The first weekend of the festival, which kicked off on Friday night, saw horror film lovers fill the Park Inn Palace Hotel for a Spooktacular showing of indie films from around the world.
The Horror-on-Sea festival, now in its 12th year, was created by Paul Cotgrove and has become “one of the biggest” of its kind in the world.
Mr Cotgrove has been delighted with the turnout and is now looking ahead to another weekend of films from Friday.
He said: “The event is just as successful as ever. We’ve got more people coming and the attendance is up on previous years.
“We’re delighted with more people coming through and we must have had already 1,000 people through the doors this weekend. Next weekend is looking even busier.”
Over two weekends, the film festival is showing 100 indie horror films, produced by filmmakers from around the world, with more than 3,000 attendees expected.
For Mr Cotgrove, who has a background in organising film festivals, it is important to show films that are made with passion, rather than a big budget.
He said: “The quality has always been the same, but the awareness of the festival has gone up.
“As soon as people find out about it, the horror fans come along to watch new films by new filmmakers.”
The Park Inn Palace Hotel on Pier Hill has given the much-anticipated festival a loving home and welcomes guests and enthusiasts from Los Angeles, the Netherlands and all of Europe and America.
Next weekend, Video Shop Tales of Terror II – Lust and Revenge, which was shot in a film studio in Rochford, will celebrate its world premiere at the festival.
Mr Cotgrove is already planning the 2026 show and has started looking at submissions to be featured and meeting with the hotel to discuss the final details of the event.