Horror fans in South Pasadena get one more excuse to keep the Halloween spirit going past the holiday itself. The inaugural Sugarmynt Cinescare Horror Film Festival is set for one night only, Saturday, Nov. 7, unfolding in the backyard area of Sugarmynt Gallery, with screenings arranged across three separate blocks.
The gallery sits just behind the house used in the 1978 horror classic Halloween, and organizers are leaning into that proximity rather than hiding from it. According to the festival's FilmFreeway listing, films will be shown outdoors with the Myers house looming in the background, turning the backyard screening into something closer to a pilgrimage for genre devotees than a typical film-fest night. As NBC Los Angeles reports, the event takes place specifically in South Pasadena, even though the FilmFreeway page frames the festival as arriving in Pasadena — a discrepancy the available record does not explain.
Three Blocks, One Night, $25 A Pop
The schedule breaks the evening into three screening blocks. The first kicks off at 5 o'clock, the second follows at 6:15 p.m., and the third begins at 7:30 p.m., wrapping up about an hour later, per the same account from NBC Los Angeles. Tickets run $25 per block and are available on the Sugarmynt Gallery events website, the outlet notes.
Festival organizers said the lineup will showcase independent horror short films across varied genres, according to the station's report. The FilmFreeway listing adds more texture to what that actually means on the ground: the event features seven distinct categories, spanning micro shorts, animated shorts, unproduced short scripts, and smartphone shorts. For now, the festival is open to horror short films only — FilmFreeway states organizers may accept feature-film submissions down the road, but not presently.
A Gallery Built Around Its Spooky Neighbor
Sugarmynt Gallery has made the most of its address for a while now, operating under the tagline where every day is Halloween. That ethos carries into its current exhibition, a mash-up tribute pairing Over the Garden Wall with Halloween, which NBC Los Angeles separately reported features more than 40 artists under the title “Pottsfield Meets Haddonfield.” That show opened Sept. 12 and remains on view through Nov. 29, giving visitors a reason to swing by the gallery even after the one-night film festival wraps.
The pull of that Halloween connection isn't new. A steady stream of “Halloween” tourists, some of whom come long distances, has made its way to SugarMynt over the years, according to the Los Angeles Times, which has chronicled the neighborhood's status as an unofficial pilgrimage site for fans of the 1978 film. The gallery's own reporting on its exhibit history notes that the film was shot just steps from its front door, and that the house fans know as the Myers residence is historically referred to as the Century House, standing just south of the gallery.
What To Expect If You Go
The available listings do not detail which specific shorts will screen in each block, nor do they lay out a full running order for the night. What is confirmed is the structure: three timed blocks, outdoor seating with the Myers house as backdrop, and a $25-per-block ticket price through the gallery's own events page. For South Pasadena, where Halloween nostalgia apparently lingers well past the actual holiday, the one-night festival adds a fittingly cinematic coda to a season that already draws fans from well outside the neighborhood.
