Beware The Hat Man... Drew Gabreski on BE AFRAID, Screening at 2017 Winter Film Awards Indie Film Fest

For most of his professional adult life, director Drew Gabreski's behind-the-camera work has centered on athletes, especially boxers. He's directed several sports documentaries and a few commercials featuring prominent boxers for brands like Adidas, too.

Some may be surprised, then, that Be Afraid - his first feature film, which has its NYC Premiere on Thursday March 2 at the Winter Film Awards Indie Film Fest - is, of all things, a supernatural/horror movie. But anyone who knows Gabreski knows this choice of genres has actually been a long time coming.

"Scary movies was something I was brought up on," Gabreski explained. "I had some crazy uncles, and these guys and even my grandfather would let me watch some of the craziest horror films as a kid. I remember being 7 years old and my one uncle took me to see Alien at the theater, and then another uncle took me to see John Carpenter's The Thing.

Today, as a father of three himself, Gabreski said he's "a little surprised" by his early exposure, but added that it "definitely molded me." As an imaginative kid growing up on 26 acres in Pennsylvania, he can recall locking himself in his room for a couple days at a time and emerging with sequel scripts to his favorite films - which, naturally, were predominantly horror ones. A lifelong love affair with the macabre was born.

But a prematurely developed taste for a good scare isn't Gabreski's only childhood influence to make it into Be Afraid. Following the nightmarish trials of a father whose young son's safety is jeopardized by mysterious supernatural forces, the movie touches on several themes that trigger youth-born anxieties - a fear of loss of family, of things that go bump in the dark, of sleeping alone. But for Gabreski, the biggest childhood fear of all is one that makes a major appearance as Be Afraid's head supernatural spook - the Hat Man.

"I had this series of a specific nightmare over a couple years about the Hat Man. Every time I had this nightmare, he would get closer and closer to my house to the point where one night, he made it into my bedroom and literally stood over my bed," Gabreski recalled. "In the dream, he was watching me sleep and he was in my room, and when I woke up - he was standing there. I'll never forget it. Of course, I did what all kids do. I freaked out and told my mom and dad there was a man in my room. They're like, 'Okay, whatever. It was a bad dream.'"

It wasn't until many years later, when Gabreski met up with writer Gerald Nott to go over the script that would eventually become Be Afraid, that he realized he wasn't the only person to have seen the Hat Man - far from it. A common apparition numbering among the figures in what's known as "Shadow People" folklore, Gabreski learned that this nightmare from his youth actually had a lengthy past.

"I came to find out there's this whole folklore behind him, and there are people - adults - who, going back as far as the 1940s, have drawn pictures of and spoken about this Hat Man character coming to visit them while they sleep," Gabreski said. "I was sitting there reading this online and immediately just broke out in sweat, because this is the nightmare I used to have as a kid."

He took his findings to Nott, and together they decided to refocus the script's nefarious presence from Shadow People at large to solely the Hat Man. And he certainly cuts an unsettling figure, though Gabreski is careful to note that true horror aficionados might find the label as applied to Be Afraid misleading - this is no SLASHER film. But it is effectively spooky, following in the tradition of chilling events witnessed through the eyes of a child a la The Shining, and there are more than a few moments bound to get your heart racing, something not all in Gabreski's circle had anticipated.

"For so many people you meet, you talk about your first film and they immediately think, 'B film.' They just think the production value isn't going to be there and that it's not going to feel like a real film," he said. "But the people who've thought that and then seen little sneak peeks of this movie, the first thing they've said to me is, 'You made a real film.'

"And I'm like, 'Well, yeah. What did you think I was doing?'"

ABOUT WINTER FILM AWARDS INDIE FILM FESTIVAL

Winter Film Awards Is New York City. Like the city itself, we showcase the eclectic diversity and excitement of the independent arts world. Winter Film Awards is proudly one of the Top 10 Best Reviewed Festivals on FilmFreeway.

The rapidly growing Winter Film Awards Indie Film Festival, now in its sixth year, is a dynamic and exciting event in the heart of the City. Winter Film Awards showcases films from emerging filmmakers from around the world in all genres with a special emphasis on highlighting the work of women and minority filmmakers. The Festival runs February 23-March 4 2017 in New York City.

Among the 88 Official Selections to be screened at Cinema Village in the heart of Greenwich Village (22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003), is a diverse mixture of 11 Animated films, 8 Documentaries, 11 Feature narratives, 10 Horror films, 12 Music Videos, 24 Narrative shorts and 7 Web series, including 12 student films and 33 first-time filmmakers. Filmmakers come from 30 countries; 42% of the films were created by women, 45% were created by people of color. Visit www.WinterFilmAwards.com for schedules, tickets and details.

ABOUT WINTER FILM AWARDS

Winter Film Awards is an all-volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. For more, visit the website or follow on Facebook and Twitter.

By Liv McConnell. Liv McConnell is a writer, editor, and activist currently residing in Brooklyn with her cat, Stevie Nicks. She's fond of taking baths, buying new plants, and writing about the intersection of culture and women's issues.