Horror film festival set to debut at Historic Howell Theater

The Pest Control Film Festival is shining its spotlight on horror filmmakers in what it hopes to be an annual celebration of independent horror cinema.

Set for noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Historic Howell Theater, the festival will feature a diverse lineup of films — produced both locally and and from around the world — that celebrate the “creepy, bizarre, and just plain weird.”

Attendees will be able to choose from three film blocks for $10 each. Each block will feature three short films and one feature length.

Horror film lovers can also attend all three film blocks for $20.

“Our goal is to bring together a community of filmmakers and movie lovers,” said Jack Pratt, co-founder of Pest Control Film Collective. “Our goal is to support independent voices in the film industry, and give them. Platform to share their stories with a wider audience.”

Block 1 (noon to 2:30 p.m.):
• A ghastly graveyard shift.
• An overachiever confronted by a hammer-wielding assailant.
• A young man trapped in a maze of psychopaths.
• Past crimes, revenge, and obsessive love collide.

Block 2 (3-5:30 p.m.):
• A neurotic man teams up with a reckless veteran for revenge.
• Robbed, shot, and left for dead, Lizzy just wants her keys.
• A titillating tapestry of balloon-oriented entertainment.
• A mythical book that unlocks new choices.

Block 3 (6-8 p.m.):
• A paranormal investigation at an abandoned psych ward.
• A filmmaker documents his own subtropical parasitic disease.
• The last survivors of a lost culture seek spiritual bonds in a hellish reality show.
• Eight souls infected by a mind-controlling, eldritch STI.

Pest Control Film Festival is a Michigan-based festival committed to screening the horrific, the bizarre, the esoteric, and all other disquieting cinematic sub-genres. Our brand has a wide range suited for equally wide reach: traditional horror, B-movie schlock, experimental oddities, grind-house glory, animated aberrations, and the like.