Screamfest 2026 Opens 10-Day Hollywood Run With ‘The Night Driver’ World Premiere

Hollywood Boulevard got its annual horror makeover this week. The 26th Screamfest Horror Film Festival — the self-described largest and longest-running horror festival in the United States — opened Tuesday evening at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres with a world premiere that has festival pedigree written all over it.

HOLLYWOOD — The festival launched at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 6, with the world premiere of The Night Driver, according to MyNewsLA, which reported that an opening-night red carpet ran from 5:30 to 7:20 p.m. at the venue at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. The screening is the directorial debut of Jeremy Weiss, working from a script by John Cork, and it arrived with serious genre credibility: Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham is an executive producer, per Heart of Hollywood Magazine.

The film itself is a road-stalker thriller. Lucas plays Hurdis Jones, a traveling pharmaceutical salesman trying to get home to his wife, Cheryl, after surviving an encounter with a violent stranger — only for the stranger to follow him across the country as Jones is framed in a series of killings, according to festival organizers cited by MyNewsLA. Milano plays Cheryl Jones, while Arquette portrays Detective Hank Granger, who is asked to help find Jones and prove his innocence. Milano, Arquette, Jacob Lynn, Danielle Vasinova, and Charlotte Kirk were all expected at the opening-night red carpet.

The 10-day run through October 15 is built the way Screamfest has always built them: premieres, and lots of them. Organizers told MyNewsLA the final lineup includes 13 world premieres, eight North American premieres, one international premiere, one U.S. premiere, and five West Coast premieres — plus the usual mix of feature and short films, filmmaker Q&As, special events, and industry programming. The first wave of programming, announced in September and covered by Dread Central and Horror Society, had already set the tone with world premieres including The Caged (directed by Jeffrey Scott Collins, starring Edmund Kingsley), Grow (Brian Gottlieb, with Annet Mahendru), Wounds (Ron Krauss, starring Jack Kilmer and Paris Jackson), the Los Angeles premiere of Serena (Rob Alicea, starring Andi Matichak), and the North American premiere of Slay (Kyra Gardner, with Zoey Luna, Aya Cash, and Shawnee Smith).

The festival’s honor roll this year centers on one of horror’s most distinctive visual artists. Screamfest will present its Career Achievement Award to cinematographer Peter Deming, ASC, whose credits run from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks — the latter earning him an Emmy nomination in 2018 for the episode “Part 8” — to Evil Dead II, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Drag Me to Hell, The Cabin in the Woods, and The Menu, per the festival’s announcement. It is the kind of award that signals what Screamfest thinks of itself: a festival where craft people are the stars.

The special programming fills out a classic October calendar. Filmmaker Michael Dougherty is scheduled to attend a special screening of his 2007 horror anthology Trick ‘r Treat, preceded by a 4K restoration of his 2003 animated short Season’s Greetings, followed by a Q&A with Dougherty — a package that doubles as a history lesson in modern Halloween cinema. Industry Days are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, with panels, mentorship opportunities, and networking events for filmmakers, executives, producers, and distributors. And in partnership with Ovation Hollywood, the festival will host a free outdoor screening of the 1984 classic Ghostbusters.

It all builds to the closing night on October 15: Christmas at the Kringles, directed by Kevin Lewis and starring Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, Rob Riggle, Thomas Lennon, Arden Myrin, Donald Faison, Beverly D’Angelo, and David Wain — a holiday-comedy swing that keeps the festival’s closing slot feeling like a party rather than a wake. Founded in 2001 by producer Rachel Belofsky, the nonprofit festival has spent 26 years showcasing horror and science-fiction filmmakers and screenwriters, and the New York Times wrote that it was among its “5 Halloween Festivals Worth Traveling For.” If you’re looking for something scary to watch this month, our October horror streaming guide has 29 picks, and Mike Flanagan’s new Exorcist: Martyrs teaser is already fueling the season’s biggest horror conversation.

Tickets are available for individual screenings, with festival badges for the full 10-day run. Opening and closing events typically sell out, so buying in advance is the move — especially if you want to be in the room for the earliest word on the next wave of indie horror.