The Highlands Horrorfest is a competitive film festival to be held at the Wallace Theatre in downtown Johnson City on October 27, 2023.

The festival is dedicated to celebrating both short films and the creatives behind those films. One of the other objectives of this festival is to promote horror films that showcase this region’s rich history and folklore.

“The Highlands Horrorfest is the festival, and the Roadshow is a series of events we kind of put together from folk that presented films last year and didn’t necessarily have something ready for this year. Kind of an opportunity for our short film community or our filmmaking community to connect to students and let them know that it’s still possible,” shared Jake VanHuss, one of the event organizers.

The festival and roadshow are made available to interested students. The festival will allow creatives to see what others are doing and meet like-minded professionals.

The roadshow portion of the event began at 7 p.m. on Sept. 13 with the official release of Sweet Revenge, a beer made in collaboration with Johnson City Brewing Company. There will be weekly workshops leading up to the festival featuring various film-related topics, from how to survive as a creative to horror film make-up.

“It just kind of gives everyone a taste of what Horrorfest and the Roadshow are and sets the palette for the main course coming. Really, the goal of it all is to just give awareness to these people and the work they’re doing,” said VanHuss.

People are entering submissions from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and all over Tennessee. While it started as a local event for filmmakers, it has quickly become a regional event.

Highlands Horrorfest poster for workshop hosted on Sept. 27 (Contributed/ Highlands Horrorfest).

“This is the brainchild, but what I eventually want to grow this into is a HorrorCon,” VanHuss explained.

For more information about the roadshow and Horrorfest, you can visit https://highlandshorrorfest.wordpress.com/roadshow/.

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