Students shot and submitted their spookiest short films to the fourth annual Halloween Spooktacular film festival on Oct. 30.
Contestants, faculty and friends donned their Halloween costumes and gathered in the West Campus Central Building to attend the viewing from 8-10 p.m.
According to the BYU Spooktacular submission site, participating films had to adhere to the festival theme and relate to Halloween, autumn, horror, mystery or thrillers. Despite the theme, each of the 23 films was distinct — some were barely two minutes, some took the full six minutes allotted by the festival; some toed the line between horror and comedy, while others focused on building suspense.
Grace Nielsen attended the event to support her brother. She remarked that it was interesting to see different perspectives on what was scary.
“I'm someone who loves scary movies and stuff. There were some like, ‘I don't see how that's scary,’ and some like, ‘Oh, that was actually really good. I love how they did that,’” Nielsen said.
Student director Giovanna Unda took a more sentimental spin on the festival’s theme. Unda is from Chile, where Halloween isn’t as big as it is in the U.S., but she still wanted to participate.
“I always wanted to submit something,” Unda said. “It's so hard to make a movie, and I think (the other students) have so much talent. I thought, well, maybe someday I'm gonna make something.”
So, during her first semester in the film program, Unda decided to enter the Spooktacular festival. She and the film's writer, Edgar Flores, took inspiration from Día de los Muertos for their film, “Oh, María.” The short film follows Humberto, a man mourning his lover who died in an accident. During Día de los Muertos, the deceased Maria returns from the dead to join him for a final dance in their kitchen.
“We wanted to show how, in this season for us, it's not just like parties. It's also to remember the people who are important to us,” Unda said. “Even if they are not with us anymore, we can still remember them.”
After the film screenings, audience members voted for their three favorite films via QR code. Then it was time for the festival’s awards to be announced. Even the awards were on theme with titles like: “Looks That Kill” for best hair and makeup, “Siren’s Song” for best sound design and “I Have Been Framed” for best cinematography.
To Unda’s surprise, her film won two awards: one for hair and makeup, the other for the best male actor.
“I think everybody should try to participate in a film festival, because it's a great experience when you are making the film, but also when you can see the results and how people react to it,” Unda said. “I think it's a great opportunity for students to have validation on their ideas and what they do, and also to get to know more people and work in something they love.”
The last award to be announced was the titular “Spooktacular Award” for best picture, which went to Elijah Smith’s “WE HURT.”
“WE HURT” is a chilling film about dark masked figures, Smith calls the “mind soothers,” who clear the minds of sleeping people. The mind soothers become increasingly upset when people keep them from their work by staying awake late into the night, and take matters into their own hands.
“When the person was awake, they would just disappear, or then there would suddenly be multiple of them, and it was always kind of ominous,” Nielsen said. “(It was) kind of connected to the college life of not sleeping.”
The Spooktacular was Smith’s first time submitting a film to any festival, and he appreciated the support and access to equipment he was able to get through BYU.
“BYU has so many great resources available, both for students in the film program and out of the film program,” Smith said. “For me, the hardest part of it has been getting people to come help, so to the dozen people who are listed in the credits, I am so thankful for their involvement in this.”
When the awards were announced, students took to the lobby to congratulate each other and take photos with their costumes in preparation for Halloween the next day.