Hysteria Fest is back for its fourth year from July 10-13, and it’s turning its spotlight on Canadian horror, alongside panels, a horror prom, and the most exciting up-and-coming films the horror genre has to offer.
Now that Hysteria Fest has settled into its mid-summer time slot, festival director Paul Hibbard couldn’t be happier with how the fest continues to grow and evolve. This year, while all festival films will screen at Arkadin Cinema & Bar—either inside or on the Backlot—Hibbard and team have added a second venue to their roster, expanding to include The Heavy Anchor just next door.
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“Last year was our most successful Hysteria Fest so far,” Hibbard says. “We knew that we were growing to the point that we were packing Arkadin, so we knew we needed to expand in some way.”
The Heavy Anchor will host live events associated with the festival, including two panels on July 11: A horror filmmakers panel featuring Eric Stanze, Jackie Kelly, Mando Franco, and Douglas Wicker and a special effects tutorial with Logan Cole about how to make a prosthetic head explode. The Heavy Anchor will also host a live recording of Destroy the Brain!, the podcast from the team behind the monthly Late Nite Grindhouse program at Des Peres 16, on July 12.
In terms of programming, this year’s slate includes 10 features and 70 shorts. Hibbard also notes that the fest is continuing its international focus, this time highlighting Canadian horror. The repertory films playing as part of this program include an opening night screening of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers on July 10 and Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, which screens on July 12 on the Backlot, preceded by an apropos horror prom celebration.
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“When I think of horror, I often think of Canada,” Hibbard says. “I always knew that there was this great Canadian horror history, and it almost became overwhelming, in a great way, because there are so many great options of what to play from up there. ”
This international focus also includes more recent festival favorites such as Dead Lover, a Sundance hit about a lonely gravedigger who attempts to revive her dead lover; Haze, a queer horror film about the secrets of a small town’s psychiatric facility that is headed to Shudder in the fall; and The Damnation, a film from Indigenous Canadian filmmakers about a once-thriving mining town being attacked by an ancient vampiric creature.
“We’re now known more on the national scene, and have more of a budget, so that we’re able to get more of these great festival films,” Hibbard says. “It’s cool that we’ve grown to this place now that we’re able to get these films from studios that we weren’t necessarily able to get before.”
The fest also works to give back to organizations within the community. The festival has previously done events to benefit the Missouri Abortion Fund, and this year will host a 50/50 raffle during horror prom on July 12 to benefit Cinema St. Louis. The local nonprofit dedicated to film lost NEA funding as a result of DOGE cuts earlier this year.
As he prepares to welcome audiences for a fourth year of horror, Hibbard is excited by the prospect of seeing Hysteria Fest continue to grow and involve the community while staying true to his original vision.
“The most exciting thing about it is that the festival has maintained the same feel, voice, and philosophy to the curation that I wanted from the beginning,” Hibbard says. “If you send a film to Hysteria Fest, all I care about is it being a great film. Doing it through that philosophy, and seeing the festival still growing, has been really rewarding.”
