‘The Heretiks’: Our Halloween-Set Horror Movie to World Premiere at Fantastic Fest!

Well, this is a pretty exciting day for us.

The Heretiks, the first feature film produced under our new Be Afraid banner, will officially have its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest, taking place September 17-24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas.

Even cooler, The Heretiks has been selected for the festival’s Horror Competition, where it will compete for Best Picture and Best Director.

For the better part of 25 years, I’ve lived and breathed horror. I started my first horror website when I was 20 years old because I was a fan, and that’s still who I am today. That passion has taken me places I never could have imagined, from co-creating and producing the V/H/S franchise to producing films including Southbound and Terrifier 3.

But I eventually found myself wanting to get back to the reason I started doing this in the first place. I wanted the freedom to create weird shit, take risks, and make things specifically for horror fans.

That’s a huge part of why we built Be Afraid, the parent company behind Dread Central and our growing slate of horror projects, including our return to film production.

And The Heretiks is where we’re starting.

Directed by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead, SiREN, “Dante the Great” from V/H/S: Viral), The Heretiks is a Halloween-set home invasion horror film about Cai (Kimberly Epstein), a renegade witch who must protect sisters Ada (Josie Wert) and Mabel (Ava Mae Seidensticker) and their friend Wesley (Luke Speakman, Weapons) from her former coven, led by the sadistic Neve (Tess Williams), who plans to sacrifice Mabel on Halloween night and bring about the end times.