Dead Prairies Horror Movie Festival brings films from around the world to Gull Lake

Posted on 15 September 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Matthew Liebenberg

mliebenberg@prairiepost.com

The artistic vision of independent horror filmmakers from around the world will be coming to the big screen at southwest Saskatchewan’s first ever horror movie film festival.

The inaugural Dead Prairies Horror Movie Festival takes place at the SWT Lyceum Theatre in Gull Lake, Sept. 26.

It will feature 10 short and four full-length films from eight different countries that were selected for the festival.

The event is organized by Swift Current independent filmmaker and producer Devon Oman of Dead Prairies Productions.

“I’m very excited, because it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for years,” he said. “In 2017 or 2018 I started to brainstorm ideas for a film festival, but back then I didn’t really have the knowledge on where to start or a proper venue. Then I started going to other film festivals around Saskatchewan and Alberta, and I was thinking I can pull this off. I approached the SWT Lyceum Theatre last year about the idea and they were all excited about the idea.”

He is aware of only two other horror-themed film festivals in the two provinces. One is located in Calgary and the other in Saskatoon.

“As far as I know. I’m only the second one in Saskatchewan that does horror movies,” he noted. “I probably could do a film festival of all genres, but if anybody knows who I am and knows what I make, they know that I’m a huge horror fan. It’s something that I’ve been a fan of since I was a kid. So, it just makes sense that it’s a horror film festival.”

Film submissions were accepted over a nearly six-month period between early January and June 23. He was very surprised to receive over 3,000 submissions from around the world.

“You name the country and it was there,” he said. “It was way more than I expected for the first year.”

Some submissions were eliminated because they did not fit within the festival theme and criteria for selection, but thereafter it became a difficult choice.

“Picking the top 14 films was a bit challenging, because there’s a few other ones that I thought were really good and it was so hard to not pick them,” he said.

The festival selection criteria included that films must have been completed in the last five years. The festival did not accept films that have been commercially screened in Canada or the United States, that have been released on home media or that are freely available on streaming platforms.

“I would say a good chunk of these were independent filmmakers,” he noted. “Some are very low budget and then some you can tell are a bit bigger budget, but the creativity put into it is what made me interested.”

He felt it was important for the Dead Prairies Horror Movie Festival to feature both short and full-length films.

“I see a lot of film festivals sometimes don’t do short films, but I like seeing short films as well,” he said. “So, I opened up the doors for short films. Some of the short films that I have for the film festival are awesome. It’s amazing work. I’m glad I got to have a chance to show the short films and the full-length films.”

One of the advantages of the large number of festival submissions was that he could select films from different subgenres within the horror film theme.

“I did not expect to have a variety of horror films and this amount of good quality films, especially for the first year, but every type of genre and style is part of this film festival,” he said. “If you’re a fan of stop motion animation stuff, if you’re more into the 80s cheesy B-horror movie or if you want the thriller psychological movies, we got that. We have the more comedy family-friendly short film, a demon ghost style film and even a black and white short film made to look like an old 60s style film, but very gory.”

The festival features five films from Canada, of which two were made in Saskatchewan. The short film Klee by Saskatoon-based Métis filmmaker Gavin Baird was included on the Toronto International Film Festival’s top 10 list of Canadian films for 2025.

The full-length film #Vanlife by award-winning Toronto-based Métis screenwriter, director and producer Trevor Cameron was selected as the winner of the best thriller category at the 2025 Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival. This was one of the first Indigenous productions to be filmed almost entirely on the state-of-the-art LED volume wall at the John Hopkins Regina Soundstage in Saskatchewan.

Oman appreciates the support of the festival sponsors and partners that helped him to make this event a reality. All proceeds from ticket sales and the concession will be donated to the community-owned SWT Lyceum Theatre in Gull Lake.

“It is a non-profit theatre,” he noted. “It’s not always easy for them to keep going. So I’m hoping we can raise a few bucks for the theatre to keep them going and keep on making the theatre better and better. They’re very open to different ideas and they’ve been trusting me for years. I will keep on helping them out as much as I can.”

The Dead Prairies Horror Movie Festival on Sept. 26 will start in the early afternoon and wrap up at around 10 p.m. Film screenings will take place during four sessions starting at 12:30, 3, 6 and 8 p.m. with a break in-between. Each session will feature two or three short films and a full-length film.

The early bird full day pass is available for $10 in the run-up to the festival. The full day pass on the day of the event will be $15. Tickets for each full-length film, which includes the short films in that screening session, are $5 each.

For more information about the film festival, including details about each film, and to buy tickets, go to the Dead Prairies Horror Movie Festival link on the SWT Lyceum Theatre website at http://www.lyceumtheatre.ca