Homegrown horror film
New Fears Eve showcases Owensboro
When Owensboro filmmaker P.J. Starks sat down to write New Fears Eve, he didn’t just want to make another slasher movie; he needed to make sense of loss. In the early 2020s, Starks endured both divorce and the deaths of his grandmother and mother, a season that could have swallowed him whole. Instead, he wrote.
“When I finally sat down to write the script, it was always going to be a slasher,” says Starks, a Kenergy consumer-member. “But I started pouring everything onto the page. I use humor to cope, so I injected a lot of humor into the dialogue.”
This month, New Fears Eve, a horror comedy exploring the fear of change, is being released by Cineverse, the studio behind The Toxic Avenger and the Terrifier franchises. The film streams exclusively on Screambox, one of the top platforms for horror fans. With more than 15 festival awards and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination, the movie has already carved its place in indie horror history.
Produced by Blood Moon Pictures, the independent company Starks co-founded with Eric Huskisson, the film was written and shot entirely in Owensboro. Locals will recognize landmarks like The Famous Bistro, Kentucky Wesleyan College and the Owensboro Convention Center.
“We’re a Kentucky-based film company,” says Huskisson, who co-directed the film. “We want to put Owensboro on the map.”
“I never wanted to run off to L.A. or New York,” Starks says. “I tried it once, and it took that reality check to remind me that being from a small town doesn’t mean you can’t do big things.”
The story follows three friends stalked by a masked killer known as The Doctor, a chilling blend of Jack the Ripper and a medieval plague doctor. Starks says the character symbolizes more than terror; it represents life’s sudden darkness and the fight to endure.
During the writing process, Starks also rekindled a relationship with his high school sweetheart, naming one of the film’s characters after her. The couple later married, which he says is a reminder that “life isn’t just about what we lose, but also what we gain.”
To stream New Fears Eve, a subscription to Screambox is required ($6.99/month).
