In the fall of 2020, then Austin-based filmmaker Adam Sweeney founded Shock the Vote, a festival that benefited the artists, venues, and nonprofits affected by the pandemic. They held 50 events within two months, including a Halloween drive-in party.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Halloween,” Sweeney said. “I think it gives people permission to let go and be themselves.”
A year later they created Phantom Fest, the city’s largest Halloween fest, encompassing events like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Burlesque Ball, and zombie proms. This year, they celebrated the fifth-anniversary of Midsommar with a screening party alongside 75 hours of programming.
A few months ago, Sweeney moved to Cincinnati from Austin and became general manager of the Esquire Theatre. This led him to create the first edition of Cincinnati Phantom Fest.
“I’ve been blown away with not only the level of engagement and pride that the people in Cincinnati take for things they love, but it’s also an up-and-coming city that already has such a rich history, and we’re excited to get to be featured here,” he said. “I thought I was going to miss Austin a lot because I was born and raised in Texas, and thought I was going to have a hard time making an adjustment. But I’ve loved every second being here.”
Phantom Fest features eight horror films, the Cincinnati premiere of the film Replicator (not part of the evening pass), and 25 total hours of programming at Esquire in which local curators like Cindependent Film Festival, Secret Base Cinema, Conveyor Belt Books, Outer Cinema, and Leontine Cinema will present some of the movies.
The three-night fest—which kicks off Halloween night with screenings of the original Halloween and The Crow (30th anniversary)—will also include after parties at Clifton bar Alive & Well, discussions, costume contests, and a Survive the Night film marathon. Those who watch a block of four horror films on November 2—the original Nightmare on Elm Street (40th anniversary), the original Slumber Party Massacre, Phantasm (45th anniversary), and Xtro—will win a prize.
“I would argue that any fan of Halloween or horror should go see Slumber Party Massacre because it’s a masterclass in film,” Sweeney said. The 1982 film is one of the first instances of women (feminist writer Rita Mae Brown and director Amy Holden Jones) writing and directing a slasher film. Leontine Cinema, which is the region’s only film group showcasing women-directed films, will present the movie.
On Friday November 1, Cindependent will host the 10th anniversary screening of black-and-white Persian film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. “It’s such a masterful, understated, and beautiful love story,” Sweeney said. Following that, Conveyor Belt Books will host the original Carrie as part of what Sweeney calls their “author to auteur” film series.
The final film of the fest will be Xtro, a cult science fiction movie from 1982, which Secret Base Cinema will showcase.
“Xtro is a film that I have jokingly said people will have to watch E.T. afterward just to cleanse their palette,” Sweeney said. “It’s not the same as Alien, but there are certainly echoes or accents, and it is just off the wall. We found a beautiful balance of classics, films that need to become classics, and then films that are going to surprise the audience.”
In the future, Sweeney would like Phantom Fest to expand beyond the horror realm and center more on the arts community and pop culture events. For instance, in Austin they hosted a Josie and the Pussycats anniversary party with a live band performing the soundtrack. Sweeney would like to curate those types of events in Cincinnati, too.
“Phantom Fest is one piece of a very big puzzle of an artistic collective that is going to be expanding and definitely inviting more Cincinnati artists into the fold,” he said. “One thing we always try to make clear to the team, to anybody that we talk to, is our group is absolutely not just focused on horror and Halloween. We love all types of art.”
Someday soon, Sweeney hopes Phantom Fest will get the attention that Blink has received, as a destination for cinema and art.
“When we look back five, 10 years from now, hopefully in the spirit of how Oktoberfest has been or in the spirit of Blink and so many other amazing programs, we would love Phantom Fest to be included in the conversation,” Sweeney said.
Phantom Fest runs October 31 to November 2 at the Esquire Theatre. Purchase a weekend pass or individual tickets here.
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