Join us for 12 hours of creepy fun - noon to midnight at Smitty's Cinema!

NOTE: Our rating system is only a suggestion made by SIFF staff to help families make the best decision about which films they should watch. All films are officially unrated. Please familiarize yourself with the programming before sending your children to the theater for SIFF2017.

12:00 PM
The Fear Installation (14 minutes)
Portugal (ages 13+)

A woman, alone at home, answers the doorbell. Two men are on the other side. They've come to install fear.

Directed by Ricardo Leite.

12:15 PM
Life is Horrible (21 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

A horror-comedy anthology filled with ordinary folks coming face-to-face with the extraordinary. Maybe even... the supernatural.

Directed by Rachel Zhou.

12:40 PM
Hada (9 minutes)
Spain (ages 13+)

Tonight, Daniel is frightened. He has lost the last of his baby teeth, so Hada is coming to visit. What Daniel doesn't expect is that his worst enemy is the light.

Directed by Tony Morales.

12:50 PM
Earworm  (5 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

Oh, the things that get stuck in our heads. When a reclusive man is repeatedly woken up over the course of a night by severe headaches, accompanied by musical repetition from an unknown source, his sanity swiftly begins to unravel.

Directed by Tara Price.

Nominated for Best Sound, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Actor (Ernest L. Thomas), and Best Horror Film.

12:55PM
The Hag: Bloodline (35 minutes)
Canada (ages 13+)

A young woman relives the horrors once experienced by her mother as she struggles with depression, sleep paralysis, and a night terror known as the Old Hag.

Directed by Chris Borgo.

Nominated for Best Music and Best Cinematography.

1:30 PM
Riven (9 minutes)
Netherlands (ages 13+)

A young barmaid discovers a peculiar mirror in the attic of a derelict bar. Curious, she wipes off the dirt and slowly realizes this mirror reveals far more than just her reflection...

Directed by Sjoerd de Bont.

​1:40 PM
A Father's Day (10 minutes)
United Kingdom (ages 13+)

Unexpectedly reunited with his daughter amongst the ruins of the world as they knew it, a father is determined to make this day special, even if they're already dead.

Directed by Mat Johns.

Nominated for Best Special Visual Effects, Best Horror Film, and SIFF Audience Award.

1:50 PM
Sad Face (20 minutes)
Ukraine (ages 13+)

A new law mandating happiness has just taken effect. Now, despite intolerable living conditions, it is everyone’s duty to smile and be happy. A dissident is brought in by the authorities for an interrogation that turns into a philosophical battle of wills​.

Directed by Roman Kirichenko.

2:10 PM
Only the Beautiful (11 minutes)
Australia (ages 13+)

Loosely based on John B Calhoun’s mice utopia experiment known as “the beautiful ones,” this short science futurism film follows Harold, the child of a rigid, isolating, humanity-preserving metropolitan ecosystem, who has to decide whether to act freely and imperil the system, or to sit still and condemn humanity to cyclical stagnation.  

Directed by Samuel Lucas Allen.

2:25 PM
Hangman (14 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

Nicholas hasn't taken his medication. After a failed suicide attempt, he finds himself stalked by his doppelgänger, who encourages him to finish the job.

Directed by Joseph Colby Doler.

​Nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.

2:39 PM
Daily Commute (1 minute)
United States (ages 13+)

Public transport sucks. Daily Commute is a traditional hand-drawn animation that shows the relationship between the grotesque public transport passengers and the complacent, passive riders among them.

Directed by Scott Palzzo.

Nominated for Best Animated Film.

2:40 PM
Chateau Sauvignon: terroir (13 minutes)
United States (ages 16+)

The isolated adolescent son of a storied vintner family finds himself torn between obeying his father’s callous restrictions and preventing his ailing mother from deteriorating further. When a doting woman and her indifferent son arrive seeking a tasting and tour of the winery, Nicolas sees an opportunity to help care for his mother, as well as prove his worth to his choleric father.

Directed by David E. Munz-Maire.

2:55 PM
Rent-a-Zombie (4 minutes)
(You'll) Be Mine (4 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

Two films by director Brian Ryu.

A robbery victim hires a zombie to get her revenge.
 and
When a girl realizes that the boy of her dreams already has a girlfriend, she uses her witch powers to get him for herself.

3:05 PM
The Pursuit (8 minutes)
Czech Republic (ages 13+)

​A dialogue-free short film about two siblings with a sick parent, a town beset by plague, and false accusations of sorcery. A period story from the late 17th century, dealing with the fear of the unknown​.    

Directed by Ruy Okamura.

Nominated for Best Sound.

3:15 PM
Rainy Season (21 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

Based on the Stephen King short story. When a young couple arrives in the small town of Willow, Maine they are warned to leave. They ignore the warnings and learn the horrific price the town must pay for prosperity. The Rainy Season has come back to Willow and when it rains... they pour.

Directed by Vanessa Ionta Wright.

3:40 PM
The Scarecrow (3 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

A farmer has something buried beneath his scarecrow. Over time, its features become more human. His days and nights are plagued by sourceless sounds and maddening visions. Soon his entire concept of reality and fiction blur.

Directed by Leah Pollack.

3:45 PM
Town I Call Home (34 minutes)
United States - MAINE (ages 13+)

Three city-dwelling friends travel to a desolate town in Maine in search of a change of pace. Upon arriving, they discover that the quaint, small-town life has an unnatural grasp on the residents, and when they find themselves marooned, it's all they can do to keep their sanity and resist the temptation of Vacationland.

Directed by Jamie Gagnon.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Acting Ensemble and Best Maine Film.

4:30 PM
Planchette (7 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

A carefully-planned Halloween party takes a dark turn when the guests discover Ouija is more than just a game.

Directed by Pete Yagmin.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

​Nominated for Best Sound.

4:40 PM
Strange Harvest (6 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

Two strangers wake up in mysterious and slimy circumstances, unable to move, and with no memory of how they got there.

Directed by Stee McMorris.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Special Visual Effects and SIFF Audience Award.

4:50 PM
Everything is Allowed (18 minutes)
France (ages 16+)

Two children reenact a surreal game show where the "contestants" are tortured at the demand of the audience. Their game steadily escalates, ultimately reaching a devastating climax.

Directed by Anaïs Girard-Blanc.

Nominated for Best Acting Duo (Paolo Busolin and Louna Jouany), Best Director (Anaïs Girard-Blanc), Best International Film, and Best Short Film.

5:10 PM
The Second Life (36 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

An unstable man tells the story of his reincarnated second life, the love he finds and cannot hold on to, and the psychosis that then overtakes him. From the story by 19th century Brazilian author Machado de Assis.

Directed by Pedro Pimentel.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Music, Best Screenplay, Best Acting Ensemble, and Best Actor (William Galatis). 

5:45 PM
SIFF Filmmakers Forum: Making Independent Films in New England

Terry Garmey & Associates Presents:
6:30 PM
White Drift (21 minutes)
United States - MAINE (ages 13+)

Peter, a war-torn veteran, arrives in a small Maine town searching for a lost friend. When a local waitress takes an interest in him, she soon realizes that he's battling more than just PTSD...

Directed by Corey Norman.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Actor (Sean Carmichael), Best Director (Corey Norman), Best Horror Film, and Best Maine Film.

7:00 PM
Damnationland 2017 (120 minutes)
United States - MAINE (ages 18+)

SIFF presents a special encore screening of Damnationland 2017. Now in its eighth year, the program features world premieres of five short films produced in Maine by Mainers, especially for the Halloween season. These are dark, surreal, and fantastic pieces, and they offer film fans an excellent sampling of the talent producing independent film in Maine today.

This year’s crop of Maine-based talent includes short features by Mackenzie Bartlett, Tadin Brown, Alexander Balzano & Ellis Ducharme, Alex Steed, and Charlotte Warren, with interstitial segments by Derek R. Brigham, Julia Haltof, Stacey Koloski, Shannon Meserve, Melissa Salmi, and Clark Shepard.

9:00 PM
Night of the Living Dead
​(plus zombie makeup contest winners, 120 minutes)
United States (ages 13+)

The late George Romero's (1940-2017) zombie classic from 1968 in a special HD presentation!

When radiation unexpectedly raises the dead, a collection of average citizens have to battle flesh-eating zombies to survive in this landmark horror film. They're coming to get you, Barbara!

Followed by a presentation of winners of our SIFF Zombie Makeup Contest!

11:00 PM
Dark Roast (20 minutes)
United States (ages 16+)

Two bandmates stuck serving coffee on Halloween need to kill time before their biggest show yet. Too bad for them time isn't the only thing being killed.

Directed by Topher Hansson​.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Special Visual Effects and SIFF Audience Award.

11:20 PM
Postpartum (24 minutes)
United States (ages 16+)

Claiming she was instructed by the devil to kill her children, Alice is committed to a state mental facility. She sees her dead children in her dreams and in reality, and can no longer differentiate between the two. And the staff has learned that Alice has been concealing a secret - she's pregnant.​

Directed by Richard Bakewell​.

​*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.

Nominated for Best Editing, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Director (Richard Bakewell), and Best Horror Film.

11:45 PM
A Peculiar Thud (13 minutes)
United States - MAINE (ages 13+)

Billy wakes up in the middle of the night to find a man at his door who wants to come in – and he won’t take no for an answer.

Directed by Ross Morin.

*Filmmakers plan to be in attendance.​

​Nominated for Best Horror Film.

SIFF Saturday Oct. 21 ->