Each year Pigeon Shrine FrightFest plays host to a near insane amount of genre offerings. Amongst its selection, every year, the festival manages to include a couple of anthology horrors, with Parker Brennon’s Hauntology forming 2024’s offering. In a switch up to most anthologies, Parker Brennon makes the clever decision to direct the entire film themself. Other films in the subgenre, such as the V/H/S series, hire different teams of directors to each create a segment that then get stitched together during the edit. In keeping Hauntology to themself, Brennon ensures a cohesive singular voice, and a film sprinkled with interconnectivity.
Jazmin (Samantha Russell) takes her fearless runaway younger sibling, Venus (Jaidyn Triplett), on a road trip and shares the most chilling tales surrounding their Ohio hometown. Each place they visit has its own ghost story and queer perspective: trans woman Julian (Zoey Luna) casts a spell to become her ideal self, but the dark spirit unleashed tries to invade her life; a troubled married couple find love beyond the grave; an up-and-coming art gallery is forging paintings of a deceased artist with very bloody consequences; and a journalist secures an interview with the eccentric owner of a haunted Victorian mansion.
Hauntology will receive its international premiere at FrightFest. The film is set to be a huge hit with the horror loving crowd. Viewing Hauntology is akin to gathering around the campfire with friends sharing ghost stories. Days before the screening at FrightFest, THN were able to speak with Hauntology’s writer and director, Parker Brennon, to discover more about crafting an anthology solo and how Evolution of Horror inspired their submission to FrightFest.
Hauntology screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Friday 23rd August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
