Guests

We’re still adding guests for the 2024 festival, check back soon!

2024 Guests

Jill Gevargizian

Director – Ghost Game
Jill “Sixx” Gevargizian is a director and producer from Kansas City, Missouri. Much like the protagonist in her film The Stylist (2016), she has been a hairstylist for over 10 years. As a child, Gevargizian picked up her dad’s camcorder, and the rest is history! In 2012, she decided to bring independent horror films to her hometown by creating a monthly showcase called Slaughter Movie House – that she is still running today. Gevargizian has worked on many films outside of her own. She was the second-unit director for Jen & Sylvia Soska’s ABCs of Death 2 (2015) segment, and assistant director on James Bickert’s 35MM feature Frankenstein Created Bikers (2016). Her directorial debut, “Call Girl” (2014), starred genre-favorites Laurence Harvey (The Human Centipede II & III) and Tristan Risk (The Editor, American Mary), and her micro-short “Grammy” (2015) was distributed by CryptTV. The Stylist (2016), starring Najarra Townsend (Contracted), sliced through the competition, screening at the best genre film festivals across the globe and winning 17 awards, including the Jury Award at Etheria Film Night and Best Performance in a Short (Najarra Townsend) at Fantastic Fest and Monster Fest.
Aaron Krimetz

Producer – “Good Girls Get Fed”
Aaron is an independent film producer based in Los Angeles, and a part of Trial By Fire Entertainment production company. Driven by a passion for bringing thought-provoking stories to life, his produced work includes “Good Girls Get Fed” (Dances With Films, Chattanooga Film Festival) and PACE (post-production).
Allison Miller

Writer/Director – “Hollow”
Miller is an award winning actor, writer, and director living in Vancouver, BC. Her first short film, “Growth” won the Filmmaker Pick Award at the Palm Springs International Short Festival and is available to view on the Discover Film App. Miller made her TV directing debut with the episode “60 Minutes” in the 4th season of ABC’s A Million Little Things.
Allyson Morgan

Writer/Director/Executive Producer – “The Ghost”
Allyson Morgan is a writer, performer, and producer based in New York. Her first short film Need For Speed (Dating) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, while her next short, Sitting, won “Outstanding Narrative Short” at Tallgrass Film Festival. “First Date”, her short film produced by 20th Digital Studio, is currently airing on Hulu in their “Bite Size Halloween” series. Allyson adapted “First Date” into a feature film for Hulu, titled Jagged Mind, which the LA Times called “edgy” and “powerful.” She has also been selected for the New York Stage and Film Filmmakers’ Workshop, been awarded “Best Teleplay” at Omaha Film Festival, twice been a top ten Finalist for Cinequest, a Finalist at Stowe Story Labs, and a Semi-Finalist at Austin Film Festival. More: allysonm.com
Becky Sayers

Writer/Director – “All Kinds of Animals”
Becky Sayers was raised on 80’s action, campy slashers, and an unreasonable amount of Counter-Strike. Armed with a clunky VHS camcorder, she fell in love with filmmaking at the age of thirteen in the rural Pacific Northwest. Countless short films and bottles of fake blood later, she’s gone on to write about the genre and direct two feature films. Becky is currently located in Denver, Colorado where she continues to make movies with her partner and daughter under the Suburban Ghost banner.
Colin G Cooper

Director – “Bath Bomb”
Colin G Cooper is an acclaimed director & editor based in Toronto, Canada. Initially known for his music video work, he developed an eclectic style through collaborations with a diverse selection of artists, including Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez, dark electronic sensation Rezz, Kingston rock darlings The Glorious Sons, and post-hardcore legends Underoath and Silverstein. His music videos have garnered awards & nominations from the iHeart Radio MMVAs, Berlin MVAs, and the Kinsale Sharks, amongst others, and have been featured by numerous prominent entertainment publications including Loudwire, Spin, Alternative Press, Revolver, Exclaim!, XXL, Paper, and Nylon.
Dima Barch

Director/Writer/Exec Producer – “Dead End”
Dima Barch was born in 1998 in Moscow. Dima was a film journalist and critic for more than nine years, but fled his country because of prosecution. His short film debut “Dead End”, is a queer horror, which had a North American Premiere at Beyond Fest and a UK Premiere at London Short Film Festival (LSFF), and was selected by more than fifteen international film festivals. His second English-speaking short based in Berlin, “The Power of the Strike”, is compared with early Brian De Palma works and played by several international film festivals. Recently, Dima was named a recipient of the George A. Romero Film Fellowship, receiving the mentorship of Carter Smith (The Ruins, Jamie Marks is Dead, Swallowed). He also graduated from NAFF Fantastic Film School in 2023.
Ed Dougherty

Producer/Co-writer – “MLM”
Ed Dougherty is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the USC Graduate School of Cinematic Arts. He’s a writer/producer/director whose work includes the dramas PAINT IT BLACK (Alia Shawkat, Alfred Molina, and Janet McTeer) and SCRAPPER (Michael Beach and Aidan Gillen). He produced the segment “D for Dogfight” from THE ABCS OF DEATH and was a fellow in the Sundance Film Two Lab in 2019. He most recently sold a limited series to Peacock. He’s directed/produced/edited many music videos and music content for artists including Voxtrot, A Giant Dog, Sweet Spirit, Aimee Mann, Frankie Cosmos, All Time Low, Tracyanne and Danny, etc. He co-wrote and produced “MLM” which premiered at Overlook Film Festival where it was runner-up for the audience award.
Haley McCoy

Writer, Director – “Echo”
Haley has been working in the film industry for almost three years now in the Grip and Electric department, but her passion for all things film started when she was very young. She always enjoyed watching films and seeing how everything came together, thinking about the music, lighting, and acting performances before she even realized she wanted a career in film. This passion led her to get a bachelor’s Degree in film and Portland State University and then become a freelance gaffer soon after. She has always written scripts in her free time, but only after gaining some confidence and a supportive film community she decided to make one a reality.
Jake Myers

Co-writer/Director – “Kombucha!”
Jake Myers is a filmmaker and creative director based in Chicago. He is known for his short films, “Kombucha!”, “Emojihead”, and “Alien Seduction”. His films have been featured on FOX’s A-Studio-Digital, Blumhouse’s CryptTV, and Alamo Drafthouse’s Protected Under Parody series.
Johnny Wickham

Writer/Producer – The Invisible Raptor
Johnny Wickham and Mike Capes originally met in a comedy writing group over 15 years ago at the office of comedy legend Jerry Zucker and are the writing and producing team behind the award winning comedy feature The Invisible Raptor.
Jordan Eusebio

Sound Designer/Supervising Sound Editor – “Strange Creatures
Jordan Eusebio is a Filipino-American Director and Sound Designer based in Corvallis, Oregon. He’s spent the bulk of his career working on Post-Audio for independent narrative films and documentaries through his company Cardboard Yard. In his spare time you’ll find him teaching sound to students at Portland Community College or working in the yard under the close supervision of his toddling daughter. “Strange Creatures” is Jordan’s tenth collaboration with writer/director Nicholas Santos.
Kelly Lou Dennis

Writer/Director/Actor – “Good Girls Get Fed”
Kind of Asian, kind of white and definitely bisexual, Kelly embraces not fitting the mold and questioning social norms that marginalize. She is a writer, director, actor and the founder of production company Trial By Fire Entertainment. Her award-winning directorial work includes short films “Good Girls Get Fed” (Dances With Films, Chattanooga Film Festival, Panic Fest, among others) and “Carrion Comfort”. Kelly writes film and TV scripts that have placed in competitions including Austin Film Festival.
Kia Dorsey

Lead Actor – Ghost Game
Kia Dorsey is an actor/director and has appeared in several film, television, and theatre productions. Kia studied Theatre at Oklahoma State University graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. After graduating, she worked as a high school theatre teacher and as the Education Coordinator for Theatre Tulsa in Tulsa, OK. Kia later trained at The Identity School of Acting in Los Angeles. A native of Oklahoma, she now lives in L.A. and is represented by The Dragonfly Agency, MAGNA Talent Agency and is managed by Silver Mass Entertainment. Recent credits include Secrets in the Building (Lifetime Network), A Date With Deception (Lifetime Network), and Ghost Game (currently in film festivals).
K.L. Young

Writer – “The Connoisser”
K.L. Young is an award-winning filmmaker, publisher, and writer. His feature and short films have been shown in film festivals worldwide. He served as Editor in Chief of Planet Lovecraft Magazine from 2008 to 2010, and Executive Editor for Strange Aeons Magazine from 2010 to 2019, and now hosts the weekly Strange Aeons Radio podcast. His novella, “The Secret Language of Spiders” is out at the end of June.
Luke Zwanziger

Writer/Director – “Vines”
Luke Zwanziger is an award-winning writer and director from Portland OR telling stories about people stuck in untenable and absurd situations, leaning heavily into comedy and horror which he views as two sides of the same coin; genres that both allow us to reflect on the human experience. His feature script BIOLOGICAL won HorrOrigins best screenplay 2021. His scripts have placed in festivals such as ATX, NYC Midnight, FilmLabTv, and more. When he isn’t writing or filming, he performs improv comedy, runs TTRPG games, eats artisanal doughnuts, and engages in some ennui. All while parenting his 2-year-old son.
Michael Granberry

Producer/Director/Animator – “Les Betes”
Michael Granberry is a 3-time Emmy award-winning director and stop-motion animator whose work can be seen in such films as the Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild, Charlie Kaufman’s Oscar-nominated Anomalisa, Tales of Halloween, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, and numerous other feature films, documentaries, TV shows, web series and music videos. His independent work, which he describes as “queer, garage-punk stop-motion slam poetry” uses recycled and repurposed materials to create strikingly unique visual stories.
Mike Capes

Writer/Producer/Actor – The Invisible Raptor
Johnny Wickham and Mike Capes originally met in a comedy writing group over 15 years ago at the office of comedy legend Jerry Zucker and are the writing and producing team behind the award winning comedy feature The Invisible Raptor.
Nolen Sternkopf

Writer/Director/Producer – “The Battle of Grovers Mill”
Nolen Sternkopf is a Pacific Northwest based independent writer and director. He is constantly feeding his passion for storytelling and cinema with exciting filmmaking projects, many of which deal with the supernatural and twisting genre elements in creative new ways. Nolen takes pride in executing ambitious ideas with low budgets and loves working with small, passionate crews to create something special and entertaining. He enjoys utilizing a mixture of old-school and current filmmaking techniques, working with proven methods in tandem with current technologies.
Ramone Menon

Writer/Director/Producer – “My Scary Indian Wedding”
Originally from Bangalore, India, Ramone Menon is a filmmaker now based in Los Angeles, who specializes in genre films that are laced with social commentary. His previous works include “The Pey” and “Once Upon a Time in a Haunted House” that have played and won multiple awards at film festivals around the world such as HollyShorts, Cinequest, FilmQuest, Brooklyn Horror, and Panic Fest to name a few.
Rochée Jeffrey

Writer/Director – “The Flacalta Effect”
Rochée Jeffrey is a multi-hyphenate who’s been winning awards for screenwriting and directing since she was a student at Howard University. Once she discovered her superpower for using comedy to make people laugh, think and connect, she never looked back! As a TV writer, her credits include Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), WOKE (Hulu), and Co-EP of grown-ish (Freeform). Her feature film, NOT YOUR AVERAGE QUEEN, was selected for the 2021 WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive and is executive produced by feminist icon, Roxane Gay, Christine Vachon and Valerie Steinberg. Rochée hails from Jamaica and lives in Los Angeles. As a performer, you can find her on stand-up comedy stages around town and in short films like BALDWIN BEAUTY, which premiered at Sundance in 2020. She’s represented by IAG and Tantrum Management.
Sarah K. Reimers

Director – “Night Feeding”
Sarah K. Reimers’ 26-year career as an editor has straddled television, the web and feature films. She spent 10 years at Pixar Animation Studios, where she worked on Brave, Finding Dory, and edited the Academy Award-winning short “Piper”. She recently edited the feature film Strange World and the Disney+ series “Baymax!” (which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Editing in 2023) for Walt Disney Animation Studio. Besides a love of animated story telling, Sarah is a devoted horror fan; she grew up watching the Saturday afternoon “Thriller Double Feature” on television in her hometown of Detroit, MI. “Night Feeding” is her second short film, her debut being the short film “Bitten”, which garnered 11 awards and 15 nominations during it’s festival run. Her web-series “Family Recipes with Allison and Sarah” premiered in 2019 on YouTube. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband and daughter.
Sarah Tice

Writer/Director – DID I?
Sarah Tice is an award-winning filmmaker based in Orlando, FL. Sarah has been credited as cinematographer on over 60 short films and 3 feature films, including her feature-length debut DID I? The film has played festivals internationally, including Florida Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival, Toronto International Spring of Horror (Winner Best Feature), and A Night of Horror International Film Festival in Sydney, Australia, where it won the John Wiggins Independent Spirit Award for its insanely low budget.
Sean Carter

Writer/Director – “Wake”
Sean Carter’s first feature film, KEEP WATCHING, starring Bella Thorne and Leigh Whannell, was released by Sony Pictures in theaters nationwide. He most recently worked as the 2nd Unit “Action” Director on TIN SOLDIER, starring Jamie Foxx, Robert DeNiro, Scott Eastwood, and John Leguizamo. Horror has always been his first love as a genre, and he aims to continue in that space with the feature films he is currently developing.
Sophya Vidal

Producer – “Vines”
Sophya Vidal is an artist, animator,and improviser based in Portland Oregon. Originally a scenic designer, her love for story and world building has bloomed into several directions. Animated work include shorts, various TV series. Feature films including Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio. Currently she is part of the improv ensemble for Fun House Lounge and is looking forward to getting back onstage when it’s possible. Current personal projects include resin crafting, gaming, and running ASIFA Portland.
Susan Ruth

Writer/Director – “The First”
In 2024, Susan Ruth completed her debut turn as a writer and director with her short film, “The First.” Susan co-produced her film with horror legend John Penney (Return of the Living Dead III, Reborn, The Kindred), the film is set in 1928 and explores sex, love, vulnerability, fear, gender politics, and mythos. Although new to filmmaking, Susan has been telling stories through songwriting (Reba, The United, Erdem Kinay, and her own award-winning albums), abstract painting, and as founder and host of the Hey Human podcast (which she founded in 2016).
Vu Mai

Director/Writer/Producer/Actor – “Eat Me”
Vu Mai started in the film industry in the early 90s as an actress. She starred in major motion pictures such as The Joy Luck Club and the hit sitcom, Hang Time. After she hit her teens, she decided to take a break from being in front of the camera as an actress and became a professional Muay Thai fighter and Boxer. Upon retiring from the ring she decided to make her way back to the film industry by writing and directing. She made her directorial debut in 2020 with her short film, “Fight Like A Girl” for HBO’s APA Visionary Contest. Vu is a huge fan of horror and camp culture in film. She hopes to continue her career as a filmmaker opening up the doorway to more opportunities for Asian American actors in niche genres.
Zachary Beckler

Writer – DID I?
Zachary Beckler is a filmmaker and post-production specialist whose short films “Séance” and “Where Is Alice?” have screened at festivals internationally, including Fantastic Fest, Florida Film Festival, Imagine: Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival and Dead By Dawn Scotland International Film Festival. His debut feature Interior (2015) won Best Feature at Shriekfest in L.A., Best Director and Sound Design at NYC Horror Film Fest, and the Audience Award for Feature at Knoxville Horror Film Fest. DID I? is his first collaboration with wife, Sarah Tice, for which he was Producer, Co-Writer, Editor, Sound Designer, VFX Supervisor, and Colorist.