CINEMA CHATHAM
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, IL 60620

The Indie Horror Film Festival returned from the dead in 2010 with hopes of swallowing mortals whole and filling their souls with a thirst for blood and horror.  The Indie Horror Film Festival screens films from all over the world and brings the best of blood, gore and horror to the big screen for you to enjoy!

We are excited to announce that our 2022 festival will take place in a REAL CASTLE!  We are honored to bring the best in independent horror to NIU's Algeld Hall in Dekalb, Illinois!

Philo Barnhart is a world-famous animator known for his unforgettable images in Disney movies such as The Secret of NIMH, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and other timeless Disney films, toys and books.  Philo will be a special guest at the 2022 Indie Horror Film Festival and will have some of his original art available for purchase!  Be sure to take home something amazing to display with pride by one of the worlds most adored animators! 

Full list of 2022 Nominees and Winners below!  Congrats everyone!

BEST FILM NOMINEES

EVIL'S REVENGE
MATCHES
THE TELL TALE HEART
BE QUIET
***WINNER***ANNIVERSARY***WINNER***

BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES
MCCLAIN LINDQUIST - THE TELL TALE HEART
DANIA DENISE - NO TROPHIES
***WINNER***OMAR BENSON - MATCHES***WINNER***
CJ VECCHIO - EVIL'S REVENGE
DALE FABRIGAR - THEY CRAWL BENEATH

BEST WRITER NOMINEES
ANNIKA FOSLUND RIMBLÉUS - BLODUGHADDA
CAROLINE KOONCE - UNTIL SUNRISE
JUAN PAREDES - VANISH
RYAN IMHOFF - FRESH HELL
***WINNER***JIM JONES & DANIA DENISE - NO TROPHIES***WINNER***

BEST ACTOR NOMINEES
***WINNER***SEAN OHLMAN - BLACKHATTER***WINNER***
JAMES SIMENC - ANNIVERSARY
BRETT WALKOW - EVIL'S REVENGE
ANDRE ALVAREZ - UNTIL SUNRISE
JIM JONES - NO TROPHIES

BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES
SARAHJANE WARDLOW - LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY
ERICA LOGSDON - SIREN
***WINNER***CHETERRA MCCRAY - THE QUADRUPLE EFFECT***WINNER***
ALLISON PETRILLO - REMAIN
ALEXA MORDEN - MATCHES

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY NOMINEES
THE TELL TALE HEART
NO TROPHIES
BE QUIETY
***WINNER***ANNIVERSARY***WINNER***
MATCHES

BEST EDITING NOMINEES
VANISH
MATCHES
SIREN
***WINNER***THE TELL TALE HEART***WINNER***
THE STUCK ONES

BEST SOUND NOMINEES
THEY CRAWL BENEATH
NO TROPHIES
***WINNER***THE TELL TALE HEART***WINNER***
BE QUIET
ANNIVERSARY

BEST MUSIC NOMINEES
THE TELL TALE HEART
MATCHES
NO TROPHIES
***WINNER***EVIL'S REVENGE***WINNER***
THEY CRAWL BENEATH

DIRECTOR'S CHOICE NOMINEES
***WINNER***THE HISTORY OF METAL AND HORROR***WINNER***
MATCHES
THE TELL TALE HEART
THE QUADRUPLE EFFECT
BLODUGHADDA

SCREENPLAY FINALISTS
OSCARVILLE BY KEVIN GARDNER JR.
FOLLOWED BY CHRISTOPHER MANCUSO
GIRLS TRIP BY GABRIELA ANGLADA
***WINNER***THE TAXIDERMIST BY MAGGIE DOMINIAK***WINNER***
DIET BY BRETT DAVIDSON

SUNDAY JULY 10TH

11:00AM DOORS OPEN

11:30AM BLOCK A - HORROR FILMS (2H45M)

• FRESH HELL (80M)
• THERE MAY BE GHOSTS (87M)

02:30PM BLOCK B - HORROR FILMS (2H15M)

• BLACKHATTER (6M)
• REMAIN (7M)
• EVIL'S REVENGE (11M)
• THE STUCK ONES (12M)
• SIREN (13M)
• THEY CRAWL BENEATH (87M)

05:00PM BLOCK C - HORROR FILMS (2H15M)

• BLODUGHADDA (4M)
• UNTIL SUNRISE (10M)
• MATCHES (10M)
• NO TROPHIES (11M)
• THE HISTORY OF METAL AND HORROR (100M)

07:30PM BLOCK D - HORROR FILMS (1HR30M)

• BE QUIET (4M)
• VANISH (6M)
• ANNIVERSARY (6M)
• PRECIOUS BLOOD (13M)
• LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY (13M)
• THE TELL TALE HEART (22M)
• THE QUADRUPLE EFFECT (26M)

09:00PM AWARDS PRESENTATION

09:30PM CLOSE OF EVENT

PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS A 15 MINUTE INTERMISSION TIME BETWEEN FILM BLOCKS.  TICKETS ARE GOOD FOR THE ENTIRE FESTIVAL DAY.  TICKET HOLDERS ARE ABLE TO COME AND GO ALL DAY LONG.

WARNING: FILMS ARE TYPICALLY AIMED AT AN ADULT AUDIENCE AND MAY CONTAIN A DEGREE OF GRAPHIC SCENES, ADULT SITUATIONS, ADULT LANGUAGE AND VULGARITY.  ALL FILMS ARE UNRATED.  VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

As three friends discover their town has been invaded by monsters, they must grapple with a deadly choice - do they save their trapped friend, or do they save themselves?

Danny and his Uncle Bill ( Michael Pare) are working on an old car in their garage when an earthquake hits!! Danny is trapped underneath the car and creatures come out of the cracks in the ground and terrorize him!!

When a tormented woman tries to sell her soul to the Devil in order to seek vengeance on all those who have done her wrong. The Devil demands she sacrifice her young daughter in order to get her revenge! 

Jean and Frank are lovely suburban parents who tragically lose their son, Timmy in a house fire. The two of them have a hard time moving forward in their lives, feeling guilty about their sons’ death causes them to make some unconventional lifestyle choices. When a nosy neighbour starts to creeping up on them. They have to do whatever it takes to hide their sinister secret.

When a father's nighttime picnic with his child is interrupted by a group of thugs, it turns out that being at the wrong place at the wrong time can actually be a good thing -- especially in light of the fact that the father, Joshua, is a holy man who believes his child's "curse" is a gift. Oh, and did we mention that said "child" also happens to be a werewolf?

Drew exists on the edge of society never considering the lives of others. Why should he? They never cared for him. It is a past full of bad choices filled with untreated trauma that have lead him to this moment. This decision to take his fortune at gunpoint in a connivence store might have gone off perfectly if it weren’t for a curious little customer and a shadowed stalking presence known only as the Blackhatter. 

People are disappearing from the small town of Watseka, IL without explanation. The culprit is a demonic entity that has been summoned and is gathering souls to be able to manifest itself. This case is just another one of its victims.

In an effort to give filmmaking one last try, failed director Kipp Swanson accepts a job to document the alleged horrors of a local haunted home. He assembles a team of inept "ghost hunters", including his reluctant ex-girlfriend. 

Adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s original text, this psychological thriller has been reimagined in this mind-bending, pulse-pounding, bloody-disgusting short film.

In “The Tell Tale Heart,” directed by McClain Lindquist, the Narrator (Sonny Grimsley) descends into madness as he is haunted by the “evil eye” of the Old Man (James C. Morris). The Narrator murders the Old Man in his bed and hides his body under the floorboards. The Narrator’s frail mind begins to unravel when Detective Tucker (Teren Turner) and Officer Sharpe (Mikah Olsen) come to inquire about the Old Man’s whereabouts.

A young seminarian must confront the evil brewing inside the church he calls home.

No synopsis provided by filmmaker.

After her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a young girl finds herself fighting for her life in a spine chilling nexus she just can’t seem to escape.

After stopping in for a quick bite at an odd sandwich shop, a Father and Daughter reunion quickly descends into a nightmare as they learn the terrifying truth of why the mannequins that inhabit the shop seem so lifelike.

Upon the untimely death of their father, two siblings return to their family home and find a mysterious young woman living there.

Always be aware and on your guard when walking through the forest wetlands...

A young girl is woken in the night by her brother, who believes something is in the house with them.

Alex Miner, an apathetic and disillusioned theater worker, must fight for her survival when she and her childhood best friend discover a cursed film reel that causes the snack counter to come alive and attack them for not appreciating the movie theater…

A documentary that explores the history of heavy metal and horror, and how the two genres merged over time. Hosted by Michael Berryman, and featuring Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Kirk Hammett, John Carpenter, Tom Savini, Dave Mustaine, Jonathan Davis, Corey Taylor, and many more. 

Rubin and Lily just got married, are expecting a baby, and are driving off into the sunset. It was supposed to be the best day of their lives...

In the dog days of 2020, a year in which every hour brought a new horror, a group of old friends stumble across a very different flavor of terror.

Learn about our 2022 Indie Horror Screenplay Finalists below soon and see who wins best screenplay at the festival!

by Kevin Gardner Jr.

A woman begins experiencing supernatural events related to the massacre committed 110 years ago in Oscarville, GA.

by Christopher Mancuso

An intuitive woman senses that she is being followed by something sinister after viewing a sale house with a morbid history.

by Gabriela Anglada

Jessie joins her girlfriends on what she believes is going to be a simple girls' trip, unaware of the dark plot she's just walked into.

by Maggie Dominiak

A taxidermist begins experiencing odd events in his isolated cabin.

by Brett Davidson

When a Big-Pharma exec named Darren Erikson, is caught misleading consumers on live television, he is challenged by the media to take the same medicine his company produces, without gaining weight from the alleged side-effect. With the aid of his company's dietician/personal trainer, Darren works to keep the weight off, but soon finds the medicine has created an insatiable hunger within him. Unable to satisfy his cravings, Darren plunges into a state of insanity as his personal trainer continues to test his patience. Running out of money and available food, Darren's hunger drives him to do the unthinkable. Will Darren's hunger ever truly be satisfied?

 

Learn about our 2022 Indie Horror Screenplay Semi-Finalists below!

by Joseph Douglas Lint & Hank Douglas Lint

Three Claim Jumpers in 1849, California find out that stealing can be deadly work.

by Taiyen Stevenson

John Earl Mathews, an escaped convict picks up a female hitchhiker who harbors a dark secret.

by Michael Seabolt & Greg Schroeder

ETHAN (20’s) is having trouble sleeping. Every night, while he’s getting ready to go to sleep, a GHOST lies down in bed with him. It scares him, but he also misses the Ghost when it leaves, for its appearance and smell remind him of his dead girlfriend Dolores.

Ethan’s THERAPIST (50’s) is concerned when Ethan tells her this. She asks Ethan if he could describe Dolores to her in more detail, since he’s been tight-lipped about talking about her in any detail. Ethan gets suspicious, wondering if his mother had asked for the Therapist to extract details about Dolores from him. The Therapist insists that, despite the fact that Ethan’s mother recommended her to him, she does not share details about their sessions. Ethan is frustrated, but he understands his mother’s concern – Dolores committed suicide a few weeks back, and his resulting feelings of guilt and grief are taking a toll on him. The Therapist asks Ethan if he has tried writing his feelings down, to get his feelings and regrets out of his head and onto paper. Ethan agrees it’s worth a shot.

That night, Ethan writes a short note on a piece of paper, still unable to go into much detail. We see that Ethan is experiencing a disconnect between his perception vs. actual events, revealing that he is losing his grip on reality and putting the validity of his interactions with the therapist into question. Ethan gets upset after being unable to properly communicate with his mother on the phone, and he encounters a DEMONIC FORCE in the bathroom. It attacks him, and he resists at first. But ultimately, it resembles Dolores’s ghost, appears to be caring, and Ethan gives in. His wrists are slashed in the bathtub, and he dies, having committed suicide in the same manner as Dolores. The Therapist arrives at Ethan’s house, concerned that he has missed multiple appointments. She finds Ethan’s body. As the Therapist calls 911, we see Ethan’s letter to Dolores on the bathroom floor, in a pool of dried blood, its text resembling a suicide note.

by Jason Rice

A family learns that their home's modern security system can do little to protect them from an ancient evil.

by Jason Rice

A young woman tries to ease her loneliness by talking to faces she sees in everyday objects, until she suspects the faces see her too.