The historic Columbian Theater in Astoria will host a horror film festival this weekend.

A new horror film festival arrives at the Columbian Theater in Astoria this weekend. Astoria Horrorfest, which bills itself as the city’s first horror film festival, will play 100 short films in the genre from all over the world.

Showings begin on Friday from 7 p.m. to midnight. Musical guest Cold Sanctum, of Portland, will also play a score to the 1920s film “Häxan.”

The festival — subtitled “Shiver on the River” — continues on Saturday from 3 p.m. until midnight, with an afterparty musical guest, Dripping Decay, to follow showings. Festivities wrap up between noon and 6 p.m. Sunday.

Organizers Josh Staley, John Gentner and Nate Crowchild have always been fans of anything spooky and scary. They thought that a horror film festival would be a way to amplify the gray gloom of a January weekend.

“The meat and potatoes behind it is, being from Astoria, there’s times where it’s slow and there’s not a lot of hustle and bustle, which is nice, but it can be kind of boring and glum when it’s just nonstop darkness and rain,” Gentner said. “We wanted to do something that would amplify the mood of darkness.”

Films will be shown in a series, with downtime for refreshments in between. Local food trucks and vendors will be on hand, and musical guests will follow Friday and Saturday showings.

“I work full-time. I run Rain Town Vintage Clothing in Astoria, and my job for the last half a year after work was sifting through 4 to 6 hours of film every single day. So I’ve watched about 1,400 films and we’ve picked around 100 of them,” Crowchild said.

Crowchild confirmed there were over 1,700 short film submissions, with over 100 countries represented.

“This will be a world-class event in our tiny little seaside hamlet,” Crowchild said. “I’m proud of all the filmmakers for their creativity and their artwork and getting this all together. It takes a lot to put even a short film together.”

Of going through so many film submissions, Crowchild said it was a daunting task but a privilege.

“I’m proud of bringing them together and showcasing them for the lovely citizens of Astoria,” Crowchild said.

Three-day ticket passes are available for $69 online, tickets can also be bought in person at the Columbian Theater box office or at Rain Town Vintage Collective.

“This is a big thing about Astoria that Nate, Josh and myself have experienced while living there, is that it nurtures artistic endeavors and it’s wildly supportive and the process of, ‘I have an idea, let’s execute it,’ and have people come and enjoy themselves is a very rewarding feeling,” Gentner said.

The festival has a slice of horror for all the ghoulish fans, “from campy horror, gore, thrills, spills, chills, thrill kills and all kinds of things. Something for everyone,” Crowchild added.

Astoria Horrorfest

Astoria Horrorfest

Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Columbian Theater, 1114 Marine Drive, Astoria

Festival passes are $69, available online

Entry is limited to ages 17 and above, or with parent or guardian consent

@astoriahorrorfest

www.astoriahorrorfest.com