity that supports veterans. A Pathway Forward is an organization dedicated to the tenuous and challenging transition that veterans make from “Active Duty” status, returning to “Civilian” life. Its mission is to generate awareness and resources to support this effort providing basic healthcare needs that are primarily centered around mental health.
The film submission period for 2025 has concluded.
The Halloween International Film Festival Resurrected is happening October 2-4, 2025 at The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, presented by Halloween Daily News and sponsored by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Gallop Funeral Services, the Halloween & Costume Association, Haunted Pamlico, Let’s Talk Terror, Weird Darkness Podcast, Toxic Coffin, Fright-Rags, Lake Hickory Haunts, Halloween Island, and the 12th Annual Outer Banks Halloween Parade.
RSVP on the official Facebook event page.
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 [N.C. PREMIERE] – 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 [N.C. PREMIERE] – 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 [U.S. PREMIERE]- 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 – 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 [N.C. PREMIERE] – 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.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Coming soon.
TICKETS
Coming soon.
HOTELS
Hotel Manteo, located just blocks away from and in walking distance to The Pioneer Theater and Downtown Manteo, is offering a special discounted room rate for attendees of the Halloween International Film Festival. (Please note: Dates are auto populated for Oct. 2-5, but can be changed around to any date within that time frame, and while it shows an “average” rate as $142.33, if you click “rate details”, it will show the actual nightly rate available.) Click here to book a room at Hotel Manteo now.
The Cavalier by the Sea Motel, located 24 miles from The Pioneer Theater but directly on the oceanfront in Kill Devil Hills for those that want to experience a taste of the Outer Banks beach experience, is offering 25% off rooms for attendees of the Halloween International Film Festival. Call 252-441-5585 or email [email protected] and ask for the Halloween Film Festival discount.
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(No fan films. No AI.)
Early Deadline – March 31
Spring Deadline – May 31
Final Deadline – July 31
OUR 2025 SPONSORS
HALLOWEEN & COSTUME ASSOCIATION
HAUNTED PAMLICO
LET’S TALK TERROR
WEIRD DARKNESS
LAKE HICKORY HAUNTS
FRIGHT-RAGS
OUTER BANKS HALLOWEEN PARADE
CONTACT US ABOUT SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
HIFF 2025 OFFICIAL KEY ART UNVEILED!
NEW HIFF LEGACY SHIRTS AVAILABLE!
Support the Halloween International Film Festival by owning t-shirts from throughout our history, each featuring that year’s official poster on the front and all of the selected films listed on the back.
Order HIFF 2016 (inaugural) shirt here.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Held on North Carolina’s historic and haunted Outer Banks, home of America’s first unsolved mystery, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, and the nearby site of the Wright Brothers’ first flight, this destination event features three days of independent genre films from around the world, as well as networking opportunities and extensive media exposure.
Founded in 2016 by Matt and Sue Artz, the Halloween International Film Festival is a Gold-ranked festival on the world’s top film festival submission platform, FilmFreeway.
Previous Official Selections include The Barn (2016 Best Halloween Film and Best Feature Film Award Winner), 3 Dead Trick or Treaters, 10/31, The Haunt (2017 Best Halloween Film Award Winner), Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2018 Best Halloween Film Award Winner), Epic Home Haunts (2019 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award Winner), They Live Inside Us (2020 Best Halloween Film), and Mass Hysteria (2020 Best Feature Film).
Special invitational Showcase Selections from previous years include Honeyspider, The Houses October Built 2, Candy Corn, and the world premieres of 10/31 Part II and Sharp Candy.
Follow the Halloween Film Festival official Facebook page HERE!
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