Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Sherman Howard
In George A. Romero’s third installment of his “Dead” series, he makes commentary on the militarization of the United States and the dangers of free-range scientific experiment. In Day of the Dead, the zombies have been raging for quite some time and it should be apparent that humans are in a brave new world of the dead. Still, there’s a hold out group of soldiers, scientists, and workers in a Florida underground military base who are still clinging to the idea things will return to normal. Most go crazy in the process and the abuses of power manifest in many different, gruesome ways. Day is vivid, neon gore with heart…and an evolved zombie named Bud.
What’s better than a horror anthology film? How about one directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King? Based on the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s, Creepshow is a made up of five short horrifying tales told to a young kid by “The Creep” who gets in trouble for reading “Creepshow.” With Father’s Day, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, Something to Tide You Over, The Crate and They’re Creeping Up on You! you’ll get monsters of all shapes and sizes. Evil husbands, corpses, and outer space visitors are just the tip of this iceberg of terror!
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence
This version is a newly restored and remastered digital print, created under the supervision of the world-renowned cinematographer, Dean Cundey.
The American slasher (as well as John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis’ careers) gets solidified when the indestructible Michael Myers make his big screen debut in Halloween.
It all begins one Halloween night when little Michael murders his sister while his parents are out. Locked away in an asylum for years, he makes his escape back to the scene of his crime where he, you guessed it, terrorizes young babysitters and their dates in his modified William Shatner mask and a gas station attendant outfit. Will Dr. Loomis make it to Haddonfield in time to save lives? Who will survive? Find out this October!
Stringent vegetarian Justine encounters a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world during her first week at veterinary school. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her principles and eats raw meat for the first time. The young woman soon experiences terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard
Found video footage tells the tale of three film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams) who’ve traveled to a small town to collect documentary footage about the Blair Witch, a legendary local murderer. Over the course of several days, the students interview townspeople and gather clues to support the tale’s veracity. But the project takes a frightening turn when the students lose their way in the woods and begin hearing horrific noises.
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Kirsten Baker, Stuart Charno
Influenced greatly by Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood, Friday the 13th Part 2 brings in a new set irresponsible, sex-crazed camp counsellors to Crystal Lake. Five years after the horrible bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, it seems Jason Voorhees and his demented mother are in the past. Paul opens up a new camp close to the infamous site, ignoring warnings to stay away, and a sexually-charged group of counselors follow — including child psychologist major Ginny. But Jason has been hiding out all this time, and now he’s ready for revenge.
You’d be hard pressed to find a haunted house film more outlandishly fun than this Vincent Price classic. Starring as an eccentric millionaire, Price invites five strangers to spend the night in a “haunted” house and whomever survives will get one million dollars. Directed by the ultimate film showman William Castle, House on Haunted Hill is full of plot holes but the film’s charm is part of the fun-loving gimmick experience of the time period that would make Castle a legend. Just beware any flying skeletons in the theater.
Starring: Alice Lowe, Gemma Whelan, Kate Dickie, Jo Hartley
A pitch black, wryly British comedy from the mind of Alice Lowe (SIGHTSEERS), PREVENGE follows Ruth, a pregnant woman on a killing spree that’s as funny as it is vicious. It’s her misanthropic unborn baby dictating Ruth’s actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth from the womb, coaching her to lure and ultimately kill her unsuspecting victims. Struggling with her conscience, loneliness, and a strange strain of prepartum madness, Ruth must ultimately choose between redemption and destruction at the moment of motherhood. PREVENGE marks the directorial debut from Lowe, who is a true triple threat, writing, directing, and acting in the film during her own real-life pregnancy.
Starring: Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Gunner Hansen, Jim Siedow, Edwin Neal, Teri McMinn, John Dugan, Paul A. Partain
Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of a handful of films that punctuate the very life-blood of cinematic history. Intensely brutal with very little reprieve or consideration for the audience, it came out of a rift of a socio-cultural framework, bursting onscreen with the evisceration of the family structure, youth culture, and cultural fragility in a post-Vietnam United States. Like Night of the Living Dead did five years earlier, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre reveals the unraveling framework of society and places the possibility of horror/death to occur anywhere; not in the Gothic castle nor in the fields of Vietnam but, more terrifyingly, in our surrounding neighborhoods. The film also reveals one of the first final girls (Sally) in the American slasher genre.
Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand, DEADPOOL’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) are just a couple of high-school BFFs trying to get more followers for their blog. Except their on-line project is devoted to a local murder spree, and they’ve just captured and imprisoned the perpetrator. How do they keep the slaughter spree going so they have more to report on? Well, they’re willing and able to improvise… Director/co-writer Tyler McIntyre delivers a spirited satire of teenage values in the Internet era, coupled with a gruesomely imaginative creative killfest. The leads are right on target as girls whose status obsession has a body count, and the supporting cast includes Craig Robinson (also one of the film’s producers) in a very funny turn.
