“What Haunts Us” is this year’s big-deal movie at the Terrace Charleston Film Festival, and theater owner Paul Brown is considering a regular run if festival ticket sales indicate the documentary deserves one.

“This is some serious stuff,” he said of the film’s subject matter, the Eddie Fischer sexual abuse scandal that rocked Porter-Gaud and other schools in the 1970s and 1980s. “This isn’t just a movie; this is about people’s lives.”

It’s directed and produced by Porter-Gaud alumna Paige Goldberg Tolmach. Her husband Matt Tolmach, who worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as the two “Jumanji” movies, three “Spider-Man” movies and the forthcoming thriller “Venom,” was one of three executive directors, along with Hollywood powerhouse Frank Marshall and documentary producer Regina K. Scully.

But “What Haunts Us” is just one of 16 feature films and several shorts on tap for the ninth annual festival. Since many are films from outside the U.S., the festival offers local moviegoers a rare opportunity to delve a little into international cinema.