If anyone's 6th sense is tingling, it's because the Eerie Horror Fest has been open since Wednesday. Eerie Horror Fest features plenty of fun vendors and insightful workshops-- but the main events of the ghastly extravaganza is movies. Short films, classic films, new features, horror movies that are all the rage and ones you've never heard of before.

One competition at the horror fest is pulling back the curtain on a pivotal moment in a movie's making- the pitch.

 

"We are here for a pitch competition for a screenplay," said William Davis, a co-screenplay writer with Kyle Wilson who both participated in the pitch competition. "We are both screenplay writers and we have a feature screenplay that we will be pitching in front of the judges."

6 finalists got the chance to impress panel judges from across the country in Eerie Horror Fest's pitch competition

"A nighttime security guard goes to see a trespasser and finds out its paranormal," said Wilson.

"A group of friends take a trip into the mountains to reconnect, and they cross the threshold into myth, madness, and monsters," said Lee Copeland, another pitch competitor.

"It's called the tale of Nick Stalker, and its about what happens when someone starts stalking you and that kind of becomes your reality," said Katie Nixon, an actress making her first pitch for the competition.

Contestants swallowed their nerves and faced judges and a hefty audience on Thursday night.

At stake? The chance to work with a production company and get their script industry ready.

"The group Bloodoath, we're going to work on the script together.," said Aaron Koontz, one of the members of the production company Bloodoath, who also is a panel judge for the pitch competition. "We're going to develop it, read it, give detailed notes, go through the viability of how it could potentially be made. And even go through the process of potentially doing something with Bloodoath. If we really get really excited about it, we could want to make the film ourselves."

Competitions like this highlight Erie as a city with opportunities.

"As a young women in Erie, I left to go to L.A. because there were no chances like this. There were no festivals," said Jackie George, an judge on the pitch competition panel. "And so the fact we are bringing this to Erie, and we are getting film makers not only from around the country but from around the world submitting to us... I think it's really important Erie film makers know about this festival and that it's a real deal."

Lauren Pruitt won the pitch competition with her screenplay Queen of the Night, a female lead revenge vampire story.

 

 

There are plenty of other festivities taking place during the fest, from mask making workshops, to screenings of short and feature films, to a plethora of vendors all squeezed into the main lobby of the stately Warner Theater.

"It's very nice, it's a lot of character. I think character is the best way to qualify it. It's almost like the Overlook Hotel," said Davis.

"The Warner is such a perfect place for it, even how the architecture almost interacts with all the different booths," said Nixon. "It's almost like a movie set. People have all their props in there as it is right now."

"It's celebrating the genre, because the genre has a lot to offer." said Davis.

"It doesn't have to be slasher and guts. It can be psychological, it can be drama, it can be social," Wilson followed up with.

"People who don't watch horror might be surprised at how close the horror community is," said Brad Thompson, another pitch contestant and Erie local. "And how helpful they can be and how kind most of them are."

"Walking through the hall last night, it was one person after another that I knew and stopped to talk to. It took a while to get to my seat," said Copeland.

"This for Erie is such a cool opportunity to bring more business to Erie, to bring more jobs to Erie as far as future film makers, and to establish Erie as a city that you can survive as an artist here."

So if you have any free time this weekend- and like a good scare...

"Come watch movies with us!" said Nixon. "It's a whole weekend of watching movies and hanging out and enjoying vendors from all over the city and county, and just come enjoy movies with us, and eat some popcorn."