Starring: Connie Nielsen, Dougray Scott, Hermione Corfield

For marine biology student Siobhan, it was supposed to be a research excursion with a trawler crew fishing the West Irish seas. But when they hit an unseen object and become marooned, a mysterious parasite infects their water supply. Soon the oozing force infiltrates the entire vessel and turns Siobhan’s journey into a claustrophobic fight for survival.

Starring: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Leonard Jackson, Mabel King, Bill Gunn, Sam Waymon

What could have been a mere blaxploitation picture is elevated above the norm by two factors. The first is the performance of Duane Jones, cast as a professor of African studies who moonlights (literally as a vampire). The second is the mood-drenched, jazzy musical score, which very likely cost more than the film itself. But back to the plot: Jones continues to carry a torch for his ex-wife Marlene Clark who, before the film is over, goes “bats” herself. Featured in the cast is writer/director Bill Gunn as the villain (no, the vampire isn’t always the heavy) and the always welcome Mabel King.

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel

Introduced by Payton McCarty-Simas, author of the new book One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture

To clear his family name, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) is on a lifelong quest to find the fabled Templar Treasure, which his family claims was hidden by the Freemason Founding Fathers. Armed only with his encyclopedic knowledge of American history, Gates, his conspiracy theorist/hacker sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha), must solve riddles and find clues with the FBI hot on their trail. They quickly realize that the only way to find the treasure… is to steal the Declaration of Independence.

One Step Short of Crazy will be available for purchase at the screening.
In this book, film critic Payton McCarty-Simas explores the surprisingly tangled relationship between the thriving ecosystem of American conspiracy theory and the National Treasure franchise. Beginning with a critical analysis of the films’ own dense narrative relationships to several famous conspiracy theories, the author then turns to the way the films have themselves become a part of the framework for a range of conspiracies online, on the History channel, and in our culture more broadly.

Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions the fungi kingdom offer us in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic and environmental challenges. Narrated by Brie Larson

Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Benedict Hardie

Trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy and brilliant scientist, Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) escapes in the dead of night and disappears into hiding, aided by her sister (Harriet Dyer), their childhood friend (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid). But when Cecilia’s abusive ex (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) commits suicide and leaves her a generous portion of his vast fortune, Cecilia suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of eerie coincidences turns lethal, threatening the lives of those she loves, Cecilia’s sanity begins to unravel as she desperately tries to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.

Follows comedian, author and activist Russell Brand as he dives headlong into drugs, sex and fame in an attempt to find happiness, only to realize that our culture feeds us bad ideas and empty idols. Through his stand up, Brand explores his own true icons – Gandhi, Che Guevara, Malcolm X and Jesus Christ – and evolves from addict & Hollywood star to an unexpected political disruptor and newfound hero to the underserved. Will Brand hold fast against the roar of criticism to break out of the very system that built him?

Starring: Josie Ho, Eason Chan, Kwok Cheung Tsang, Lawrence Chou

This extreme slasher film from director Pang Ho-cheung stars Josie Ho as Cheng Lai-Sheung, a woman in Hong Kong whose goal is to live in a place where she has a view of Victoria harbor. She goes to desperate, often illegal, means to raise the funds required to live in such prime real estate, but no matter how hard she tries she can’t ever seem to reach the ever-increasing funds needed. Then one day she realizes that her dream is worth killing for.

Starring: Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Evan Richards, Ben Meyerson, Charles Lucia, Connie Danese

After producing Stuart Gordon’s hit Re-Animator, Brian Yuzna turned his hand to directing with 1989’s Society and gave birth to one of the ickiest, most original body horror shockers of all time. Teenager Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) has always felt like the odd one out in his wealthy, upper-class Beverly Hills family. For some reason, he just doesn’t seem to fit in. But his sense of alienation takes a sinister turn when he hears an audio recording of his sister’s coming-out party, which seems to implicate his family and others in a bizarre, ritualistic orgy. And then there are the strange things he’s been seeing – glimpses of people with their bodies contorted impossibly out of shape. Is Bill going mad or is there something seriously amiss in his neighborhood?

Starring: Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, Charles S. Dutton, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, John C. McGinley

Explosive special effects and high-caliber weapons make for the ultimate manhunt in this hard-hitting action-adventure. Ice-T is Jack Mason, a homeless man recruited by a band of wealthy hunters to lead an expedition into the Pacific Northwest. But on the first day of the hunt, he discovers a lethal surprise… he’s the prey. It’s gut-wrenching action from start to finish as the game begins and the hunters learn a deadly lesson: Never underestimate a man who’s got nothing to lose.

Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner

CHAPO TRAP HOUSE joins us live in Williamsburg to discuss the nefarious plot to redevelop Toon Town.