A veritable feast for fans of horror and dark fantasy, this month's New York City Horror Film Festival will host more than 50 films and shorts at the Tribeca Cinemas. The festival boasts works from F. W. Murnau and William Lustig, as well as the new film SWEATSHOP. Our readers should take particular interest in SWEATSHOP, as two of the men behind it are Icons friends Ted Geoghegan as writer, and America's Baddest Kid John Torrani in a producer role. SWEATSHOP shows on November 20, and I'll be there to cover the event for Icons.
Come out and show your support for SWEATSHOP and other horror films at the NYCHFF, a festival dedicated exclusively to horror lovers.
Read the official press release below, which includes contact information for the Tribeca:
NEW YORK, NY – November 5, 2009 – Organizers of The 2009 New York City
Horror Film Festival (NYCHFF) today announced this year’s feature film
lineup which includes over fifty feature and short horror and Sci-fi films
from America and around the globe ranging in subject matter from terrifying
to gory to hysterically funny.
Tickets for the 8th Annual NYCHFF and complete schedule of films in
competition are now available online at the festival’s website:
http://www.nychorrorfest.com/.
The NYCHFF will take place November 18 - 22, 2009 and will be held at the
Tribeca Cinemas, located at 54 Varick Street at Canal Street. The NYCHFF’s
Kick-Off Gala will take place on November 18 at 8:00pm at BLVD (Spring &
Bowery) and will feature five bands, 20 short films, complimentary cocktails
and more.
Programming for the festival includes more than 50 horror and Sci-fi feature
and short films, parties, and panel discussions.
“We received more entries than ever before this year and are thrilled by the
high caliber of excellent films submitted for this year’s festival,” said
Michael Hein, founder of The New York City Horror Film Festival. “The 2009
NYCHFF will prove to be one of the best years of the festival for film
aficionados and general horror fans.”
The festival’s 2009 feature film presentations are:
*Cornered (Feature / Horror) *
*Directed by Daniel Maze <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2859393/>*
A serial killer is stalking the gritty streets of Los Angeles. It’s all over
the news, but that doesn’t stop the crew at a local convenience store from
their weekly poker game. Now, trapped inside the store with a deranged
killer the group must fight to make it through the night alive. Stars Steve
Guttenberg, James Duval and the hysterical Ellia English.**
*Must Love Death (Feature / Horror / Comedy) *
*Directed by Andreas Schaap*
Disappointed by love and suicidal people, Norman arranges to meet a group of
like-minded people. But when he arrives at the meeting the alleged suicides
goes very wrong and hilarity and blood start to flow freely.
* *
*Sweatshop (Feature / Horror) *
*Directed by **Stacy Davidson*
A group of rave promoters decide to throw a party in an enormous vacant
factory... But when the oversexed friends throw back a few drinks and begin
setting up, they soon realize, a beastly all-seeing presence resides in this
enormous place, and it drags a mammoth, inhuman weapon that serves only one
purpose: to end the lives of anyone who trespasses here.
*The Revenant (Feature / Horror / Comedy)*
*Directed by D. Kerry Prior*
Officer First Class Bart Gregory is killed while fighting in Middle East.
His body is shipped back to the United States and laid to rest, but before
the lid can be put on his tomb, Bart inexplicably awakens in his coffin and
climbs from his grave; A Vampire? A Zombie? No…..A Revenant! Now, this
average guy must feed on human blood or rot away.
*Nosferatu**; Orlok The Vampire in 3D!! (Feature / Retrospective)*
*Directed by F.W. Munarau*
This classic 1921 silent film Directed by F.W. Murnau and staring the
immortal Max Shriek as Count Orlok is reborn completely restored, remastered
and brought back to life in gorgeous 3D. This is a once in a lifetime
opportunity for film fans to see one of the greatest and one most
recognizable classic silent horror films in 3D on the big screen!
*Maidenhead (Feature / Horror / Art House)*
*Directed by Jim Spanos *
Poor Martin doesn’t have much of a life. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, he
hasn’t been sleeping well, and he still lives at home... with his father,
who is an obnoxious, bloodthirsty monster strapped to a bed. Did we mention
he isn’t sleeping well? Martin (AJ Bowen of *House of the Devil *and *The
Signal) *spends his days going numbly about the business of tending to his
Dad’s grisly needs. Every day is just like the last, until Martin meets an
innocent church-going girl named Meredith, who gives him hope of something
more. But what about Dad?
* *
*The Shadow Within (Feature / Horror / Ghost)*
*Directed by Silvana Zancolo <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0952846/>*
In a gloomy and sinister atmosphere, little Maurice Dumont can’t escape his
infernal reality. Dominated by an inhuman mother who rejects him, an absent
father and the ghost of his brother who refuses to die. In a claustrophobic
overwhelming environment, obsessed by dead and living presences, Maurice
seems to have no way out, as death silently creeps into his old gothic
house.
*Maniac (Feature / Retrospective & Achievement Award)*
*Directed by Willaim Listig*
This 1980 grindhouse classic is back on the big screen! Starring Joe Spinell
as the deranged Frank Zito. Frank is an embittered loser who talks to
himself and his dead mother, stalks a pretty model (legend Caroline
Munro<http://www.allmovie.com/artist/caroline-munro-51346>),
and spends his spare time brutally murdering and scalping women. A pristine
35 mm print will screen as part of this Lifetime Achievement Award program
dedicated to Director / Producer William Lustig.
*William Lustig Lifetime Achievement Award*
As a kid, auteur William Lustig avidly watched a huge volume of lowdown
trashy exploitation fare on 42nd Street’s grindhouse theaters. Working way
through the film business, Lustig found himself at the center of a storm of
controversy when he made the grim, and gory landmark horror film "Maniac"
which boasts an incredibly intense performance by legendary character actor
Joe Spinell and hideously graphic make-up f/x by horror icon Tom Savini.
Lustig followed up with the tough, gritty and exciting urban revenge thiller
"Vigilante." He delivered another winner with the terrific "Maniac Cop," and
the series follow ups 2 & 3, Hit List"and the suspenseful serial killer
thriller "Relentless" all excellent and entertaining. Lustig's last film as
a director was the nifty fright flick "Uncle Sam." William Lustig has also
produced a staggering 84 films and TV projects to date. He went on to create
the distribution company Blue Underground that lovingly restores and puts
out some of the best classic genre films of all time!
*Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (Feature / Horror) *
*Directed by Frank Sabatella*
Long Island, 1978: A young girl named Mary Mattock gruesomely murders her
family and is locked away at the notorious Kings Park Psychiatric Center.
Ten years later Mary escapes, leaving a grizzly wake of bodies and blood.
Gunned down by the police, Mary meets her own demise outside the sanitarium
walls. This incident gave birth to the legend of Mary Hatchet’s walking
ghost and the mischievous night named in honor of her death, BLOOD NIGHT!
Starring genre favorites Bill Moseley and Danielle Harris, Blood Night puts
a neck-breaking spin on the gory and gut wrenching slasher films of the
80’s.
The 2009 New York City Horror Film Festival—is presented by Moodude Films.
For more information and tickets, visit the festival’s website:
http://www.nychorrorfest.com/.
--Phil Fasso
And if you like odd things, or you are an odd thing, and you happen to be the Los Angeles/Burbank area be sure to stop by Hyaena Gallery:
produce. According to the article:
horror comedy VAMPS at the American Film Market. Heckerling is more known for her coming of age comedies such as FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and CLUELESS than horror fare, so it'll be interesting to see how she does with a romantic comedy about young, attractive vampires. 
The October Big Giveaways continue at Icons of Fright. The fine folks at Warner Bros. have supplied us with copies of the 15th Anniversary Edition of Oliver Stone's 1990's classic NATURAL BORN KILLERS. 
school, and a more recent friend Jonathan, who’s as much a staple on the circuit as some of the guests. 
should tell you all you know about what a classy lady Catriona MacColl is:
interim, John had gone off at one point to get Mears to add his signature to the many others on John’s hockey mask;