Misc
Vampire Cult Chronicles: Interviewing the Vampire
A charismatic leader who’s believed to possess otherworldly abilities. Forced views about the world and society, fostering an “us vs them” mentality. Exerting control over relationships, finances, and other personal matters. Utilizing various tactics to break down a person’s defenses. Isolation and humiliation. A purist expectation of an ideological belief. These are some of the qualities that can help one to identify a cult. These are the qualities found in a vampire cult.
In other news, if you didn’t know, vampires are all around us. Probably not in the actual undead Nosferatu sense (although a girl is always dreaming) – but in the form of a subculture with varying beliefs and practices.
The “vampire underground,” if I may, is filled with well-meaning people searching for acceptance and a community that aligns with their spirituality, forming many groups within the vampire subculture. “Tom” was a part of one of those groups – but he had to exit after finally coming to grips with its toxic and cult-like nature.
Find out about “Tom’s” experience with the vampire cult in this special interview.
One Person’s Experience Escaping a Vampire Cult
We’ve got a lot to cover, so we’ll start with the basics. How did you come across this group in the first place?
So, I must have been in high school. I was a strange child who discovered the internet and right away got attached to these various different subcultures. At some point, I came across [a book]. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I had this dream, and it involved the author.
Very specific things happened in this dream, so I went on a whim and emailed the author and told them, ‘Hey, I had a dream about you. In my dream, XYZ happened,’ and the person confirmed these things. Basically, the response was, ‘You’re a person of interest. Here are some people that you should talk to.’ From then on, I was put in contact with these people.
Now, from what I understand, the general belief is that vampires aren’t turned like we see in the movies. They have to be born vampires, but can be Awakened to what they are. So, are you a vampire?
I don’t like using the V word in general. I think when it comes to the English language, it’s probably the best-suited word to describe a person who requires outside sources of energy to maintain physical-mental-emotional equilibrium. I think that there are many groups out there that have different definitions of what a vampire is.
This is probably a good time to point out that we’re not talking about the traditional blood-sucking or sanguine vampire sort here. This group involves psychic or energy-based vampirism, correct?
Yeah. But from the perspective of this group, the source of vampirism is wanting to have greater control of energy manipulation. To do that, you underwent an energetic alteration of your spiritual body. This took place many, many years ago in past lives, and that change carries forward. That alteration to your spiritual body is what gives you that need to replenish your own energy much sooner than other people.
That’s really interesting. Now, this isn’t the only vampire group around. Do you think they all are cults?
No, I don’t think they’re all cults. I think because of the group’s use of spiritual hierarchy, in particular; there is a predisposed level of toxicity. I guess because there is a pecking order that naturally falls into place within the group.
How did that hierarchy operate?
So, within the group, there are three subgroups. They all operate and work with energy in unique ways. If you go by the lore of the group, [the leader’s subgroup TAKERS] requires the most energy, and [my subgroup GIVERS] provides energy.
For the longest time, I mean, I was a part of the group for about 15 years, [my group was] treated like dirt; not treated very well by the other levels of the hierarchy. Oftentimes they were just treating [my group] as a necessity, basically like a fount of energy to be used.
Almost like a food source?
For the most part, yes. And [the third group the MILITANTS], which are very aggressive types, believe a lot of their past lives revolve around being physical warriors. To them, [my subgroup is] too emotional or delicate, useless, and they didn’t really feel the need to have them around. And that kind of behavior carried over into the then-present time in the group.
Did you ever feel a sense of community there?
At first? Yes. This group was based out of the Midwest. I’m from New Jersey. So as a very weird kid – in high school – it felt nice to find other weird people. It felt nice to find a group that I resonate with. But even from within the group, I always felt ostracized mostly because [of my role in the] group and even more so because I was a long distance member. I wasn’t there in person to do all the group rituals or the group meetings; a lot of the back and forth took place over emails for many years. They would do an event every so often in person at a convention they would hold, and even then, it was very, very toxic.
What was your first red flag?
In hindsight, the first red flag was probably my First Degree ritual in the group.
For First Degree, the group meets in a very specific ritual chamber. They’re all convening in there, and you are ushered in separately and placed in the center of a circle of members who tear you apart.
Every interaction you’ve had with them, they will use it against you – and they will do this for hours until you are just a miserable pile.
I now know that all the interactions you had with them as a group were them figuring out ways to get under your skin.
You could tell that [MILITANTS] would sit around and be like, ‘I wanna make this person cry. This is gonna be really good to use against them.’ How you react to them is whether you pass or fail that First Degree. And if you fail, you are not a member of the group.
I remember there was a First Degree where they had brought out a bucket of ice for this person to stand in. There was another girl that I remember being in a separate room and they were screaming, calling her fat, fat-shaming her. There was a former member, who was a POC who’s first degree was deemed so heinous it’s still never discussed. (It should be noted that in its nearly 30 years of existence, there have only been 4 POC to ever join the group.)
For another member’s First Degree, the leader, who we shall refer to as The Emperor, was nervous about this member failing and going public about what happened and asked, ‘Do you think I should record this?’ And everyone said no, but The Emperor did it anyway without anyone’s consent. This went against the ‘rules’ of the group, but that somehow didn’t apply to The Emperor.
Intimate things are brought up during a First Degree. If you had an abortion, if you have issues with your spouse, if you have trouble with your bills, your money, drugs, a parking ticket. Are you scared of spiders? Are you scared of heights? Are you ashamed of your body? Nothing is off the table. They will do whatever they can to break you down in that setting. And it’s scary in a ritual circle. It’s dark, it’s smoky, you’re surrounded by people that you kind of don’t know that well yet because it’s your First Degree – you’re new. and they’re there to just make you cry and feel like shit. You, quote-unquote, shared this experience, you cried together, you exposed yourself, and yet somehow afterward, you feel great.
After this you’re basically trauma bonded to them. And from that point on, anything you share with them can be used against you to keep you there.
Unfortunately, tactics like that are used in many cult-like groups. One indicator of a cult is fostering an “us-versus-them” mentality, pushing members to feel further isolated from society. Is that something you experienced?
Absolutely. And it was only made more pronounced around 2018 when there was an internal schism and a specific member was considered an enemy. The Emperor was telling people, ‘Your name will not be used. Can you tell me something about this person?’
It was all aggregated in writing and then released to the public. I personally was approached to give my two cents about this person, and at first, I wasn’t even told that I was gonna be a part of it. They just asked me in passing. They didn’t ask my permission; they didn’t ask if they could use my name – and they published me in the document and included my name in it. I had no idea what it was even for, but the person was basically ostracized from all the communities they were a part of as a result.
When that happened, a large number of people left the group. Mind you, some of them were elders, which were like founding members. When these people left, they were considered enemies. And if you were their friend, you basically couldn’t function in the house.
Were there any other ideas that you were supposed to have as a group member, even if it had nothing to do with the group?
Yeah, you were expected to be extremely, progressively liberal. And I’m pretty liberal, period. Incredibly liberal. This was – Um this is not normal. The membership and the prospective new members were basically asked, “Are you a Republican?” If you said yes, you had a problem on your hands.
A part of that, I can understand. It’s a group with very progressive views on identity as it pertains to sexuality and gender, and they want to feel safe in their group. So the R word became a bad word. You would never want to be labeled as the R word, or a bigot. They’re the bad guys, and you definitely didn’t want to be accused of being one.
So, there’s an expected political ideology?
Absolutely. But that’s also what drew me in. I wanted to be in a group of people that accepts me for who I am. I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable. But at a certain point, you start to realize how cutting that could actually be, because if you don’t fit in with exactly what The Emperor wants, you’re bad. It was only a matter of time before you too, became the enemy.
What made you open to talking about this now?
So after I left, I made it a point to say that I wanted to go of my own free will. I would hold my oaths that I made in my First Degree and in my Second Degree, but I wanted to leave with grace and I didn’t want any drama. And shortly after I left, a few other members left as well.
And this leader has basically taken to a smear campaign publicly on Twitter, publicly on their Discord channels, and is making us out to be the bad guy. We’ve done our best to just stay quiet and not say anything. But at this point, I think it’s time for someone to say something.
A part of me wanted to make this anonymous. But I feel like if I were to hide under anonymity; The Emperor would go after some of the other people and assume that it’s them.
Well, I appreciate you opening up about this and I’m sure they do too. The controlling nature of groups like these can make it more difficult to speak out.
I think, at first, it was a well-meaning cult. It was a group of friends that had a shared belief system that was harmless. But I think as the group leader withdrew more and more, they began to see the members of the group as forms of entertainment and would manipulate them – to do crazy things, to be toxic, to tear each other down.
We would regularly write up reports on each other under the guise of ‘assisting’ someone in doing what they called ‘shadow work’. Shadow work is largely considered a personal practice of self-exploration where you confront the more difficult elements of your personality in the pursuit of self-development. In this group, shadow work was often pressured to be ‘public’ and weaponized within the group, which twisted the whole purpose of what shadow work was meant to do. Going back to what I said earlier, all of our engagements were there to get to know each other and use it against each other. So, we would do anonymous, little reports, expose the ‘crazy bad’ things that these people were doing even when they were just like innocuous things – and these people would get punished, they would be embarrassed, they would be exposed. It’s shameful, but for many years, that’s what was going on.
It seems like group humiliation was pretty commonplace.
Absolutely. I mean, one of the members had their marriage, like, fucking blown up. Personal things that had nothing to do with anything were brought up.
Plus, the group leader’s significant other is a millionaire and would loan money out to people and hold it against them. And let me tell you, the only member actually expected to pay interest on this loan was a person of color. No one else did. Since the time of publishing, it has been confirmed that the loan was ultimately forgiven.
Did you ever invest in the group yourself?
I’ve invested in the group, my time, my energy, my attention, hundreds of hours, hundreds, like at one point we rewrote the rule book literally in a weekend and that was like 100 pages, 100 pages in a weekend. Before my First Degree I translated the entire website into Spanish, atleast one hundred articles that were never used. I was told it’s a shame they weren’t in French. OK. But I also purchased all of The Emperor’s books. I was a Patreon for them. I supported all of their endeavors. I helped make their incense. And when I say make incense, you don’t know how much work goes into making incense. It’s hours of work.
There was a weekend where we got together, The Emperor did not show up, but they made sure to send us a batch of incense for us to fucking mash because you have to mash it for hours. And so we spent the weekend mashing the incense for The Emperor so that they could sell it on their website for their personal gain. I mean, there’s tons of situations. These are just the first things that are slowly popping back into my head.
I can only imagine. I mean, you’ve got 15 years’ worth of stories. Was the group making any money?
Every year, the members put on this convention, and it was a labor of love. People would pay to attend this convention, and little by little over the years, because the group has been around for a while, the group amassed a sizable war chest of money.
We’re not talking about little 10-person events. We’re talking about 100 plus people coming to pay $60 a pop or more, you know, flying in from other states. We even had people flying from other countries coming to attend this event. This was a proper event. We never saw any of that money.
Towards the end, everything was just ‘make money’. We were running the social media and the convention. We were making audio for them and video components for the group. It was hours and hours of work, and no one got paid for it.
They were even throwing around this idea that, you know, the groups’ money, which is a nonprofit, should be rolled into The Emperor’s money. Especially since The Emperor felt as though he was owed this as payback for members who had long since left that had caused him upset.
Did anyone try to address how the money was being handled?
A couple years ago, we started bringing up the money issues in the house and how things were being raised and used. We were told we were being bigots.
Oh. Was the money being donated or…?
It was not. It was only after members pressured The Emperor and their spouse to donate to Black Lives Matter after what happened to George Floyd, that they parted with a small donation. Any instances after that were met with excuses and a firm ‘no’. The moment we questioned how the funds were being used, we were accused of being bigoted because we were accusing the Jewish person of misusing money. No one even knew this person was Jewish.
I know this is gonna come off certain ways. But this is literally how it was presented. The moment we questioned how the money was being managed, The Emperor became unsettled as if we were personally attacking their partner, who exclusively managed the funds. They accused us of being bigoted for daring to question.
And I’m just like, how do you, how do you even argue with that? Now I feel like an asshole; I guess I’m gonna shut up because I don’t wanna be labeled a bigot. So that is how it was shut down. Meanwhile, they’re going willy nilly on money.
Do you have any advice for people within communities that could run into these cult-like dynamics?
I think this is good advice for anyone in a subculture. You view each other as family, and you don’t really stop to think that these people who had your best interest in mind for so long could turn on you. As marginalized groups, we get to choose our family.
In a lot of ways finding this group, these were my chosen family. and in a way, yes, the spirituality blended with that. But you trust these people, you don’t expect it. And it’s very hard to see when things are happening.
It’s very hard to see that this small community of friends with shared beliefs could turn so toxic or sour. In hindsight, I wish I saw these things. It’s hard to notice, when I watch these crazy cult shows, I hear people, and they’re like, how could you ever get stuck in a cult? And I’m just like, it’s easier than you think because you don’t expect it when it’s happening, it’s so slow, it’s so insidious, and suddenly, CULT.
Especially when things are done to further isolate you.
Absolutely. And you know, the pandemic accelerated all that because we were all locked up at home, and these communities are based on Discord. So you spend the day typing and texting and Zoom calls, and these are your friends. Then you realize. you’re not their friend; you’re their entertainment. Especially when it became ‘who are we tearing down’ flavor of the week..
Do you have any words for the current group members?
You know what really hurts me the most is that as we were leaving, The Emperor said a lot of really nasty things. They saw how we left; we said nothing negative. We left with grace. And these people that we considered friends, turned their nose up, gave this person a free pass, and didn’t stick up for us. And to this day, they allow this person to shit-talk us. That is the one thing that drives me the most crazy is we were friends. How could these people allow this person to just continue on this tantrum months later? To continue dragging our name in the mud, and not at least say, ‘Hey, you’re wrong because we’ve experienced this for ourselves, and what you’re saying isn’t true’.
To the people who stayed behind, I’ll say this: It’s only a matter of time before you are made out to be the bad guy. No matter how good you are, or how obedient, one day you’ll be in our shoes. Once your services are no longer needed, or when you disagree, the teeth will come for you. Where we are today, you will be tomorrow. Look at the history.
Unfortunately, it seems like dissent isn’t exactly smiled at in the group. And, you know, it could be that they fear retribution themselves.
I mean, I fear retribution at this point. I really do because I don’t want to be buried in any litigation, but I wouldn’t be surprised by it. These privileged people, that is their first reaction, to lawyer up, cease and desist, throw a tantrum.
But I’m not saying anything that’s not true, and I’m also not naming any names. It’s scary, sticking your neck out there, especially when you know this person—let me tell you—this person believes they can actually stop someone’s heart. I don’t believe it, but it’s something that they’ve boasted about.
It’s hard to speak out against a leader who you think can stop your heart with their thoughts.
Yes. And, going back to originally how I even encountered this group, the idea that this person can enter your dreams has basically fostered this environment of this belief that they are omnipresent. They can enter your dreams; they can stop your heart. There’s an underlying feeling of ‘You know, if you question my authority, hey, maybe you’re gonna get into a terrible car accident and drop dead.’ The power dynamic is there, even if they won’t admit it. But I don’t believe that anymore, for many years however, I did. I refuse to give that person power anymore. Maybe that’s why the other members stayed behind, because they too are scared. I don’t know.
I think that’s a difficulty a lot of people have when trying to cut ties with toxic groups like these. You’ve been made to feel that if you’re not with us, you’re going down. Is there anything specific you would like to say to The Emperor if they should happen to be reading this?
I don’t know if me and The Emperor were ever great friends. I came into the group very young, and I looked up to The Emperor and one other Elder who had left, almost as parental figures. You know, I was raised in a very weird way, I didn’t really have a parental figure in my life. And so being dropped into this group straight out of high school, I kind of latched on to these people and I tried to acclimate to the dynamics in the group. I learned to walk on eggshells around them, and yet I really grew fond of these people.
I think that a bunch of the other people who left with me were much closer to this person, and it probably hurt them even more when they left. I may have been kind of insignificant, but having my identity be a part of this group for so many years and all of a sudden be free of it was strange but also very liberating.
At the end of the day, if I had to tell The Emperor one specific thing, it would be:
I’ve seen this happen to you time and time again, and for someone who emphasizes that everyone should ‘do the work, and go to therapy’ I’m stunned that you would even question why this keeps happening to you. For someone who claims to be so brilliant, it’s incredible how truly out of touch you actually are with your friend groups, and those who you are oathed to.
For now, in your circles, we are the bad guys, but only until history repeats itself again, because the problem is not us, it’s you.
Many people looked up to you, I looked up to you, but the sad truth is, never meet your heroes, because they just might turn out to be a bootleg LRH.
Well, I really respect your bravery to talk about all of this again. I know it can’t be easy, especially when there’s the fear of retribution. But I think that it’s important. Speaking about your experience might inspire others to find their own way out of toxic situations.
I hope so. And I hope if the other members do read this, I wish them the best. but also, it’s time for them to Awaken themselves and not rely on others to do it for them.
From October 16 to 25, horror fans, filmmakers, writers, and artists gathered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for ten days of film screenings, panels, live podcast recordings, Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies lectures, an artisans’ market, networking opportunities, and parties. It was Brooklyn Horror Film Festival’s milestone 10-year anniversary. While there were, of course, first-timers in attendance, the majority, it seemed, have been going to the Festival for years—a testament to not only the expertise of the organizers and programmers, but to their dedication to the horror community as well.
How Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Began
Justin Timms, Founder and Festival Director, created Brooklyn Horror Film Festival in 2016. At the time, he had been working as an editor and post supervisor, bouncing back and forth between FilmRise and a video production company that made internal videos for major companies, like Pepsi. BHFF was initially intended to be a side project to satisfy his lifelong interest in the horror genre.
“I’ve always been into horror. They’ve always been the movies that I wanted to see,” he said. “The types of movies that I love weren’t playing festivals in New York, so I just had this crazy idea that I could start a film festival.”
So, that’s exactly what he did. One of the first people to join the team was Director of Programming Matt Barone. He and Timms followed each other on Twitter, and when Timms posted about the festival, Barone, whose love of horror began when his father showed him Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein when he was six or seven years old, reached out. Barone had been writing about music, reviewing horror films, and covering film festivals for a number of years, and was interested in pursuing a path in festival programming. Since this was BHFF’s debut on the scene, he took on the task of reaching out to filmmakers to create the festival lineup. That first year, BHFF opened with Dearest Sister by Laotian filmmaker Mattie Do, closed with Child Eater by Erlingur Thororddsen, and also featured We Are The Flesh by Emiliano Rocha Minter as the centerpiece film and Without Name by Lorcan Finnegan and Garret Shanley, which won the Festival’s award for Best Cinematography.
Pictured above, Tori Potenza and Joseph Hernandez. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
A Decade of Growth and an Expanding Programming Vision
Ten years in, BHFF has grown exponentially, from a weekend-long stretch of screenings to a fully-formed film festival spread over ten days. It’s also established a reputation of excellence and receives hundreds of submissions each year, requiring a team of screeners in addition to programmers. Programming a film festival is a major responsibility—one that Senior Programmer and Director of Community Development Joseph Hernandez takes very seriously.
“You are a curator that has a huge influence on filmmakers that are seen or not seen, films that that are being recommended and placed in the public eye,” Hernandez said. “You have a true power in guiding trends, [including] which kinds of filmmakers are being represented in the overall landscape. [It’s a] huge, huge responsibility that I don’t take lightly.”
From Early Horror Fans to Key Festival Programmers
Like Barone, Hernandez has been with the Festival since the beginning. He had been working with the Tribeca Film Festival on the theater operation side of things and wanted to shift to a more film-focused role. A horror fan since his preteen years through Goosebumps books and Scooby Doo (with early childhood exposure to classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th that led to “a recurring Freddy Krueger nightmare”), reaching out to Timms to get involved with Brooklyn Horror Film Festival seemed like the perfect starting-off point. That first year, he was a screener and also introduced films, moderated Q&As, and helped with venue management. After that, he was promoted to programmer.
“As I learned what the role truly entailed, I was able to grow this whole [new] appreciation for what film festivals do and what their function truly is,” he said. “You get to see firsthand the difference that you’re making. You see how excited and happy [the filmmakers] are. You see all these audience members coming up to them and praising their work. I think a lot of filmmaking is behind closed doors, and it can be a very lonely experience. [For some, this is] their first opportunity of not just showing their work, but also being able to take that victory lap, when they get to finally put that movie in front of an audience. What we do is life changing for a lot of artists, and that makes a lot of the work and sleepless nights so much more worth it.”
Pictured above, NYC horror icon, Xero Gravity, and film critic/playwright Sharai Bohannon. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
How Programming Shapes Filmmakers and the Genre
Hernandez is also an actor and filmmaker, and says that his experience as a programmer has helped him grow creatively.
“The best thing that any young filmmaker can do is watch as many films as possible. It could be bad films; it could be good films. You’re going to learn something from every viewing,” he said. “You’re developing those film analysis muscles that really help you to pick apart why something works in a film and why it doesn’t. It’s such a great classroom. I watch like, 1,000 movies a year for Brooklyn, and that just keeps me growing and sharpening those muscles and tools.”
Curating a Diverse and Audience Focused Horror Lineup
Of the actual process of programming, Hernandez stresses the importance of building a program for a wide audience.
“Each film you select doesn’t have to be something that is going to be unanimously liked, but there should be films in your program for every kind of viewer. This goes back to our responsibility as programmers. You have to be selfless. You can’t build a program just to your tastes.”
Hernandez notes that one of the Festival’s objectives is to demonstrate how vast the spectrum of horror is. If you ask him, it’s the key to bringing more people in.
“I think it’s very easy for someone to say, ‘Oh, I don’t like horror’, while their idea of horror is just a gory slasher film. That is a misperception that I blame on the marketing of the ’80s, when we had that huge slasher sequel boom, and that just became the mainstream definition of what a horror film was,” he said. He cites Silence of the Lambs as a case study on how this narrow definition of horror has led to mainstream audiences misunderstanding what horror is. “Horror doesn’t even have to be scary. Horror could be funny, it can be psychological, it could be so many things. We try to show that within our program, and that’s kind of what gave birth to our Head Trip section. These are films that are very much on the margins, but do fall into the Venn diagram. I think that’s another way that we can help the horror genre to survive and persevere: by showing that it encompasses so much more, and getting rid of that narrow stigma.”
Representation, Inclusivity, and Marginalized Voices in Horror
Beyond honoring the full scope of the genre, representation and inclusivity are always top priorities at BHFF. It’s reflected in not only the consistently diverse lineup, but in highlighted sections, like this year’s spotlight on Black horror and the annual “Slayed” block for LGBTQ+ short films. Nearly 50% of this year’s program was also woman-directed.
“There’s so much horror coming out nowadays because it’s having a big resurgence, which is awesome, but we’re getting so many prequels and reboots and requels,” writer, film critic, and programmer Tori Potenza said. “There are just so many great indie films out there coming from marginalized voices [so it’s] really important to highlight [them]. It feels like [the Festival has] always been ahead of the curve there.”
Championing Diversity, Queer Voices, and Inclusive Horror
It’s a sentiment shared by Hernandez, as well as by writer and emcee Xero Gravity, who is also deeply involved in BHFF:
“Everything else around us changes, and this is the little pocket that we have that stays consistent,” she said. “Something that I love about Brooklyn Horror is that we’re very adamant about queer liberation and giving queer voices their own spot, [and] there was also a slate specifically for Black horror. There’s a lot of pandering in the outside world, and [maybe] 5% of it is genuine. But this is something that’s very consistent with with Brooklyn Horror—these people just fucking get it, and that’s the great thing about having an intersectional community. When I’m up there introducing films or doing Q&As, I look into the audience and I see an array of people. I see white people, I see Black people, I see disabled people, I see queer people scattered amongst the audience. [BHFF] really recognizes the diversity of their audience and don’t use that as a pandering, but [instead] use that as ‘Okay, these are the people who we have in seats, and we should make sure that they feel welcome.’”
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
Filmmakers Share Their Incredible Experiences
Of course, BHFF isn’t just exciting for fans—it’s also thrilling for filmmakers, especially if they’re presenting work. Filmmakers Jasmine Osean Thomas and Ksusha Genenfeld came this year because their short film, Candy, was selected for the “Home Invasion” shorts block. This was the first time that Thomas, the writer and director, came to the Festival; it was the second time for Genenfeld, the cinematographer.
“I’d been following Brooklyn horror for a while because I know the quality of work that they support is unbelievable and very diverse,” Thomas said. “When I got in, it was like fireworks. I’m a die-hard horror fan. I’ve been since I was a little kid. So to get into something like this, where the genre is so celebrated, and to be amongst my people was so great. The work at this festival is just a different quality and caliber that should be celebrated forever. I’m just so honored to be part of this. And beyond that, the way that the festival supports filmmakers locally, but also brings in filmmakers, like to the Women In Horror networking event, sets it apart from any other film festival I’ve been to. It’s about community, it’s about horror, and it’s about celebrating not just your own film, but everyone else’s films.”
“I feel like it’s always the best time ever. I always meet new people and new filmmakers, so it’s always exciting to come back and be here,” Genenfeld added.
More Than Just Horror: Lectures, Parties, Markets, and Live Events Too
BHFF doesn’t only feature films, though. In addition to the scheduled screenings, there are also always additional events, like academic lectures held with Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, parties, live podcast recordings, and this year, an artisans’ market.
“It can’t just be all about the movies,” Hernandez said. “We need to provide a variety of events and activities to diversify our offerings. You can get burnt out if you’re just going from movie to movie to movie, but if you’re buffering in between, doing something completely different, that’s a lot of fun. Then you can catch your second wind and go see another movie. It really helps the whole festival experience. We never aspire to be a screening series. We want it to be a full-fledged festival.”
Creating Dedicated Spaces for Women and Queer Horror Fans
In recent years, one of the events has been a mixer for women in the horror community, spearheaded by Potenza and Caryn Coleman, the founder of the organization The Future of Film Is Female. Potenza recalls that the realization that a women-specific event came when she was in the middle of a conversation with another woman during a BHFF happy hour, and a man interrupted them to “explain” the monstrous feminine.
“That felt like a really big sign that we needed our own space—women and queer folk outside of the cis, straight, male-dominated space,” Potenza said. She teamed up with Coleman, and they started to organize happy hours and meetups in the off-festival season.
“Once the festival came, it seemed like a really easy way to add in an event specifically for this particular population of genre fans that clearly love it and attend. The programming staff here seemed down to do it. [There are] so many women and queer folks that are filmmakers and writers or just fans, and we all just hang out. The energy that comes off of that many women and queer folks in one space…I think we could rule the world if we harness that energy for a specific use.”
The Future of Film Is Female and Its Connection to Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
Coleman created The Future of Film Is Female in 2018 as an off-shoot of the Nitehawk Shorts Festival, which she had started in 2013.
“It was born out of all the relationships that I had with the shorts filmmakers from that, of all genders, and particularly out of the 2016 election,” she said. “We opened the 2016 Shorts Festival the day after the election, thinking that it was going to go a very different way. I thought about my position as a film programmer and what I could do to help get marginalized voices heard and seen.”
Coleman also launched a biannual The Future of Film Is Female film series at MoMA, and in 2022, co-curated a 10-week horror film series at MoMA called “Messaging the Monstrous” with Ron Magliosi and Brittany Shaw.
“It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “My whole life was a 10-week horror series that looked at horror films made from 1960 forward, with the premise that horror has meaning. So we did 10 one-week subgenres ranging from eco horror to Women Make Horror to slashers, unpacking the damage or the success that slashers have done in the horror genre. And we had guests come. It was about 115 films in total, features and some short films.”
Coleman’s Role at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
Coleman has been involved with Brooklyn Horror Film Festival for years. She’s been a jurist, a programmer…and was instrumental in bringing the Festival to Nitehawk because at the time, she was Nitehawk’s Director of Programming.
“I’ve known Justin [Timms] for a while, so there’s always been a little bit of crossover,” she said. “Two years ago, I was a programmer for the Festival, and then, with Tori thinking about how to gather the troops in terms of women in horror, and how to create more of a community space for them, both for the festival and then outside of the festival, because I do a lot of horror programming outside of Brooklyn—horror all year round!—and how we can continue to be together and supportive, but also just celebrate films together. That’s the best part about seeing movies: talking about them before and afterwards.”
Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
How Nitehawk Williamsburg Became BHFF’s Home Base
There’s no shortage of audience togetherness at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Everyone interviewed for this article had nothing but glowing accolades for the way that this organization has fostered a strong sense of community among horror fans and creators. One of the ways this is achieved is surprisingly simple: having the Festival centralized in one location. The first Brooklyn Horror Film Festival was spread across multiple venues. Now, thanks to Coleman, it’s held at Nitehawk Williamsburg, an intimate triplex with a lobby bar, as well as a bar on the lower level called Lo-Res.
“The fact that we get to fully be here at Nitehawk is the dream,” Barone said. “This is where you can build a community. People can hang out, have drinks, and talk. It used to be [where] you [had] to see a movie [and] get on a train [to] see the next movie. We’ve evolved now to where we can just do it in one central area [and] neighborhood. It’s the ideal setup.”
A Festival That Feels Like Family
Toby Poser and Zelda Adams, two members of the iconic Adams Family filmmaking team, returned to Brooklyn Horror Film Festival this year to present their latest feature, Mother of Flies. In previous years, their films Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams screened at the Festival. Matriarch Poser says that the venue helps to encourage intimacy and community.
“We have the bar downstair and the bar-slash-lobby upstairs with all the great physical media. It’s like a big horror hug the minute you walk in,” she said. “And it’s so because of this intimacy that you meet everyone, you talk, and it’s just a beautiful thing.”
Adams, Poser’s daughter and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of Mother of Flies (along with John Adams, her father/Poser’s husband), was also excited to return to Festival, especially because of the sense of community at BHFF.
“After our first [time] submitting our film and luckily getting in, we experienced the fantastic community here,” she said. “Everyone loves horror so much and is so supportive, too. And it’s such an intimate theater, so it feels like a special viewing experience. The Q&As are also really kind and exciting, too, and the events they host with Brooklyn Horror are fantastic as well. It’s really great bringing Mother of Flies to the festival today, because I feel like we’ve cultivated even more of a community, and it’s nice because people get to come to the same theater and see how our films have changed so much since our first film here, and maybe how our story has changed and how we’ve grown as filmmakers.”
A Sound Designer’s Love Letter to the Horror Community
Another artist who revels in the community atmosphere of BHFF is sound designer Genna Edwards. She first came to the Festival in 2023 for the premiere of Cannibal Mukbang, which she worked on with writer-director Aimee Kuge, who also serves as BHFF’s Communication’s Manager.
“That was my first time at this festival, and it rocked my fucking world,” Edwards said. “I had never experienced such love and joy. You’re just in a room constantly with other horror freaks. I feel like people who aren’t in the community kind of look at us in a weird way, but when you’re in a room with all these folks who understand what all of this means, it’s just different, and I felt that instantly. Every year, I try to be here because it’s the best and they also program incredible work.”
Year Round Horror Events That Strengthen Community
A major thing that sets Brooklyn Horror apart from other film festivals is that it expands beyond a yearly event, and has become a central knot within the New York City horror community. Hernandez is largely to thank for that. In addition to programming the Festival, he regularly organizes advance screenings for new horror films, always followed by casual get-togethers at nearby bars to talk about the film, make friends, and network.
“I love what we do with the Festival. That is our main event of the year, but I quickly realized that a year in between editions is way too long, and community building is so important to what has gotten Brooklyn Horror to be what it is. There’s no reason why we need to limit that to one week a year,” he said. “So I really wanted to start providing stuff year round to keep the community engaged with each other, to keep it growing. At this point, it’s just been partnering with different studios to get early screenings of new horror films, and then after the screenings, just designate a place where everyone can meet afterwards and talk and catch up with each other, pick apart the film, talk about what’s going on in their lives, and just providing a safe space for the community to look forward to once or twice a month and stay connected.”
Why BHFF Is One of the Warmest Communities in Horror
Genenfeld described the horror community, particularly when it comes to BHFF, as “the warmest community in the film industry.”
“Everyone’s just so welcoming and everybody is really excited to connect, which I feel like is not very often seen,” she said. “So that’s really special about this festival.”
Having a community is vital, no matter who you are or what you’re interested in. For people interested in horror—something that is still misunderstood, maligned, and stigmatized—having a community of likeminded people can be a lifeline. New York has always had horror fans and horror-related events, but according to Barone and Hernandez, there hadn’t really been a solid, consistent community until Brooklyn Horror. BHFF and the off-season events—which have plenty of crossover with The Future of Film Is Female—have facilitated countless friendships and collaborations, not only strengthening the horror community as a whole, but empowering and affirming fans, artists, and writers on an individual level. For Hernandez, it’s helped him become more confident and comfortable going out and meeting people.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival’s Impact on Creativity and Collaboration
For Edwards (and many others), the Festival has been a game changer both socially and professionally.
“You wait all your life to find people who care about the same things you do, especially if those things aren’t normal or socially acceptable, and then I came to this festival, and there were a bunch of other people who were like, ‘Yo, I want to see a decapitation on film. The nastier the better!’ I can finally be myself here and be as out about all of this stuff as I want to be—and people don’t look at you like a freak. They just accept you. And then we all make work together. I’ve worked on so many films with a bunch of the people in this community, and it only seems to keep happening, which I’m so freaking grateful for.”
Pictured above, the crew behind BHFF! Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Returns in 2026
At the time of this writing, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is already hosting an off-season event—an advance screening of Sisu: Road to Revenge with a meet-up at a bar called The High Note. The festival run may have ended, but the organization operates year-round. It fills a need for horror fans. Not just the need for the latest films, but the greater need for solidarity, community, and friendship.
The horror genre may be awash with blood, guts, family tension, psychological distress, aliens, monsters, and human depravity. But the horror community? That’s all heart.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival will return to Nitehawk Cinema October 15 – 22, 2026 ! Early bird discounts are now available for film badges and film submissions!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, the Holiday season has REALLY kicked off. We’ve covered our fair share of Holiday horror from underappreciated gems like Christmas Bloody Christmas and Dial Code Santa Claus to Black Christmas and Krampus! In the hopes of spreading some Holiday cheer (and fear!), the curator of all things Horror Press, James-Michael, has decided to bring the cloven-foot killer that is Krampus into your homes! But this isn’t your ordinary Krampus…this Krampus is chock full of special features and gift wrapped in 4K!
If you haven’t seen Krampus, then what are you doing with your life? For those unfamiliar, Krampus follows a large family gathering of frustrating people who all get snowed in three days before Christmas. One by one, the family gets picked off by Christmas-themed creatures. Sometimes, the holidays truly are killer.
Enter Our Holiday Giveaway!
How to Enter:
Step 1. Make sure to FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM!
Step 2. LIKE the giveaway post!
Step 3. TAG A FRIEND who you think Krampus should visit!
The winner will be announced on Monday, December 15th and notified via direct message. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours, we’ll randomly select another winner.
WHAT YOU’LL WIN
What’s included in Krampus: The Naughty Cut? Let’s unwrap it and look:
- Audio commentary with director/co-writer Michael Dougherty, and co-writers Todd Casey and Zach Shields
- NEW interviews with Michael Dougherty, Visual Effects Artist Richard Taylor, Actors Allison Tolman, David Koechner and Emjay Anthony, Co-Writer/Co-Producer Todd Casey and more…
- Alternate ending
- Deleted/extended scenes
- Gag reel
- Krampus Comes Alive! – Five-part featurette including Dougherty’s Vision, The Naughty Ones: Meet the Cast, Krampus and his Minions, Practical Danger, and Inside the Snowglobe: Production Design
- Behind the scenes at WETA Workshop: Krampus
- And more!
So head over to our Instagram, follow our account, like our giveaway post, and tag a friend who you think Krampus should go visit!
Good luck!
**Giveaway entries are limited to addresses in the United States.**
**All entries must be 18 or older to enter**
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