This week has it all: two new and inciting horror titles, a handful of new and international film festival features, and one surprise screening that is currently tickling my imagination! And that's not even considering Hellraiser, which is the Terror Tuesday of the week, or The Blue Max, which is our Super Shangri-La feature in the middle of the week. It's all very exciting, but will require some very tough decision making, so read on, film fans!
Opening This Week
Early Screenings Thursday 12th (1hr 40min)
Opens Friday 13th
Horror/ Suspense/ Sci-Fi (Rotten Tomatoes)
A harmless game of "Truth or Dare" among friends turns deadly when someone--or something--begins to punish those who tell a lie--or refuse the dare.
Limited Theatres & VOD Friday 13th (1hr 50min)
Art House/ Horror (Rotten Tomatoes)
Four siblings seek refuge in an old home after the death of their mother, only to discover that the house has another, more sinister, inhabitant, in this haunting directorial debut from Sergio G. Sánchez, screenwriter of The Orphanage and The Impossible.
Monday 9th @ 7pm (1hr 50min)
Drama/ Horror/ Mystery (Rotten Tomatoes)
"Brick," while taking its cues and its verbal style from the novels of Dashiell Hammett, also honors the rich cinematic tradition of the hard-boiled noir mystery, here wittily and bracingly immersed in fresh territory - a modern-day Southern California neighborhood and high school. There, student Brendan Frye's piercing intelligence spares no one. Brendan is not afraid to back up his words with actions, and knows all the angles; yet he prefers to stay an outsider, and does - until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes.
Terror Tuesday
Tuesday 10th @ 9:45pm (1hr 34min)
Horror (Rotten Tomatoes)
The directorial debut from horror novelist Clive Barker stars Sean Chapman as a man who buys a strange Chinese puzzle box in a sex shop only to discover that its solution opens a portal to Hell.
Weird Wednesday
Wednesday 11th @ 9:45pm (1hr 36min)
Fantasy/ Musical/ Romance (IMDB)
In this film, the mysterious Kira (Olivia Newton-John) appears to assist and inspire a young artist, Sonny Malone (Michael Beck). When she helps him meet up with the rich Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), the two join up together to create an artistic and business success, an unique club called "Xanadu."
Thursday 12th @ 7:45pm & 10:20pm (1hr 30min)
Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
Also Screening at the Landmark Embarcadero Theatre
Super Shangri-La Show
Wednesday 11th @ 7:30pm (2hrs 36min)
Action/ Drama/ Romance (IMDB)
Based on a novel by Jack D. Hunter, The Blue Max is a World War I aviation drama, told from the German point of view. Low-born infantryman George Peppard becomes a pilot, almost deliberately stepping on the sensibilities of his aristocratic comrades in the process. A national hero, Peppard wins the Blue Max, the highest award that can be bestowed upon an aviator. His fame is exploited by general James Mason, who tolerates Peppard's affair with Mason's wife Ursula Andress. The canny Mason knows that, eventually, Peppard will be expendable, and a "heroic" death can be arranged. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Creativity Theatre
SFIFF
Creativity Theatre
SFIFF
Monday 9th @ 8:30pm (1hr 47min)
Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)
Moll is 27 and still living at home, stifled by the small island community around her and too beholden to her family to break away. When she meets Pascal, a free-spirited stranger, a whole new world opens up to her and she begins to feel alive for the first time, falling madly in love. Finally breaking free from her family, Moll moves in with Pascal to start a new life. But when he is arrested as the key suspect in a series of brutal murders, she is left isolated and afraid. Choosing to stand with him against the suspicions of the community, Moll finds herself forced to make choices that will impact her life forever.
SFIFF
Monday 9th @ 9pm (1hr 48min)
Action/ Thriller (IMDB)
Jen (fearlessly embodied by Matilda Lutz, Rings) is enjoying a romantic getaway with her wealthy boyfriend which is suddenly disrupted when his sleazy friends arrive for an unannounced hunting trip. Tension mounts in the house until the situation abruptly--and viciously--intensifies, culminating in a shocking act that leaves Jen left for dead. Unfortunately for her assailants, Jen survives and reemerges with a relentless, wrathful intent: revenge. A white-knuckle tale of transgression and transformation, REVENGE gloriously blurs the lines of vengeance and survival while simultaneously delivering a ferocious dissection of gender and genre.
Thursday 12th @ 6pm (1hr 33min)
Art House/ Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)
After a banal accident in her village, Shula, an eight-year-old girl, is accused of witchcraft. After a quick trial, she is found guilty and locked up in a witches' camp.
Also Screening Friday 13th @ Yerba Buena Theatre
Hitchcock and Other Masters of Suspense
Gaslight (1940)
Wednesday 11th & Thursday 12th @ 7:30pm (1hr 24min)
Thiller (IMDB)
Twenty years after the murder of Alice Barlow, her house is finally occupied again. However, the husband of the couple who have moved in has a secret which he will do anything to keep hidden.
-with-
The Uninvited (1944)
Wednesday 11th & Thursday 12th @ 5:30pm & 9:05pm (1hr 39min)
Fantasy/ Horror/ Mystery (IMDB)
The Uninvited is one of the rare Hollywood ghost stories that does not cop out with a "logical" ending. In fact, the film has more in common with British ghost tales of the period, in that the characters calmly accept spectral visitations as though they were everyday occurrences. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland) and his sister, Pamela (Ruth Hussey), buy a house on the Cornish seacoast, never suspecting that it is a "bad" house, subject to haunting. Before long, Roderick and Pamela are visited by Stella Meredith (Gail Russell), whose late mother, it is said, is the house ghost. It is further supposed that the ghost means to do Stella harm. Stella's grandfather Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) is close-mouthed on the issue, but it is clear he knows something that he isn't telling. Sure enough, there is a secret to the manor: it is inhabited by not one but two ghosts, one of whom is merely trying to shield Stella from harm. Once the film's deep dark secret is revealed (courtesy of a virtuoso "mad speech" by supporting actress Cornelia Otis Skinner), Roderick is able to single-handedly exorcise the estate and claim Stella as his bride. Based on the novel by Dorothy Macardle (with a few uncredited "lifts" from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca), The Uninvited remains one of the spookiest "old dark house" films ever made, even after years of inundation by computer-generated special effects. Less effective was the 1945 sequel, The Unseen, which starts well but degenerates into a substandard murder mystery.
SFIFF
Wednesday 11th @ 9pm
Join us for a very special advance screening of a star-studded period biopic with Gothic trappings depicting the origin story of one of literature's most iconic villains. Ticket holders agree not to write, talk, or Tweet about this highly anticipated film before its official premiere.
SFIFF
Wednesday 11th @ 6pm (1hr 11min)
International/ Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)
Alice works in a call center in the outskirts of Zurich, selling internet subscriptions and insurance deals to strangers on the other end of the line. After work she walks through the city, which seems to function without any friction. Inspired by her job, she calls lonely grandmothers and pretends to be their granddaughter in urgent need of money. As she quickly makes a fortune with this trick, the film portrays and explores various places and people in the city of Zurich, all strangely connected to Alice's deed.
Also Screening Friday 13th @ Roxie Theatre
-Huntress
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