Screenings in the Bay (Friday to Sunday): Ready Player One, The Truth is Out There Double Feature, Caught

Happy Friday everyone! 

This is a sparse week for horror, but on the sci-fi front things are getting crazy! I've been hearing a lot of people getting pumped for the release of Ready Player One, and it will be screening all over the place for the next couple of weeks. You can even catch it in 70mm at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theatre. I've also heard that The Overlook Theatre makes something of an appearance in the film...

But if you're looking for a more classic kind of sci-fi, Midnites for Maniacs will be hosting a double feature titled "The Truth is Out There" at the Roxie Theatre Saturday evening. Get there early for Jesse Hawthorne's intros and to get a hand numbered commemorative ticket. And if you're looking for something new to watch at home, Caught is officially available on VOD.

I hope everyone has a great Easter, however you choose to celebrate it! 

Opening This Week

Ready Player One (2018)

Screening All Weekend (2hrs 20min)

In the year 2045, people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. OASIS creator James Halliday left his immense fortune and control of the Oasis to the winner of a contest designed to find a worthy heir. When unlikely hero Wade Watts conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-known as the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.

Screening in 70mm at the Alamo Drafthouse All Weekend

Landmark Clay Theatre

Midnight Madness

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Saturday 31st @ 11:55pm (1hr 41 min)

Comedy/ Scifi/ Horror/ Musical (Rotten Tomatoes)

This low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution concerns the misadventures of Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) inside a strange mansion that they come across on a rainy night. After the wholesome pair profess their love through an opening song, their car breaks down in the woods, and they seek refuge in a towering castle nearby. Greeting them at the door is a ghoulish butler named Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien), who introduces them to a bacchanalian collection of partygoers dressed in outfits from some sort of interplanetary thrift shop. The host of this gathering is a transvestite clad in lingerie, Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a mad scientist who claims to be from another planet.

Roxie Theatre

Midnites for Maniacs Presents

The Truth is out There Double Feature

The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)

Saturday 31st @ 7pm (2hrs 1min)

Drama/ Mystery/ Sci-FI (IMDB)

This 60-million-dollar science fiction suspense drama (marketed with an additional 25 million dollars), was adapted from the popular TV series The X-Files -- arriving in theaters while the Emmy-winning series was still being aired, continuing plot threads familiar to many of the series' 25 million viewers, and featuring several familiar recurring characters introduced during the previous five TV seasons. In 15,000 B.C., a strange creature attacks a caveman. Cut to present day, when a boy at the same North Texas spot falls into a pit and is contaminated by a black substance. When a bomb threatens the Dallas Federal Building, special FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) locate the device but are unable to prevent the explosion. The agency blames Mulder and Scully for the disaster, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations while trying to sever their partnership. In a bar, conspiracy theorist Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), a friend of Mulder's father, tells Mulder about the group behind the explosion, the cover-up of the boy's death, the bodies of four infected rescue workers removed from the Federal Building, the secret government, and the forthcoming plague. Mulder and Scully set out to find answers, and their investigation becomes a foray into the fantastic. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

-with-

Contact (1997)

Saturday 31st @ 9:20pm (2hrs 30min)

Drama/ Mystery/ Sci-Fi (IMDB)

She's known it since she was a young girl, when she would magically connect with distant voices on her father's shortwave radio. She's known it since college, when she chose the search for intelligent extraterrestrial messages as her discipline. She's known it since she bargained for just hours a week of satellite time to sweep the heavens for evidence. And she knows it every time she stares at the countless stars dappling the infinite night sky... Something is out there.

Annihilation (2018)

Sunday 1st @ 9pm (2hrs)

Adventure/ Drama/ Fantasy (IMDB)

Based on Jeff VanderMeer's best-selling Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac. It was written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later).

VOD

Caught (2018)

Available on VOD (1hr 26min)

Horror (IMDB)

A journalist couple invite two strangers into their idyllic village home after noticing strange military activity nearby, but what begins as an informal interview soon descends into a nightmarish fight for survival.

-Huntress

Digging Up The Dirt with KillDozer and Ned Donovan of The Hunted & The Hunted Encore

Every now and then the horror scene becomes saturated with a certain genre or stack of boring remakes that just have everyone begging for something different. Well the web series The Hunted is definitely different and brave in testing the limits of what can be done with the vampire genre. I know you are already thinking vampires have been done but take a second to let the idea of a musical, comedy, action, vampire show sink in. Obviously some dirt needed to be dug up on how this odd little gem called The Hunted and The Hunted: Encore came to be. I was lucky enough to chat with one of the creators, writers, actors Ned Donovan and ask how this wild Undead idea came to life. 

KillDozer: Tell us about The Hunted and The Hunted: Encore. In my mind it sounds like one of those awesome ideas between friends that never actually happens, like "wouldn't it be funny if....?" How did the dream of a "musical, action, comedy about vampires and vampire hunters" come to life?

Ned Donovan: There are kind of two stories here, so I’ll start with the older one. The Hunted is the longest running series on the internet, established in 2001 by Robert (Bob) Chapin. Bob tells this story better than I do but basically he was teaching sword fighting and wanted a way to showcase his students. This is way pre-YouTube or anything like that. It was so successful that other staged combat schools started asking if they could get in on the action, and what happened was not only maybe the first true web series, but also the first web series universe built around fan-submitted content. If you wanted to join the universe right now, you could also join by making your own. To incentivize this, every year Bob runs a contest that gets judged by major industry professionals, the winner gets $1000. A couple years ago, Bob crowdfunded an origin story feature film that has done well at festivals, and is looking to revitalize the entire brand.

Back in 2009, the guy training ME in staged combat made an episode called The Hunted: Generations that I helped to organize and coordinate, but wasn’t actually in. I was at the time studying for my BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College, and myself and other MT/Acting majors put together The Hunted: Expulsion, the first college affiliate. It’s really bad, but it’s still up and out there if you’re curious 😜 Marcus Thorne Bagala, eventual co-founder of Charging Moose Media, was at Berklee College of Music at the time, and scored the old episodes. Expulsion died in the spring of my junior year when I studied abroad in London. We shot two episodes over there that never saw the light of day. Then, in 2013 we tried to revitalize it again in Allentown, PA. We shot two episodes there as well, and they were never finished.

Fast forward to 2016, and the very first project by Marcus and I, Give My Regards to Broadway: Classic Showtunes Reimagined, had just released. GMRTB featured 10 showtunes from 1960 or earlier reimagined for today’s radio genres. Bob had always joked to me that he wanted an episode of The Hunted a la Once More With Feeling or Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, and I had always resisted because I didn’t have the capabilities of making music worthy of those reference points. Marcus, however does, and this collection of songs had proved it. Bob heard the project and said it to me again in May of that year. I called Marcus and said I wanted to write a musical Hunted series starring his wife, Megan. As you’ve seen she’s not only an insanely talented actor/singer, but she’s also been a teacher of Krav Maga for years, so she had the action thing down as well.

While Marcus/Megan were on their honeymoon, I drank a bottle of whiskey and wrote the first draft for 3 episodes of what would become The Hunted: Encore. Both of them agreed that we wanted to do it, and so off we set on the journey. Those 3 episodes became the eventual 4 episodes of season 1. The first season was never intended to continue, though we left it open ended, but after completion we had now learned so much about the show, the form, and what it needed, that we desperately wanted to make a second season, so the 8 episodes of Season 2 were scripted in May of 2017, and we actually wrapped principal photography of season 2 exactly 1 year after the first day of principal photography for Season 1.

KillDozer: Was this always set to be a musical show? What comes first the script or the songs?

Ned: Our affiliate of The Hunted was always intended to be a Musical, but the hundreds of episodes prior are not musical. I write the first draft of the show with overall descriptions of the songs and where they fall. Then we work with songwriters to write the songs. I then go back and adjust the script to match the contributions of the writers, and we begin a sort of back and forth refining on all sides to incorporate the brilliant artistic creations of everyone involved. The final version is always far from where my initial scripts went, but always infinitely better due to the team we’ve built.


KillDozer: Why did you decide to create an online show and not a feature length film?

Ned: The original show is a web series, and we’re an extension. Not unlike CSI: Miami is to CSI. In terms of getting immediate response and output, a web series is frankly a safer investment, though with a much lower ceiling. We’ve had a lot of trouble building a viewer base and finding our audience because of the nature of the medium.



KillDozer: Is everyone involved theatrically trained? You have a lot of singing and choreography taking place around the action and comedy, how long does it take to rehearse and really nail the performance?

Ned: Everyone acting in the show is an NYC-based, primarily theatre-based actor. Except, Bob (season 2), who is the original creator of The Hunted and is deeply seeded in the tv/film world.


KillDozer: You have some incredibly positive feedback online. Did you ever imagine that this project would be as welcome as it is?

Ned: We’ve had really fantastic feedback from everyone who’s seen it. We’ve done extremely well in the festival circuit as well, and season 2 has already won more awards than the first. We haven’t, however, seen a translation into a larger audience, and that’s been our biggest challenge, is finding our audience and getting eyeballs on the show. Almost everyone who’s seen it has loved it, but we haven’t found the formula to grow the way we’d like.


KillDozer: How do you go about balancing all of the elements of The Hunted: Encore in an even way?

Ned: What a great question! As showrunner and scriptwriter I built the framework and the scripts for the show, but once the songs start getting incorporated, everything changes. It takes a lot of people finding much better ways of communicating ideas than I originally scripted and then working with the full team to incorporate.


KillDozer: How close are you in reality to your character "Ned"? Besides the fact that you share the same name of course.

Ned: Well the magic of The Hunted is everyone plays themselves (for the most part). The Queens of the Damned were scripted before we had our incredible actresses, so that was the first time the name convention changed for us. I scripted each character to be an over the top farcical version of the real people involved. For me, I’m pretty similar to the Ned that ends up in the show. The hardest part I find, is writing in other peoples’ voices, so often there are rewrites throughout the process in consultation with everyone, since they are playing themselves. This has always created a much more cohesive script.


KillDozer: What is your overall dream for the show? Are you trying to market it to networks?

Ned: I would love to see the entire universe of The Hunted incorporated into a network of some kind, us included. Each affiliate stands alone really well, and I think ours speaks for itself in that regard. Our first step is to grow our viewership and audience, but that is definitely a dream of mine. We’ve written the outlines for seasons 3 and 4 should we get to them, but right now our focus is on promoting the first two seasons to a wider audience, rather than throwing more episodes into the mix.


KillDozer: What is the shooting schedule like for each episode? Where do you film?

Ned: We actually film the entire season in one shot. Season 1 was filmed on 2.5 days in July of 2016 in 4 separate locations. Season 2 was filmed in 3 days in July 2017, and then a pickup day to capture the vampire vlogs and a couple other things we missed in August. We don’t film episode by episode, but location by location. Season 1 we filmed episode 2 “More Than One” first, and then we moved to the theater for end of 2 and all of 3, and then to the bar where the season kicks off, and the apartment setting. Season 2 we filmed everything in the theater the first day, and then spent two days at the warehouse. The pickup day we shot around Williamsburg Brooklyn to capture the vlogs, and some extra stuff for “Prepare For War”.


KillDozer: This may sound silly but.... Why vampires? Are there any other creatures of the night you bring into the show?

Ned: The original show is all vampires, so are we. The Hunted has its own rules regarding Vamps, though. Sunlight doesn’t hurt them, garlic is whatever, stakes don’t do anything, crosses are useless. The only thing that kills them is removing the head. There are all sorts of scientific reasons that Bob could fill you in on, if you’re curious.


KillDozer: Have you been able to watch the show with people who weren't connected to it ? What reactions did you get?

Ned: The reaction we get from basically everyone is really positive. To me, the best thing about our show is also what makes it hard to find an audience. We are a ton of genres slammed together in a way that takes itself seriously rather than being a sendup. I love the cohesion that brings to the tone of the show, but keeps the winks/nods to only where they are most effective. This has created a show that most commonly people say they've "never seen anything like," which to me, is the greatest compliment you can receive. It also means that when pitching the show to networks, or to an audience, they always go “what other show is it like?” And we don’t have an easy answer. We can say “did you see Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog? It’s sort of like that coupled with Cops and Buffy.” We got an interesting letter from a festival we didn’t get into for season 1 that told us they didn’t know how to slot the show. They couldn’t easily place us in a horror block, but we aren’t the standard comedy fare”, and we’re only kind of an action show, and due to the limited amount of them, most festivals don’t feature a musical block. So we weren’t selected due to inability to program. I love that about our show, but it has been the hardest part about growing our audience. As I say to most people, there is something in our show for almost everyone to enjoy.


KillDozer: Where can we go to follow/watch The Hunted and The Hunted: Encore?

Ned: The best thing to do is to follow us on social media. You can watch our show on our website at www.thehuntedencore.com, and also we’re on Seeka TV, a hulu-like website dedicated to web series.


KillDozer: Whats next for The Hunted?

Ned: In a perfect world we would find our audience, and create the avenue towards funding a third season. We’re still in search, and that is the majority of our focus for the show right now. If we can do that, season 3 is ready to be developed. One thing we never want to do is just deliver the same thing you’ve seen before, and Season 3 incorporates new facets and ideas that I think audiences will really love. So the first step is audience, the next step is season 3!


KillDozer: If you could cast the vampires from any film into any Broadway play who would they be and what play would they be in?

Ned: Well ignoring the vampire musicals that already exist (Dance of the Vampires and Lestat), I would actually love to see Elina Lowensohn’s character from Nadja play Elphaba in Wicked. It would also be truly nutty to see the team from What We Do in the Shadows take on the Mormon characters in The Book of Mormon.


KillDozer: What horror film do you think could make an awesome musical?

Ned: In terms of MUSICAL, I would love to see a gritty, dark musical version of something like The Wicker Man, or something like what became The Little Shop of Horrors done to, say, Trick ‘r Treat. However, one of my dreams is to transform Neil Marshall’s brilliant script for Dog Soldiers into a stage play. Since there are only two true locations, I think it can be done. If someone else steals that, I’m coming for them.


KillDozer: Would you survive the world of The Hunted in real life?

Ned: I doubt it. As I’ve said to many people, I’m extremely well trained in how to fake fight. I think my instincts would cause me to miss bad guys, not actually hit them. The singing part? I’ve got that one down pat.

You guys can get updates on The Hunted and The Hunted: Encore on Facebook, on Twitter and Instagram by searching @ChargingMooseNY, Tumblr, or by going to TheHuntedEncore.com!

-KillDozer

Bluray Tuesday: Featuring Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Behind The Mask & Scanners

March 27th 2018

This month has flown by and here we are at the last Bluray Tuesday of March. First up is Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, remastered and released from Scream Factory along with a few new bonus features. This one is must pickup for me and the slip cover is nice! Also from Scream Factory are Steelbook editions of Prince of Darkness and Assault on Precinct 13. 80's cult classic Scanners hits Bluray today as apart of the Criterion line and it's remastered as well. The remastered trend continues with Arrow Video re-releasing a new copy of Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I love this film and may double dip on this release. The biggest release today is Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi. This comes in a few different versions, standard Bluray, 4K Ultra HD and a few retailer exclusives. Target will carry a digibook packaging and Best Buy will carry an exclusive Steelbook. Mr. Robot season 3 and Marvel's Legion season one both drop today as well just in time to catch up before the new seasons air coming soon. So what will you buy, rent or skip this week? Let us know in the comments. Until next week!

Behind The Mask: Amazon - $21.99

Nice, normal-looking Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) has an obsession with movie-style slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Leslie decides to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, and, ever the self-promoter, invites a documentary filmmaker (Angela Goethals) and her crew to follow him around as he constructs his own grisly legacy.

 

Scanners (1981): Amazon - $39.99

Scanners are men and women born with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. There are many who exercise the benefits of their special gifts in a safe and judicious manner. However, there is a group of renegade scanners who plan to create a race that will rule the world.

 

Star Wars: Episode VII The Last Jedi: Best Buy - $22.99

4K: Best Buy - $27.99

 Luke Skywalker's peaceful and solitary existence gets upended when he encounters Rey, a young woman who shows strong signs of the Force. Her desire to learn the ways of the Jedi forces Luke to make a decision that changes their lives forever. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead the First Order in an all-out assault against Leia and the Resistance for supremacy of the galaxy.

 

 

Steelbook: Best Buy - $27.99

4K: Best Buy - $34.99

 

Digi-Book: Target - $27.99

 

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: Amazon - $17.99

A spaceship that looks like a circus tent lands in a field near a small town, signaling the attack of deviant, red-nosed, balloon-twisting psychos from another world who plan to annihilate mankind by turning people into cotton candy! Luckily, the town's teen citizenry decides to fight back and teach the cosmic bozos a lesson.
 

  

Star Time: Amazon - $24.99

A confused misfit becomes suicidal when his favorite TV show is cancelled. An agent promises to make him a TV star if he kills certain people, so he becomes "The Baby Mask Killer."

 

Prince of Darkness (Steelbook): Amazon - $18.99

A research team finds a mysterious cylinder in a deserted church. If opened, it could mean the end of the world.
 

 

Assault on Precinct 13 (Steelbook): Amazon - $21.99

Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members.

 

I Remember You: Amazon - $11.99

A story about a young man and woman who move into a small abandoned town in Iceland to renovate and old house. Little do they know the town has a dark history.

 

Legion (Season One): Amazon - $24.99

Legion, based on the Marvel Comics by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, is the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as schizophrenic as a child, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. Now in his early 30s and institutionalized once again, David loses himself in the rhythm of the structured regimen of life in the hospital: breakfast, lunch, dinner, therapy, medications, sleep. David spends the rest of his time in companionable silence alongside his chatterbox friend Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), a fellow patient whose life-long drug and alcohol addiction has done nothing to quell her boundless optimism that her luck is about to change. The pleasant numbness of David's routine is completely upended with the arrival of a beautiful and troubled new patient named Syd (Rachel Keller). Inexplicably drawn to one another, David and Syd share a startling encounter, after which David must confront the shocking possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees may actually be real.

Mr. Robot (Season 3): Amazon - $29.99

Follows a young computer programmer who suffers from social anxiety disorder and forms connections through hacking. He's recruited by a mysterious anarchist, who calls himself Mr. Robot.

Welcome Home Brother Charles: Amazon - $25.99

Charles is a Los Angeles pimp and drug dealer who has an affair with the wife of an LAPD detective. The Detective finds out and, with the help of a corrupt Judge, frames Charlie for murder. After a stint in prison Charles emerges a changed man. He Attempts to go straight but is haunted by the injustices he endured and his experience behind bars. Ultimately, Chuck decides to take revenge on those who wronged him. This revenge tale was also released under the title Soul Vengeance.

Acts of Violence: Amazon - $14.99

When his fiancee is kidnapped by human traffickers, Roman and his ex-military brothers set out to track her down and save her before it is too late. Along the way, Roman teams up with Avery, a cop investigating human trafficking and fighting the corrupted bureaucracy that has harmful intentions.

Beast of Burden: Amazon - $14.99

Pilot Sean Haggerty must deliver cocaine across the US-Mexico border for his final run as a drug smuggler. Alone in a small plane, he is faced with the burden of choosing between his allegiance to the Cartel, his deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration and saving his increasingly tense relationship with his wife, eagerly awaiting his return.

-The Impostor

Screenings in the Bay (Monday to Friday): Ready Player One, Killer Party, Play It As It Lays

Well guys, we did it. We had our first event over the weekend, and I hope some of you were there for it 😊 Depending on how you look at it, the Unnamed Footage Festival was kind of the gateway into the film festival season, seeing as the San Francisco International Film Festival will be starting up in just over a week, and will be closely followed by Monsterpalooza. That's not a film festival, but you get what I mean. 

But before I get ahead of myself again, let's see what this week will be presenting us with! The most talked about title is easily Ready Player One, which starts its theatrical run in just two days. One of the more interesting of these screenings will be at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Theatre. They will have the movie screening on their biggest screen in 70mm. Get your tickets today!

Opening This Week

Ready Player One (2018)

Early Screenings Wednesday 28th (2hrs 20min)

Opens Thursday 29th

In the year 2045, people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. OASIS creator James Halliday left his immense fortune and control of the Oasis to the winner of a contest designed to find a worthy heir. When unlikely hero Wade Watts conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-known as the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.

Screening in 70mm at the Alamo Drafthouse Wednesday & Thursday

Alamo Drafthouse

Terror Tuesday

Killer Party (1986)

Tuesday 27th @ 10pm (1hr 31min)

Comedy/ Drama/ Horror (Rotten Tomatoes)

Once again, it's horror on a college campus. The difference between this and other entries in the slice-n-dice genre is that bloodflow is minimal and most of the horror occurs off-screen. That is not to say that there are no queasy acts of violence though. Set just before April Fools Day, the story centers on a trio of sorority pledges who attend a dance held at a haunted frat house where two decades before a pledge lost his head in a hazing gone awry. During the party, the dead frat boy rises up from his gravesite (located in the backyard), takes over the body of one of the girl pledges and embarks upon an evening of bloody, inventive revenge using a variety of tools that include but are not limited too garden utensils, electric wires and even a guillotine.

Weird Wednesday

Something Wild (1986)

Wednesday 28th @ 10:35pm (1hr 54min)

Drama/ Indie Film (Google)

Free-spirited Lulu (Melanie Griffith) sets her sights on uptight banker Charles (Jeff Daniels) for a little bit of fun. Their relationship starts off simple enough with a tryst and some modest adventure, but Lulu wants Charles to pose as her husband at a high school reunion. It seems harmless enough to Charles, but that all changes when Lulu's actual husband, Ray (Ray Liotta), confronts them at the event. Understandably, Ray isn't content to let Charles and Lulu ride off into the sunset.

Castro Theatre

4K Restoration

Bob Le Flambeur (1956)

Wednesday 28th @ 7pm (1hr 38min)

Crime/ Drama/ Thriller (IMDB)

Both a tribute to classic American gangster films and the source of inspiration for French New Wave filmmakers, Bob le Flambeur is the first in a series of stylish noirs that Jean-Pierre Melville started in the mid-'50s. Co-scripted by the popular crime writer Auguste Le Breton (Rififi), this is a story of ex-bank robber and compulsive gambler Bob (Roger Duchesne), who plans a heist at the Deauville casino. As in many films of that genre, he assembles a team of old friends and new acquaintances to do the job and is determined to perform it despite all the odds that continue to pile up before him. The overall tone is admirably lighthearted, however, and despite many stylistic and thematic references to American caper movies, the whole enterprise remains genuinely French. "This is a kind of film that we want to make!" exclaimed the young and rebellious François Truffaut back in 1955. Jean-Luc Godard, in his turn, acknowledged Melville's influence, giving him an extended cameo in Breathless. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

-with-

Rififi (1955)

Wednesday 28th @ 4:45pm & 8:45pm (2hrs 2min)

Crime/ Thriller (IMDB)

Jules Dassin's second European production following his HUAC blacklisting from Hollywood is considered the first heist film, a sub-genre that would later include the likes of everything from The Asphalt Jungle to The Killing to Reservoir Dogs. The film follows the exploits of four thieves--Tony (Jean Servais), Jo (Carl Mohner), Cesar (Dassin himself, under the pseudonym "Perlo Vita") and Mario (Robert Manuel)--who hatch a scheme to rob a Paris jewelry store.

NEVER AVAILABLE on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, DVD or Blu-ray!

Play It As It Lays (1972)

Thursday 29th @ 6:30pm (1hr 39min)

Classics/ Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)

Based on the novel by Joan Didion, this film chronicles the rise and fall of one woman's acting career. Model Maria Wyeth is discovered by director Carter Lang, who marries her. When Lang divorces her and her best friend commits suicide, she has a nervous breakdown.

-with-

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Thursday 29th @ 8:30pm (2hrs 27min)

Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)

After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

Roxie Theatre

Staff Picks

Overlord (1975)

Wednesday 28th @ 7pm (1hr 25min)

Drama/ History/ War (IMDB)

Quiet Tom leaves home and enters the world of war in the British Army with its anxious days of marching and training and waiting only to meet his quick and violent death on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

-Huntress

Screenings in the Bay (Friday to Sunday): Unnamed Footage Festival, Video Vortex

Well it's finally here... Unsane hit theatres this week! We got to check it out at an early screening on the Thursday before its wide release, and we're working on a review as we speak :)

Oh right, and this weekend is also the Unnamed Footage Festival! Comprised of several unreleased found footage films as well as a couple retro screenings, this is a festival for those few who see beyond the the cheap gimmicks of the lackluster found footage films, to the curious and questionable POV films that dare you to ask why you love them. You can get the details and tickets at FilmFreeway.com/UnnamedFootageFilm!

Opening This Week

Unsane (2018)

Opens Friday 23rd (1hr 37min)

Horror/ Thriller (IMDB)

A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear--but is it real or a product of her delusion?

Alamo Drafthouse

Video Vortex

The Soultangler (1987)

Sunday 25th @ 9:15pm (1ht 5min)

Horror (IMDB)

A mad scientist name Anton Lupesky invents a drug that can free the soul of the user and allow them to posses the bodies of corpses. The horrible side effect is sometimes fatal hallucinations that leave the survivors incurably mad.

Balboa Theatre

Unnamed Footage Festival

California Premiere

Cold Ground (France, 2018)

Saturday 24th @ 11am (1hr 24min)

1976: Two young journalists leave for the French-Swiss border to investigate a strange case of cattle mutilations and record testimonies for a TV channel. Yet, once they get there, the scientific team they were supposed to meet has gone missing. Escorted by a first-aider, a British biologist, and an American forensic investigator, Melissa and David will go looking for the missing team deep into the mountains.

Live Q&A After the Film

The Next Big Thing (USA, 2016)

Saturday 24th @ 12:55pm (1hr 23min)
Dark Comedy
The Next Big Thing is a dark comedy about friendship, revenge and the lust for fame. The protagonist is Julian, who, despite his "talent", has never achieved the level of fame he thinks he deserves. When his deranged and estranged best friend Chuck shows up with a plan to make Julian famous by making a film about Julian becoming famous, Julian agrees to do it. Unfortunately for Julian, Chuck's real aim is to make a prank show centered on ruining Julian's life. After a series of embarrassing and painful events Julian begins to regret his decision, but the worse the situation is for Julian, the more popular the videos become. Julian's ego allows Chuck to bring him to the edge of his sanity and beyond.

Butterfly Kisses (USA, 2018)

Saturday 24th @ 3pm (1hr 31min)
Documentary/ Horror

Found footage and urban legend come together in chilling fashion to spin this unsettling film, shot on location in Ellicott City, Maryland. A videographer sorting through used tapes uncovers hours of footage of a young woman obsessed with an apocryphal figure known as “Peeping Tom.” Determined to uncover the mystery behind her fascination, he in turn loses himself in the vanished woman’s tale.

World Premiere

Descent into Darkness: My European Nightmare (France, 2013)

Saturday 24th @ 4:55pm (1hr 24min)
Horror

Sorgoi Prakov, a television cameraman, is travelling through Europe with hand-held cameras to make a “tourist” travelogue for his TV station back home about the “European Dream”. But when his wallet is stolen and the film producers don't answer his calls, Sorgoi's situation gets increasingly dire.

Unfriended (USA, 2015)

Saturday 24th @ 7pm (1hr 23min)
Drama/ Horror/ Mystery (IMDB)

While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself a year earlier. At first they think it's a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends' darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something out of this world, something that wants them dead.

Long Pigs (Canada, 2007)

Saturday 24th @ 9pm (1hr 21min)

A documentary by two desperate young filmmakers who stumble upon the ultimate subject, a 33 year old cannibalistic serial killer named Anthony McAllister, who has agreed to let them document every aspect of his horrifically violent life-style.

North American Premier

Boots on the Ground (UK, 2018)

Sunday 25th @ 11am (1hr 27min)
Horror/ Mystery

Hindu Kush, Afghanistan October 2014. War ends at midnight, all five British soldiers have to do is stay alive till then. After surviving a firefight the five British soldiers try to find a safe haven to sit out the rest of last night of the Afghan war. Trekking through woodland they come across a large imposing British fort dating back to the first British-Afghan war of the early 19th century. As the night unfolds and their mission is finally explained to them, they find themselves engulfed in a labyrinthine nightmare of seemingly un-combatable forces from another realm.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (Romania, 2015)

Sunday 25th @ 1pm (1hr 28min)
International/ Horror/ suspense (Rotten Tomatoes)

A young man in Romania goes to shocking extremes to convince Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway to star in his film.

The Road Movie (Russia, 2017)

Sunday 25th @ 2:55pm (1hr 7min)
International / Documentary (IMDB)

A documentary comprised entirely of footage from dashboard cameras from Russian cars.

Live Q&A After the Film

The Triangle (USA, 1h34m)

Sunday 25th @ 4:35pm (1hr 34min)
Horror/ Mystery (IMDB)

After receiving an unsettling postcard from an estranged friend living in a secluded commune, four filmmakers take their cameras into the wilderness of Montana to document the mysterious inner workings of the group on their disconcerting road to self-sufficiency, witnessing something more shocking than they ever imagined.

#Screamers (USA, 2016)

Sunday 25th @ 6:50pm (1hr 25min)
Mystery/ Horror (IMDB)

When an internet company decides to investigate a series of 'Screamer' videos, they are confronted with havoc and hell they could never expect.

WNUF: Halloween Special (USA, 2013)

Sunday 25th @ 8:45pm (1hr 23min)
Comedy/ Horror (IMDB)

The 'WNUF Halloween Special' is a stunning found footage film expose of terrifying supernatural activity that unfolded at the infamous Webber House, the site of ghastly murders. Local television personality Frank Stewart leads a group of paranormal investigators including Catholic exorcist, Father Joseph Matheson and the prolific husband-and-wife team Louis and Claire Berger. Together, the experts explore the darkest corners of the supposedly haunted Webber House, trying to prove the existence of the demonic entities within.

-Huntress