Tickets on sale for the first ever Hub City Horror Fest

The lineup includes five horror short films, all made by filmmakers with Lubbock roots. Organizers are also planning a special showing to round out the night, giving local horror fans a reason to head downtown the night before Halloween instead of driving out of town for a scary movie fix.

The venue matters too. The Cactus Theater has hosted plenty of concerts and community events over the years, but a dedicated horror showcase built entirely around homegrown filmmakers is new territory. For people who grew up watching movies get made somewhere else and shipped in, this flips the script.

For local filmmakers, this is a rare shot at a real theater screen and a paying audience instead of a laptop premiere. Moviegoers get a cheap, easy Halloween-week outing that supports people making things in this city instead of just watching what everyone else makes. Five short films in one night also means low commitment. If horror isn't usually your thing, you get variety without sitting through a full feature that might not land.

Whether this becomes an annual tradition or a one-off depends entirely on how the first crowd shows up.