HorrorHound Film Festival

 Just got this... my rebuttal after the rejection letter:

"

Dear Erik D., Thank you for submitting your project Flatdog to the Fall 2026 HorrorHound Film Festival. After careful review by our panel of judges, we are unable to include your project in this fall's festival lineup. Each season, we receive far more submissions than we have room to program, making the final selection process incredibly competitive. We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to experience your work and thank you for trusting us with it. Occasionally, a selected project must withdraw from the festival. Should a programming slot become available, we may contact you to see if your project is still available. Please note that we are only able to fill openings with projects that remain eligible and have not been withdrawn from consideration. Thank you again for sharing your work with us. We truly appreciate your support of HorrorHound Film Festival and hope you'll consider submitting future projects. We wish you continued success and all the best on your creative journey. Sincerely, R. Zoe Judd Executive Director HorrorHound Film Festival Flatdog Not Selected Project was not selected to be included in festival. You can contact Fall HorrorHound Film Festival by replying to this email or sending an email to rzoe@horrorhound.com.

Okay, so... this is weird.

Apparently, I submitted my 2008 (which I heavily re-wrote in 2015, just before pitching it at my first PitchFest that summer) screenplay Flatdog to HorrorHound.

I am guessing that was entirely by accident.

How did I determine that this was accidental?

Because in all my record keeping (and my record keeping is precise) I had written down that I'd submitted Personal Demons to HorrorHound.

Which is interesting for a number of reasons.

First, I was getting rather depressed and somewhat anxious that perhaps Personal Demons' winning streak was over (it's had 4 rejections thus far in 2026; If I'd submitted Personal Demons to HorrorHound, and it hadn't been selected, this would have been its 5th rejection in 7 months). 

However, I maintain that, if I'd submitted Personal Demons, as intended, I probably would have placed somewhere, if not been an "Official Selection" at HorrorHound.

This is also interesting because, lately, I have thought about submitting Flatdog to some film fests and screenplay competitions. After all, I am running out of places I haven't submitted Personal Demons to. Furthermore, I was so proud of the re-write I had done on it in 2015. However, this latest rejection tells me that, well, maybe hold off on wasting a bunch of money on film fest submissions for Flatdog. It may not be ready just yet. 

But who knows. I may submit it to a few places just because. 

But now I want to talk about horror cons that have their own film fest.

The horror con I've gone to the most (Days of the Dead) has (or had... I honestly don't know) a film fest. I submitted Personal Demons in 2023 and got an Honorable Mention.

Now, HorrorHound is both a magazine and a horror con (that's always in Ohio... one of those cities whose name starts with a "C"... I dunno). 

Their magazine I think I bought one issue of it once... but never really read it.

And their con... apart from sometimes being jealous that their line-up is pretty sweet (they do tend to get a large concentration of big name guests), I've never had much desire to go. Often their "big name" guests are either people I've met before (like Peter Weller, who wound up cancelling), people I've been desperate to meet (like Nancy Allen... who wound up cancelling), people I've met a million times (like Pauly Shore, Heather Langenkamp, Melinda Clarke, etc.) and people who never do cons and whom I am desperate to meet (like Lisa Schrage from Prom Night II: Hello, Mary Lou... and Brian Yuzna!... who has not left my list of top 3 favorite directors since I saw Return of the Living Dead 3 when I was 14 years old). 

Anyhow, in March of 2024 my buddy and I went to the Chicago  Days of the Dead. It was a Hellraiser reunion and Clive Barker (!) was there on his con farewell tour before he sequestered himself at home to write.

The professional photo op Barker and I took is below. Everyone (including Doug Bradley) got a kick out of my Monster Squad-esque shirt, re-written in adoration for Barker instead of Stephen King.  

That was the same weekend that HorrorHound had Brian Yuzna.

Now, it was a no-brainer for me. Sure, I would have loved to gush at Brian Yuzna for nearly an hour and tell him how much his oeuvre has inspired and influenced my work. 

But I couldn't pass up the chance to meet one of my favorite authors, filmmakers, painters and just all-around amazing human beings (Barker). 

Anyhow, I was in line to get some stuff autographed by Barker when a guy came barrelling into the con (it was also snowing outside and about 20 degrees or lower... my kind of March weather!) and told everyone that he had just come from HorrorHound (I guess he went there for Friday and then drove into Chicago early Saturday). 

Anyhow, all he could talk about was how inept and unorganized HorrorHound Weekend was and how this con (Days of the Dead... the con we were at) was the best con to attend, because of its organization, its smooth running mechanics, and the way the con owners treat their volunteers and their celebs.  

I'm not talking trash on HorrorHound (please remember, it was that guy who rushed from one con to the other who made these statements about each con, not me), but it's interesting information to note.

If the HorrorHound film fest is still around next year I will most definitely submit Personal Demons to them. And if it doesn't at least place, or get an Honorable Mention... then I might have some unkind words for HorrorHound.

Until then...