Friday Night Frights
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Around the world, only a smattering of the best horror films come out in theaters, and gobs of great gore go softly into the night, never to be screamed at on the silver screen. In the past, Cinefamily has reserved just the month of October as an excuse to make merry in the macabre and delight in an onslaught of slaughter; and once All Hallow’s Eve has come and gone, our poor patrons must lurch back to their bloodless daily lives, secretly wishing that the terrifying times never need end. Well, fear not, for now every month is horrific at the Cinefamily! Midnight is the witching hour, and every other Friday night, Friday Night Frights brings you the finest cuts in upcoming horror and gruesome genre cinema, as well as devious picks from the repertory crypt, all with guests galore.
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS' "Sam Neill Madness Trilogy": Event Horizon
In space, no one can hear Sam Neill scream! Amongst a somewhat uneven period for filmic horror (the late-’90s), one titanic thrillride still stands outlandishly tall, in a knee-deep puddle of viscera: 1997’s Event Horizon, the Hellraiser-meets-Alien mashup. A strong turn from schlockmeister Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), the film catapults the simple haunted house concept into, space and executes it arguably more effectively than most space opera horror films, including some of the later Alien sequels. Featuring an interstellar cast led by sinister and increasingly insane science officer Sam Neill (are you seeing a pattern here?), Event Horizon concerns a mysteriously returned starship, and a dimensional rift which may or may not be a doorway to Hell. The images Anderson conjures are truly frightening, and as Sam & Co. unravel under the ship’s malevolence, the zero-G gore flies free in some of the most warp-driven setpieces of the decade. Reserve your seat now on this space-ride to terror you won’t soon forget; there’s horror on the Horizon!
Dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, 1997, 35mm, 95 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for the “Sam Neill Madness Trilogy”!
Watch the trailer for “Event Horizon”!
FREE SNEAK PREVIEW: 100 Bloody Acres (presented by Friday Night Frights)
NOTE: This show is free (first-come, first-serve). To help us track attendance and limit waiting line size, you must pre-register for “first-come, first-serve” admission. One registration per person. All current Cinefamily members get first entry. Your registration does not guarantee you a seat. Early arrival is highly recommended. Doors will open 30 min. before showtime. No one will be admitted after the film has begun.
Who says America is the authority on evil hillbillies and rural horror? Sure, we kicked things off with Deliverance, but it doesn’t get any more terrifyingly “backwoods” than Australia — with the vast majority of its mass a spooky, arid wasteland. In the new horror comedy 100 Bloody Acres, brothers Reg (Damon Herriman of Justified) and Lindsay Morgan have stumbled upon a secret “recipe” to help their organic fertilizer business: adding dead car crash victims to their product. Out in the middle of nowhere, no one asks too many questions — but lately, supply has been running low. That is, until Reg stumbles upon three city-slicker travelers stranded on the side of the road, and he decides that maybe the Morgan Bros. should consider using fresh ingredients. Funny, gory and refreshingly clever, 100 Bloody Acres marks the feature debut of a great new talent in the international horror community: brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes.
Dirs. Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes, 2012, digital presentation, 91 min.
Watch the trailer for “100 Bloody Acres”!
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS' "Sam Neill Madness Trilogy": Possession
Capturing the energy generated when two people whose lives are so intensely fused and woven are forcibly split, Possession is an emotional nuclear explosion. If all we were given were its operatic and shamanistic performances by leads Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, its impossible-to-describe music by Andrzej Korzynski, and its masterful, hyper-kinetical ballet of camera choreography — all delivered with the force of a long-repressed traumatic memory — then Possession would already be the best film about divorce ever filmed. But when the angels and demons of our inner nature are literally incarnated in phantasmagorical form — the kind requiring the talents of Oscar-winning creature FX master Carlo Rambaldi (who, instead of making a cutey-pie “E.T.”, concocts a tentacled Lovecraftian octo-sex-demon) — you have the kind of explosively cathartic and entertaining experience that leads to movie-lover nirvanic bliss. Welcome to Possession, your new favorite movie.
Dir. Andrzej Zulawski, 1981, 35mm, 123 min.
Watch Cinefamily’s original trailer for the “Sam Neill Madness Trilogy”!
Watch the legendary excerpt of Isabelle Adjani going bat-shit crazy in “Possession”!
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS: The Incredible Melting Man (Blu-Ray release party!)
PRESENTED BY SCREAM FACTORY
A gleefully gonzo and gooey gross-out, The Incredible Melting Man is a singular theatrical experience that truly lives up to its crazed, pulpy title. Originally intended as an homage to the great “atomic age” horrors of the Fifties, William Sachs’s clever satire was recut by its original distributor to cash in on the horror craze, imbuing the insanity concerning an astronaut exposed to outer space radiation with a legitimate feeling of dread possibly otherwise lost in the edit. The centerpiece here is the sublimely icky make-up work by Rick Baker, the SFX genius on the cusp of breaking big with An American Werewolf In London and numerous other unforgettable ‘80s films. The titular Melting Man is a truly revolting sight, and you can imagine Baker giggling behind the camera as the character devolves and dissolves with every passing scene. Scream Factory is releasing this beautiful slab of mayhem on stunning Blu-Ray on July 30th — come celebrate this exultant occasion with us, as we hold an extremely rare 35mm showing in all its face-melting resplendence!
Dir. William Sachs, 1977, 35mm, 84 min.
Watch the trailer for “The Incredible Melting Man”!
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS: Magic
There is nothing more truly terrifying than the dead, soulless gaze of a ventriloquist dummy, and in the pantheon of dummy horror, 1978′s Magic remains the big-screen standard-bearer. Ever since 1945’s Dead of Night, stories of malevolent dummies have been a consistently effective means of creeping out viewers simply by having a dummy slowly turns its head or speak of its own accord — but Magic has more on its mind. Directed by Richard Attenborough (whose follow-up film was the bone-shattering Gandhi), and starring a young Anthony Hopkins as the madness-descending ventriloquist “Corky”, Magic takes the inherently creepy motif and turns it into a study of derangement worthy of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Rounding out the cast are Burgess Meredith as Corky’s long-suffering agent, and Ann-Margret as Corky’s soon-to-be-suffering girlfriend, but the real star of the show here is “Fats”: a cartoonish, unsettling carved Hopkins facsimile with a strangulated voice reminiscent of the Cryptkeeper. With its unrelenting creepiness and slow-burn suspense, Magic is a chillfest for the ages — so don your coattails, top hat and best monocle and join us, dummy!
Dir. Richard Attenborough, 1978, 35mm, 107 min.
Watch the original freaky-deaky teaser trailer for “Magic”!
