Your Guide to the 2024 Twin Cities Horror Festival

This year’s Twin Cities Horror Festival has opened its treasure trove of ghoulish frights for audiences! Live theater and horror geeks have been flocking to the festival for 13 seasons of scares, creeps, haunts, and more from local and touring artists. This is your guide to the festival and its 11 wonderfully spooky shows, onstage now through Sunday, November 3.

The horror genre is incredibly diverse in its tone, style, and offerings, and TCHF is no exception to this. Festival organizers have curated a wonderful variety of shows this year, so there is sure to be a show that fits your taste in horror perfectly. This guide will help you to find the one that lets you geek out in your preferred way.

Disclaimer: I am a theater professional in the Twin Cities. I’ve been active as an actor, playwright, director, and producer for over a decade. As such, my reviews will have a bias toward supporting and loving these shows. I am also an actor and effects artist in one of the shows of this festival. The Twin Cities live theater scene is vibrant and amazing, and my purpose in writing is to put eyes on the amazing talent I’m honored to watch and work with.

How to Navigate the Twin Cities Horror Festival

Tickets are available ahead on the TCHF ticketing website. I highly recommend you purchase your tickets ahead of time, as this very popular festival will have several sellouts throughout the run. Tickets are just $15 and all ticket sales go directly to the artists, making sure your dollars go to maximizing your support of local theater.

The Twin Cities Horror Festival takes place at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, with plenty of free parking and concessions at the theater.

The Alchemist’s Bargain (Phantom Chorus Theatre)

What It’s About: “A dark fable, performed entirely through blacklight puppetry, about a Hero’s journey to bring their Beloved back to life with the aid of a dubious Alchemist. The Hero must traverse treacherous lands and face dangerous foes to collect the ingredients needed to concoct the Alchemist’s elixir. How far are they willing to go to defy Death in the name of Love?”

Why You’ll Geek Out: This is an offering the whole family can enjoy, with intensely creative puppets and sets. Phantom Chorus always delivers a production that is sure to amaze.

The Alchemist’s Bargain. Photo by Dan Norman

Campfire Stories (Special When Lit)

What It’s About: “Gather around the theatrical campfire to hear Twin Cities artists and Horror Fest favorites tell their personal stories with the supernatural. It’s like Are You Afraid of the Dark? … except these stories are TRUE. Special When Lit (The Fae, Incarnate, Stabby Stab Stab, Kin) is known for spectacle, and Campfire Stories is no different, with live music and effects to make it a full spooky experience.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: Telling stories around the campfire is one of the oldest and greatest forms of horror storytelling, and in this show you get that presented by some of the most amazing theater talent in the Twin Cities—with the added bonus of a rotating cast so every show will offer something different.

Campfire Stories. Photo by Dan Norman

Doctor Clown (Dangerous Productions)

What It’s About: “Taking a uniquely Dangerous Productions approach, this cast of characters tackles the horrors of the American medical system. It’s a deeply bloody show with equal parts absurd comedy, slapstick and several gallons of blood spilt.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: Dangerous Productions is both one of the longest-running Horror Festival creative teams and the most creative with their bloody offerings. If you like blood, gore, and amazing stage effects, this show is for you.

Doctor Clown. Photo by Dan Norman

Fractured Remembrances (Rogues Gallery Arts)

Extra disclaimer: I am in this show.

What It’s About: “Aster and her boyfriend have disappeared. After five days she is found, her boyfriend is not. She has no memory of what happened and begins suffering psychogenic blackouts when pressed about it. Aster’s world turns to chaos as her fractured memory betrays her. To learn the truth she must come face to face with horrors beyond her imagination.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: If you are fan of psychological thrillers, monster features, and a dose of the supernatural, this show will scratch all those itches. Not a show for all ages, but it’s sure to make your skin crawl.

Fractured Remembrances. Photo by Dan Norman

Gh0stChaser04 (A Murder of Crones)

What It’s About: “Do curses exist? Is the paranormal real? In 1904, two rivals try to uncover a series of mysterious deaths. In 2004, three strangers meet up to investigate a curse. Tonight they’re drawn together to answer the most important question: Is someone in here with us?”

Why You’ll Geek Out: Ghost hunters are a mainstay of the horror genre, and this show brings you into the same room with the chasers and the ghosts. This same creative team has previously delivered their own amazing spin on the true crime genre, so I’m excited to see what they do with ghosts.

Gh0stChaser04. Photo by Dan Norman

Ghostrunners (Spiral Theater)

What It’s About: “Henry loves baseball but hates playing it. And watching it. Yet, his obsession over its rules, balance, and history lead him to create his own tabletop baseball simulation where rolling dice and complicated charts determine myriad, bizarre outcomes. When a player is murdered in the game, the search for the culprit turns a pastime into a nightmare.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: Baseball-themed horror is a rare subgenre indeed, but Spiral Theater aims to hit this one out of the park. A horror comedy from a team that strikes quickly with rapid fire, witty dialogue, jokes, and puns sure to fill your home plate.

The Night Parade of A Hundred Demons (Monster Science Productions and the Winding Sheet Outfit)

What It’s About: “Two great tastes that taste great together! Horror Festival favorites team up to tell 100 tales of horror mythology over five distinct, themed shows—‘Shapeshifters,’ ‘Demons,’ ‘Undead,’ ‘Outsiders,’ and ‘Beasts’—each bringing its own inimitable style. And nothing goes wrong! NOTHING.” The full title of this show is Night Parade of a Hundred Demons (In Which the Honorable Reverend Matt Employs the Winding Sheet Outfit to Help Him Tell One Hundred Ghost Stories and Absolutely Nobody Gets What They Came For).

Why You’ll Geek Out: Edutainment and devised theater combine to present something sure to delight fans of monsters, storytelling, and random things onstage you’ve never seen before. Each show is different, and I can’t wait to see this collaboration of two of the most entertaining and creative teams the Twin Cities has to offer.

The Regular (Occasionally Employed Productions)

What It’s About: “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, but are they always glad you came? Here comes The Regular, a story of a guy who walks into a bar … but might not walk out.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: If you are a fan of classic sitcoms, this show will stir your inner laugh track. The creative team has delivered some of the best and most beloved comedies on local stages, including A Very Die Hard Christmas Mad as Nell or How to Lose a Bly in Ten Days, and A Justice League of Their Own. This one should go down like a perfectly poured beer.

Let’s Summon a Demon at Debbie’s (Love Drunk Life)

What It’s About: “It’s been 25 years since Debbie, Cara and Lucy have seen each other, and 25 years since Debbie has left her house. But don’t worry, Debbie’s hasn’t been alone, Debbie has her dolls. A high school reunion like no other, three friends try to make sense of strange occurrences throughout their lives, and figure out if an all consuming need to return to Debbie’s house has to do with that demon they tried to summon senior year.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: This show is produced and written by an out-of-town artist and features local talent on the stage. Camp, collaboration, and scary dolls will be sure to summon fun.

Let’s Summon a Demon at Debbie’s. Dan Norman

Schaulust (Keith Hovis Productions)

What It’s About: “Wyatt likes to watch. No, he needs to watch. He’s addicted to the thrill of seeing people eat, clean, read, watch TV, and live their lives. But when his passion starts taking on a life of its own, inexplicable events begin happening. Suddenly, Wyatt’s search for answers sparks his transformation into something new. Better. Beautiful. The version of himself he was always meant to be. A psychological thriller with music.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: This is the only musical and the only solo show in the festival.

The Wrench (Wheeler in the Sky)

What It’s About: “On its 30th anniversary, a group of New York’s most celebrated Shakespearean actors gather to memorialize the bloodiest theatre riot in American history: the Astor Place Riot. After the matinee performance of Macbeth, a horrible accident backstage leaves Lady M on her death bed. As the actors await news of her fate, they gather in the dressing room, amusing and consoling one another with theatre stories, each in turn confronting the bloody secrets of their past and horrors of the date 30 years ago which binds them all together.”

Why You’ll Geek Out: Fans of history and classic theater will want to sink their teeth into this actor’s showcase of storytelling and the curse of Macbeth.

The Wrench. Photo by Dan Norman

If any of these shows are the horror-geek fit for you, reserve your spot now!