Each October, the Eugene filmmaking community comes alive — or rather, returns from the dead — for the Eugene Film Society’s 72-Hour Horror Film Competition. Participating film crews have just three days to ideate, produce and edit a short horror movie between two and three minutes long. The only constraint: The entries must include the same single line of dialogue and the same prop, provided to the crews shortly before production begins. This go around is Thor Slaughter’s third time in the competition. Slaughter, a freelance filmmaker from Eugene-based CowDog Productions, says each team does it differently. But he typically has some idea of the movie he’d like to make, which he then conforms to the prompts once he receives them. In the current competition, filmmakers must include a tape measure and the line “It’s unrelenting. Every day there are changes.” According to Slaughter, in years past, entries have ranged from complex productions to relatively simple TikTok-like skits. As a horror fan, Slaughter says he likes movies that are not “just about the gore. They’re more like a rollercoaster. Like, what’s in that closet over there? What’s that noise?” In his 2025 entry, Help Me, the power goes out at an AirBnB, and after receiving a convoluted message about how to turn it back on, the renter must make her way to the far end of a creepy barn attached to the house to reach the breaker box. Along the way, Slaughter says, “classic haunted house scary movie chaos ensues.”

The 72-Hour Horror Film Competition screenings and award ceremony is 7 pm Sunday, Oct. 26, at McDonald Theatre, 1010 Willamette Street. Tickets are $12 and are available at McDonaldTheatre.com. First place jury prize is $1,134. Audience choice wins $666. The event is all-ages, adult content possible.