Wilmington and horror films go way back.
From cheesy cult classics ("Silver Bullet") and reputable thrillers ("I Know What You Did Last Summer") to big-name franchises ("Halloween Kills") and truly terrifying screamers ("The Conjuring"), some of the best-known horror titles of the past 40 years were made in the Port City.
Since 2024, Wilmington has also had its very own horror film festival, and from Oct. 9-11, the third annual First Cut Film Festival will celebrate the horror genre by screening 31 short films from all over the world at Jengo's Playhouse on Princess Street — along with, for the first time, a public launch party at Waterline Brewing downtown.
Since producers anticipate all festival screenings selling out, just like they did its
first two years, they've added a day of "best of" First Cut screenings, called First Cut Gems, 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, at Jengo's, followed by a wrap party at the newly opened Hollywood East Brewseum.
"I can't believe how fast it's grown," First Cut co-founder Marc Bellinger said over coffee at Luna Caffe on Castle Street. "We want to grow it into the biggest horror film festival on the East Coast."
Marc Bellinger and festival co-founder/business manager Christine Golden — who said the festival also sold out all its sponsorship opportunities this year — met while working on the third season of locally shot Starz TV series "Hightown" in 2023. When film and TV production shut down for months following strikes by writers' and actors' unions, they came up with the idea for First Cut Productions and the First Cut Horror Film Festival.
First Cut is now part of Wilmington's cultural landscape of annual film festivals that includes Gutterbliss, the N.C. Black Film Festival, Surfalorus, UpTilt, Silver Pride, the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival, University of North Carolina Wilmington's Reel Teal and Vision film festivals, Cape Fear Community College's International Film Festival and, the granddaddy of them all, the Cucalorus Film Festival.
For First Cut, Bellinger has assembled 31 short films from local, regional, national and international directors. (For the record, Bellinger's go-to horror film is "A Nightmare on Elm Street," while Golden's is 1960 black-and-white classic "13 Ghosts.")
Films with Wilmington connections include "Un-Dead" from Cucalorus co-founder Bo Webb and his son, Mack, of hit Wilmington play "The Varsity Line"; Abby Benson's post-apocalyptic "Soulless Night"; Timothy J. Vandenberg's "MRI," about a haunted MRI machine; Michael Skanes' "Meat," about a wife who takes revenge on her controlling husband; and "Can I Come In?" produced by Collins Abbott White, who directed upcoming Wilmington-shot feature "A Proper Christmas."
Nicholas Noyes' "The Cold Open," about an audition gone wrong, is getting its world premiere at First Cut, while international films in the festival hail from Japan, the UK, Italy, Greece, Spain, Brazil and Bulgaria.
Bellinger noted that the films aren't all straight horror but include dark comedy, sci-fi, suspense and more.
The blocks get darker and gorier as the day goes on, so the noon block might be your best bet if you're a horror wuss.
Audience-voted awards with one-of-a-kind, horror-themed trophies are awarded after each block, and post-screening Q&As will be held with attending filmmakers.
The public launch party Oct. 9 at Waterline Brewing will include live music from Jesse Stockton, Michael Wwav, Mars in Spring and Brooke Renshaw from Oc3ans doing a special, First-Cut-inspired surprise song. Wilmington comic MT Bottles will host, and there will be ticket giveaways in the likely event all screenings are sold out.
Want to go?
- Festival launch party is 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, at Waterline Brewing. $10.
- Festival screenings are noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at Jengo's Playhouse, with social time between each screening. Public after-party in Jengo's backyard.
- First Cut Gems screening is 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, at Jengo's, followed by a wrap party at Hollywood East Brewseum.
- Details and tickets at FirstCutProductionsLLC.com.
John Staton is the arts and culture reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at jstaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Growing Wilmington film festival slices into local horror tradition
