The Halloween Horror Picture Show came to life early in 2003. Rick Danford, a local Horror Filmmaker had been doing another Festival in St. Pete with his former partners from Renegade Films called, 'The Saint's & Sinners Film Festival'. That festival featured every genre and was quite successful. But when Renegade Films went their own ways, Rick decided to start something up all by himself and he wanted to focus on the Horror genre.

 

The first year the event was held at the Pinellas Expo Center in St. Pete where it combined with a huge Haunted House to give the horror fans the best of both worlds. In 2004 the HHPS event moved to USF for the 2004 and 2005 shows utilizing the state of the art screening rooms the facility had to offer. Rodrick Colbert worked hand in hand with Rick to make this happen. 

 

In 2006 the event moved to the Historic Cuban Club in Ybor City where several vendors were secured to come in and sell movie related items and the hug and beautiful theater gave the best atmosphere for the films and the filmmakers. In 2007 Rick took his show to Channelside Cinemas and turned it into a 2-day extravaganza. Scream Queen Tiffany Shepis and Troma alum Trent Haaga flew in to be part of the fun. Local 80's cover band Rubik Cubed performed out front with fans and celebs doing karaoke to their favorite 80's tunes while inside Steven Shea's own Sterling Schroeder performed for the fans gathered. 

 

And then in 2008 it was moved to the Historic Beach Theater in St. Pete. There another 2-day event played out with a sold out performance by The Funeral Dazies and a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show along with a Shadow Cast.

 

But running a Film Festival is a very tiring and time consuming undertaking so Rick decided to take a break and focused his efforts on other things in life. But his love of movies and especially of networking with like minded filmmakers and offering them their 15 minutes of fame by screening their films came back to the forefront.

 

So in 2013 The Halloween Horror Picture was back! Hosted at the Independent Film friendly confines of The Tampa Pitcher Show the event returned to a very receptive audience. We featured the Florida Premiere of the feature length horror film, Resurrecting Evil and a slew of short horror films. With a handful of vendors on hand and a great crowd the event was back!

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For the last couple of years the event has been a part of the hugely popular MegaCon event in Orlando where over 100,000 people attend yearly. The crowds for the screenings have been huge and we can't wait to scare even more people each and every time out!

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