Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

When Jeff Meyer was six years old, his parents took him to a drive-in theater to see the classic R-rated horror flick, “Alien.” He’s been hooked on horror movies ever since then, and now hosts an annual film festival for horror fans in central New York.

“(The festival is) an opportunity to make people happy,” Meyer said. “Now they have an opportunity to go to a theater and see the way it was supposed to be seen when the film was released initially in theaters.”

This year’s Syracuse International Film Festival Horror Fest was held on Saturday at the Palace Theatre and featured six movies projected in their original 35-millimeter format. Fans drove from hours away – some with their kids – to enjoy old, scary movies on the big screen as Halloween approaches.

Meyer and his friends started hosting horror film festivals back in 2005 in honor of their friend Shaun Luu, who died from cancer. As a nod to Luu’s love for horror movies, they hosted the film festival to raise money for the American Cancer Society and Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. It later evolved to become the Salt City Horror Fest.

Last year, Meyers and the other festival organizers started hosting the event in collaboration with SIFF, After Dark Events and Reckless Cinema. Through the years, the festival has become part of the upstate New York horror community, Meyer said.

“I like movies and I like to keep things going for the people that are into this stuff,” Meyer said. “There aren’t other people in Syracuse that are doing it.”

Like Meyer, attendee Jessica Morgan started watching horror movies at a young age. She grew up watching horror films and attending horror events in Texas with her father, but now in central New York, she attends them alone to keep the tradition going.

“It’s one of my favorite things, just seeing what the next greatest kill that someone can come up with, and just the creativity behind it too,” Morgan said.

One of the vendors at the festival, The Artist J.P., sells prints inspired by classic horror films. He met Meyer in 2015 and has sold his work at Meyer’s horror festivals ever since.

Through his work, J.P. has met people involved with horror’s most iconic moments. After he designed a poster for an event about “The Walking Dead,” he met one of the show’s writers. Meeting people like that gives him a new perspective on the films and a greater sense of the depth of their creativity, he said.

Michelle DiBernardo, executive director and president of SIFF, said one of the main attractions of the festival are the movies shown in their original 35 millimeter format.

Before films were shot digitally, they were shot on large film reels and played through a projector. The Palace Theater still has the equipment to play movies in that original format, and horror movie fans love it, DiBernardo said.

Aaron Hammer | Contributing Photographer

An original print of “Friday the 13th.” All movies shown at the festival were displayed by 35mm film projectors.

Central New Yorkers also flock to Syracuse for horror because the city is a filming location for some popular, low-budget “B movie” horror films, DiBernardo said, including “Brainhunter: New Breed 1987” and “Graveyard Shark.”

“The horror cult following is a different breed,” DiBernardo said. “Talking with a lot of the attendees there, they’re like, ‘We don’t care. We’ll watch anything.’”

For Morgan, Saturday was the first time she had attended an event that included just films and small vendors, without big convention-style components like cosplay. She usually attends Texas Frightmare Weekend, the Houston Horror Film Fest and other local events in Texas.

At events like Horror Fest, J.P. enjoys interacting with other horror fans and said the community is a group of “sweethearts.” Fans know a lot about the movies they love, and subsequently have specific interests and requests for his art, he said.

Aaron Hammer | Contributing Photographer

SIFF welcomed Syracuse-based filmmaker and writer Ryan Dacko. He hosted a trivia session and handed out a signed copy of his book.

“As much as I think I might know about some of these films, I always encounter someone that knows a bit more,” J.P. said.

Morgan said the horror community is the same all over the country, whether in her home state of Texas or here in Syracuse. At every horror fan event she has attended, the attendees treat each other with the same kindness. She hopes to attend more events like this one in the central New York area.

“You’d think, because of what we like, being in the horror community, we’d be a little bit more shy or keep to ourselves,” Morgan said. “But actually, sometimes it’s quite the opposite and a lot of my dearest friends are from that community.”

Published on September 15, 2024 at 11:53 pm