One of Jeff Meyer’s close friends, an avid horror movie fan, died of brain cancer in 2005. To honor his memory, Meyer created a film festival now known as the Salt City Horror Fest.

The 14th Annual Salt City Horror Fest will take place at The Palace Theatre on Saturday, running from 11 a.m. until midnight. The festival is hosted in collaboration with After Dark Presents, a Buffalo-based company that specializes in bringing live music and entertainment events to upstate and central New York.

Meyer, one of the main organizers, said the festival has gone through various changes throughout its 14-year history. During the first five years of its inception, he said it mainly operated as a tribute to his friend’s memory. Funds raised during the festival were donated to cancer research initiatives.

“He was a huge horror fan, and he passed away at a very young age,” Meyer said. “So the first few years of the festival, we were raising money for the (Upstate Golisano) Children’s Hospital and the American Cancer Society, and doing it for a passion to spike cancer awareness.”

The festival hasn’t only screened films during its annual showcase. In years past, Meyer said the event has also included live music performances, panels featuring horror film directors and actors as well as “the first-ever upstate New York zombie run.”

One of the main priorities of the festival, he said, was to create a space for horror enthusiasts within the Syracuse community. Inspired by the theaters in larger cities that specialize in niche film screenings, Meyer saw the festival as an opportunity to bring mainstream horror fans and hardcore ones together under the same event.

Meyer said he remembers when he first fell in love with the genre through classics like “Night of the Living Dead.” To help maintain a more vintage aesthetic, each of the films and shorts screened will be done with 35-millimeter film in efforts to capture the sentiments created in staples like “Psycho.”

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“If I wasn’t doing it, no one else would,” Meyer said, “and then the people that are really into this stuff wouldn’t have an avenue or an opportunity to go to an event like this.”

He said he was a big fan of vintage film plans — before digital, when many classic horror flicks were made using 35-mm film.

Talent buyer for After Dark Presents, Eric Binion, believes seeing the films in a theater setting is different than watching these films at home. All the screenings will be 35-mm film, giving guests a more authentic showing than Blu-ray or 4K Ultra streaming can, he said.

“People haven’t really gotten the chance to see it on 35mm the way it was honestly, originally intended to be shown,” said Binion.

Trying to find films in their original 35mm format can be challenging, Binion said. The organizers have searched for private collectors who own rarer feature films and asked if they are willing to let them borrow or rent them when the film’s distributors no longer have the original media format.

Binion said the company has co-produced Salt City Horror Fest for the last three years. Alongside the event planners for the festival, After Dark helps select which horror films will be presented.

The lineup for this year’s festival includes films from every decade since the 1950s. With films like Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” Binion said the ‘70s and ‘80s were great eras for the horror film genre.

Unlike the process of promoting a concert, Binion said curating the festival is a different kind of reward on its own.

The festival will also feature short cartoons from the World War II era including cartoon staples like “Bugs Bunny” and “Tom and Jerry.” Themed vendors will be there to sell horror products like vintage VHS tapes, movie posters and T-shirts.

The festival will have a camp vibe to it and, in the past, guests have brought pillows for the 14-film marathon.

“If you’re a horror fan,” Binion said, “or sci-fi, it’s a fun experience for the whole day.”

Published on April 8, 2019 at 10:06 pm