Nightmare in the Ozarks is a four-day horror film festival running Oct. 21-24 that includes independent films, special guests and the annual zombie crawl.
Colten Scrivner is the executive director of the event and a psychologist who studies the psychology of horror fans.
“Eureka is known for being this spooky art town. But up until a couple of years ago there really wasn't a film scene here,” said Scrivner. “I kind of teamed up with a friend of mine who's a producer, and we decided that putting on a horror film festival in Eureka made a lot of sense.”
On Saturday at 6 p.m., the event expects tens of thousands of people to participate in the zombie walk.
Several celebrities will be in attendance this year, including author and actress Adrienne Barbeau and Caroline Williams from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise.
“What makes it unique from other film festivals is that you get kind of an intimate experience with the filmmakers and the fans, because Eureka Springs is so small,” said Scrivner. “But you also get the quality of films that you're going to find at much larger festivals.”
All feature films will be screened in Eureka Springs' 100-year-old City Auditorium, which seats 984 people. Short films will be shown in the Basin Park Ballroom on the sixth floor of the Basin Park Hotel. The event also includes filmmaker and podcasting panels about how to create your own work.
“Horror is really good at taking the things we're anxious about and putting them into an interesting story and telling it back to us,” said Scrivner. “And there's a lot of things people are anxious about these days. There's a lot of creative filmmakers out there that are building those stories for audiences, and I think it's just working really well.”
For details and ticket information, visit nightmareintheozarks.com.
