Phoenix FearCon at the 2025 Albuquerque Film Festival


We still are probably sticking to our decision that 2024 will be the final Phoenix FearCon as its own event. Chris and I are more than happy, enjoying being retired from the near-endless treadmill of festival organization. But we still like watching horror films. as last year, we partnered up with the Albuquerque Film Festival to provide them with an evening of horror shorts and features for their opening night. That event will took place in New Mexico this weekend, although for the 2025 edition we aren’t able to attend it ourselves. This time though, we had two feature films selected to screen there, along with a program of shorts.

Details of what’s being screened, along with honorable mentions in the feature category, are below

Feature films

Official selections

The UFO’s of Soesterberg (2023, Netherlands) – In the early morning of February 3, 1979, a mysterious object flew over Soesterberg Air Base. At least twelve soldiers witnessed this. Despite being in the middle of the cold war this event has still remained unexplained. And that is not the only anomalous sighting in that specific part of the Netherlands…

Catch a Killer (2024, USA) – WiNNER, BEST FEATURE A neo-noir thriller featuring Otto and Lex, a pair of star-crossed lovers, who do the right thing but make the wrong decision and it costs them everything. When Otto’s derailed on his way to becoming the city’s youngest detective, he stays in the police business as a bioremediation specialist cleaning up after a serial killer. With an uncanny knowledge of horror films and his natural born instincts, Otto and Lex crack the code to where the killer is going to strike next…now they just gotta catch him. 

Honorable mentions

  • Bawla (2025, India) – A remote countryside becomes the backdrop for a deadly mystery as a determined young woman, with the help of a famous actor, delves into a string of murders, unearthing secrets and betrayals hidden in the shadows.
  • Black Spines (2024, USA) – The film follows Cameron, a high school photographer who investigates a series of murders in his small town. But when mysterious video tapes begin to appear leading Cameron to clues about the killer’s identity, he is forced to reckon with the very terrifying possibility that the killer may be closer than he ever imagined.
  • Chainsaws Were Singing (2024, Estonia) – Adventures await when new lovers get separated by a chainsaw killer. Monty Python meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets… Les Misérables.
    An absolutely bonkers R-rated action-horror-musical-comedy epic
  • The Damnation (2024, Canada) – Developers have helped un-earth a malignant evil that begins not only destroying the environment, but feeding on the blood of locals. Eighteen year old Sarah, along with her cousins Birdie and Jimi, and their friend Wes approach a local talk radio host for his expertise in helping combat the evil that has arisen. 
  • Manor of Darkness (2025, UK) – A desperate group enters a mysterious manor in search of fortune, only to uncover its sinister secrets and face unimaginable horrors.

Short films

  • Black Fog – A mother and daughter trapped in a car in the middle of the woods are being hunted by a mysterious beast.
  • Funny Bunny – On her first night babysitting, a young woman (played by TikTok horror sensation Savanah Moss) becomes increasingly unnerved as the child she’s watching begins losing teeth at an alarming rate.
  • Howl if You Love Me – Boy has girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back, but girl is a werewolf
  • Little Deaths – An experimental anthology of horror comprised of 15 second short films. WINNER, BEST LOCAL SHORT
  • The Five Stages of… – As a husband copes with loss, he soon realizes that things are rapidly going from tragic to worse.
  • How to Cook French Cousin? – A dark comedy that follows a seemingly professional chef as he takes viewers through an elaborate cooking tutorial on French cuisine.
  • The Carvening – When two kids dare to watch a gruesome VHS slasher flick called “The Carvening,” about a violent Jack o’ Lantern killer, it hits a little too close to home.
  • Briefcase – A jogger encounters a masked stranger in the woods, who insists she looks inside his briefcase.
  • Starver – An empty stomach will change a man…
  • Vivir – In her darkest moment, a despairing Latina artist at the end of her rope considers ending it all. However, she crosses paths with a mysterious and immortal vampire that offers her a new perspective.
  • Terminus – When his car’s voice-activated GPS begins to take on a more self-aware persona, things takes a dark turn, probing the intricacies of Gary’s strained marriage and planting seeds of violent ideas. WINNER, BEST OVERSEAS SHORT
  • Into the Reds Tale – An abomination mimic creature enters the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and disguises itself as her, tricking the Big Bad Wolf into walking into a trap. WINNER, BEST SHORT
  • They Come Home to Die – 10 years into the pandemic, Zeke makes a documentary about life in quarantine with Mom.
  • Skin Deep – A self-promoting influencer inadvertently conjures an evil version of herself.

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