FILM SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19th
DO NOT DISTURB @ 6pm: The gritty and sensationally gory made-in-Florida, shot in Miami shocker DO NOT DISTURB follows the tender tale of a honeymooning couple in Miami who take a peyote trip to strengthen their marriage that quickly turns into a narcotic nightmare. As they confront their troubled relationship, they discover that this strand of peyote awakens a desire to consume human flesh. Soon their hotel room becomes an insatiable den of love, lust, and desire, from the carnal to the cannibal. Grotesque, looming, filthy, and full of visceral horror and thoughtful meditations on the hunger of love, with moments of eerie beauty, this is a daring film whose spell will stay with you, creepy crawling down your spine long after the credits roll.
HORROR MOVIE TRIVIA @ 8pm: Would you like to play a game? If you know your frightful facts, join ALTER & Fangoria as they cover on-screen mayhem and the darkness behind-the-screams. We promise you a terrifyingly terrific time at our horror movie quiz with bite. Expect some mind-benders and maybe some bone breakers, as we test the limits of your horror knowledge. See if you have what it takes to survive our fiendish horror trivia quiz and win special prizes!
TIMES UP @ 10pm (Director L. C. Holt and actress Kamarra Cole will be in attendance to introduce the film premiere and participate in a Q&A afterward): At a New Year’s Eve party, a group of teachers from an idyllic Maine high school still reeling from the suicide of a bullied student suddenly find themselves stalked by an assailant disguised as the holiday figure Father Time bent on revealing their darkest secrets. Accompanied by a diligent reporter as well as a girl bent on discovering the truth about her friend’s death, the party-goers race to discover the secrets about their mysterious tormentor and each other before the first firework explodes. By midnight… heads will roll!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20th
SHORT BLOCKS – MIDNIGHTERS I @ 12pm: A collection of 10 short films.
SHORT BLOCKS – MIDNIGHTERS II @ 2pm: A collection of 11 short films.
FANGA @ 4pm: A breathtaking visual marvel, FANGA has the timeless feel of an ancient folk tale that is at once darkly imaginative and disturbingly fantastical. “Fanga” is the Icelandic word for prisoner — which echoes through this chilling Icelandic take on the classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast.” Belle is stuck in obligation to her dead mother, a willing prisoner to the need to care of her family. But when Belle’s father falls ill, she chooses to become prisoner to the flesh-eating Beast in exchange for a healing spell. Caught between two toxic relationships, this is the story of Belle fighting through the wrong kind of love in order to feel her way towards something new.
HOMEGROWN – 100% PURE FRESH SQUEEZED FLORIDA HORROR @ 6pm: A collection of 10 short films shot & produced in South Florida
THE EYES BELOW @ 8pm: Wringing a seemingly impossible amount of gripping drama out of its claustrophobic premise, THE EYES BELOW is a nerve-wracking showcase featuring one nightmarish heart-stopping sequence after another. The story begins as all days end, a man goes to bed. Everything is calm and silent in the house. As he is about to fall asleep, something creeps up his legs, his stomach, and then his chest. A mass, so heavy that he opened his eyes in a half-sleep and discovered that the night won’t be as peaceful as he thought.
THE BARN – PART II @ 10pm: This Halloween no one can stop the harvest! Almost certainly destined for cult classic status, THE BARN: PART II is a perfect retro throwback to classic 80s VHS horror flicks like The Monster Squad, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and Full Moon’s empire of direct-to-video features. THE BARN: PART II takes place three years after the events of the first film, with the Halloween ban now lifted in Helen’s Valley. The sorority girls of Gamma Tau Psi place original final girl Michelle in charge of their annual haunted house. Unfortunately for Michelle, some uninvited trick-or-treaters from her past come knocking… Starring returning cast Lexi Dripps, Mitchell Musolino, Will Stout, Ari Lehman and Linnea Quigley, and featuring Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Bob Briggs, Diana Prince and Doug Bradley.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 21st
ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS @ 11am: A microbudget flick with a vastly creative design and twisted story, ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS is a squirmy trip into the depths of arthouse horror cinema. A cavalcade of upcoming performers, as flamboyant and daring as John Waters’ dreamlanders, bring a vibrating excess to their wormhead characters. Inspired by Cassavetes, this DIY provocation delivers a wriggling, drug-induced creature feature nightmare, Trainspotting meets Brain Damage with a dash of Videodrome. This is underground filmmaking at its best for a ride to hell! Become one with the dirt! Realize your full potential! Nothing is real and everything is permitted.
WHEN THE SCREAMING STARTS @ 12:30pm: Aidan Mendle has a dream: He aspires to be an infamous serial killer. When struggling journalist, Norman, is invited to follow Aidan on his journey, he believes he has finally landed his big break. But as Aidan and his newly recruited murder cult embark on a blood-soaked rampage, will Norman’s dream of becoming a renowned filmmaker turn into a nightmare? Who will be remembered, who will be forgotten, and who will be left behind chopped into little pieces?
THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY @ 2pm: Just when you thought there was nowhere left to take Stephen King’s oeuvre, along comes THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY. This wild wonder was born when animator Aristotelis Maragkos printed every frame of the damned 1995 ABC miniseries version of The Langoliers to black-and-white paper, then reshaped it into a cut-and-paste phantasmagoria. Maragkos mercifully shreds the original’s running time from three hours to one, but the Twilight Zone-esque story remains intact: ten strangers awaken on a red-eye flight to find that the rest of the passengers and crew have mysteriously vanished. The cast includes the great Dean Stockwell, a cameo from Stephen King himself, and a truly unforgettable Bronson Pinchot, whose unhinged, off-the-wall mannerisms would make Nicolas Cage blush — but the real star is Maragkos. Throughout, the animator rips, folds, crumples, and collages the paper image in ways that heighten and improve the original, creating a one-of-a-kind remix that easily transcends its source material.
BAD GIRL BOOGIE @ 3pm: Fresh off the horror movie So Vam, 17-year-old transgender filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay is back, taking the slasher genre and subverting it into a powerful and resonant allegory for the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community, and all of those who are hated and outcast. One Halloween, blood was shed by the wearer of a parasitic mask cursed with black magic and bigotry. Sixteen years later, when Angel’s best friend is slaughtered by a killer with the same mask, they must overcome their personal struggles, fight their fear, and find the masked killer before he, or it, slaughters everyone they hold dear.
OLD MAN @ 5pm: This horrific and poignant plunge into madness starring Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe) and Marc Senter (Starry Eyes) is set deep in the woods and follows a lost hiker (Senter) who stumbles upon the cabin of an erratic and reclusive Old Man (Lang). What starts off as cordial conversation soon turns dangerous as it becomes clear that one or both of them might be hiding a terrifying secret.
BREATHING HAPPY @ 7pm (Director Shane Brady will be in attendance to perform a mind-melting magic show before the film premiere, and also participate in a Q&A afterward): In this mind-bending story of addiction, a recovering addict can celebrate one year of sobriety on Christmas day, but his past demons tempt him to fail. Touching, tragic, frightening, funny, hopeful, and, most importantly, powerfully inspiring and deeply haunting, BREATHING HAPPY is propelled by an imaginative stream-of-consciousness script that goes by like a fevered dream to the hellish heart of the soul, but one you remember vividly.
MIAMI CONNECTION @ 9pm (Accompanying the special presentation is a fun live commentary by the Popcorn Gallery featuring Miami comics Elli Scharlin & Orlando Gonzalez): Meet dragon sound… they play together, taekwondo together, kill ninjas together! An international cult sensation and tribute to the unwavering power of friendship, Woo-sang Park (aka Richard Park) and Y.K. Kim’s MIAMI CONNECTION was the cinematic passion project of Florida-based martial arts teacher, Grandmaster Kim, and combines explosive action set pieces, daring and elaborate fight sequences, and live musical performances from Dragon Sound. With a cast comprised of Kim’s students and plentiful of local talent, MIAMI CONNECTION offers the best traits of regional exploitation filmmaking through the aesthetic of Cannon-esque 80s action. Friends through eternity, loyalty, honesty!
