‘Haunted’ Morecambe pub to host town’s first ever horror film festival

Morecambe’s first ever Horror Festival comes to “one of the most haunted venues in the UK” next month.

The Park Hotel will host the Haunted House Fear Fest - a celebration of independent horror films from around the world - where attendees can even stay over for the night.

The festival, the first of its kind in Morecambe, will feature screenings of horror films - from supernatural to comedy, via zombies, sci-fi, found footage and documentaries - as well as talks and Q&As with filmmakers.

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The event has been organised by actor and filmmaker Anthony Straeger, who also runs the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest.

Anthony Straeger - festival director. Photo by W StephensonAnthony Straeger - festival director. Photo by W Stephenson
Anthony Straeger - festival director. Photo by W Stephenson

He said: “The first feature film I made was a horror entitled; Call of the Hunter, a mystical, historical story set to the backdrop of the story of Herne the Hunter.

“It was through Call of the Hunter that I worked with Martin Shenton, the proprietor of The Park Hotel, in Regent Road. The venue has featured on ‘Quest Red’ as one of the most haunted venues in the UK; and the festival came about after a conversation with Martin. As I was already running a festival in Berlin, he thought that it would be an excellent idea to put a Horror Festival on. I agreed and thus the seeds of the festival grew.”

The festival will take place between October 25 and 27, the weekend the clocks go back.

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Anthony said the aim of Haunted House FearFest is about grass-roots independent filmmaking and celebrating the fun of bone-chilling horror.

“We aim to create a horrible good weekend of tension,” he said.

“Through my experience with the Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest, I beleive it is important to have the filmmakers there to connect with the audience and be able to talk about the hows, whats and whys of making their film.

“So we will hold Q&A sessions at the end of each screening block with filmmakers that attend. Additionally we will have two Round Table Sessions where public and filmmakers can discuss what it takes to make, write and get a film completed. We are also running an Audience Award where the attendees can vote for their favourite films.”

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The event has gained some support from Morecambe charity West End Million.

Tickets, priced £20, for a total of 12 screenings that start at 6pm on Friday October 25 and end at midnight on October 27, are available from www.hauntedhousefearfest.com/festival-tickets/elect.

Each Day we will have a draw to win one of the exclusively designed Haunted House T-shirts.

We have been lucky to secure some support from West End Millions and this has certainly helped in gaining awareness of the festival and Morecambe Visitor Information Centre has added us to their What’s Happening page. We decided that the price of admission should be low, and make it as accessible as possible, our Early Bird tickets are still available up to 13th September and a meagre price of £20 for a total of 12 screening sessions that start at 6pm on Friday 25th October and end at Midnight on Sunday 27th October. You can s by going to https://

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