Hollywood Gothique

Screamfest, which takes place every October at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre 6 in Hollywood, is the best of the Los Angeles horror festivals. Over the course of ten days – from October 10 through 19 – they will screen dozens of films, often with the cast and crew in attendance for Q&A sessions afterwards. This year, unfortunately, there are no anniversary screenings and/or cast-and-crew re-unions, so the emphasis is on new and independent titles. Below the fold is the complete schedule.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10

• 7:30pm: TRICK OR TREAT: The long-awaited horror film from director Michael Dougherty, produced by Bryan Singer (X-MEN) and starring Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11

• 12:00pm: Short Subjects Program 1
• 2:30pm: Short Subjects Program 2
• 5:00pm: VERTOBEN (short) and 100 FEET (feature). The later is directed by Eric Red, with Famke Janssen and Michael Pare. It’s about a woman under house arrest after killing her husband; unfortunately, the house is haunted by her husband.
• 7:30pm: BURROWERS: horror film set in the old west.
• 9:30pm: FEAST II – SLOPPY SECONDS is a follow-up to the cult hit from 2006.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12

• 12:00pm: SPINE TINGLER: THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY is a documentary about the gimmicky filmmaker.
• 2:00pm TALE OF HAUNTED MIKE (short) and KING OF THE HILL (feature). A thiller about a couple in an isolated area menaced by a sniper.
• 4:00pm: FUN ON EARTH (short) and DANTE 01 (feature). The later is fantasy film about a space station full o fthe criminally insane, directed by marc Caro, co-director of CITY OF LOST CHILDREN.
• 6:00pm: CITIZEN (short) and ACOLYTES (feature). In the latter, three teenagers black mail a killer after finding the corpse he disposed of.
• 8:00pm: BURYING THE EX (short) and GATES OF HELL (feature). The latter is not a remake of Lucio Fulci’s CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (which was retitled GATES OF HELL in some places). Instead it is about five filmmakers investigating a haunted manor with an evil reputation.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13

• 7:00pm: QUIETUS (short) and THE DISAPPEARED (feature). A man hears chilling voices on a recording, which leads him to investigate a series of missing children.
• 9:00pm: DANCE OF THE DEAD is a way cool horror-comedy about nerds who must rescue their schoolmates when zombies invade the prom. From Gregg Bishop, drector of THE OTHER SIDE.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14

• 7:00pm: WELCOEM HOME (short) and KEEPSAKE (feature). The latter is a thriller about a girl trapped in a cellar.
• 9:30pm: THE SEASON sees some excommunicated Amish family kidnapping strangers deemed suitable as “breeders.”

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15

• 7:00pm: SPLINTER (Centerpiece FIlm) is a thriller about a couple carjacked by an escaped convict and his girlfriend.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16

• 7:00pm: THE COLLECTIVE is a supernatural thriller about a man searching for his missing sister among a depraved community living in a deconsecrated cathedral.
• 9:00pm: TRAIN  Question-and-Answer session with director Gideon Raff and actress Thora Birch.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

• 7:00pm: PARASOMNIA: Writer-director William Malone (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) offers up a new thriller, a modern take on “Sleeping Beauty,” that involves hypnotism and deadly creatures lurking in dreamland.
• 9:30pm: CLOWN and TOUR DE FRIGHT and EDEN LAKE.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18

• 1:00pm: NIGHT OF THE LIVING JEWS, ZOMBIE GETS A DATE, MARVEL ZOMBIES: THE MOVIE, and ZOMBIEMANIA (documentary featuring George Romero, tom Savini, Max Brooks, Wade Davis)
• 3:00pm: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is about a bullied schoolboy who befriends a girl vampire.
• 5:00pm: THE ALPHABET KILLER stars Eliza Dushku as apolice investigator obsessed with a brutal murder. Cary Elwes (SAW), Michael Ironside (SCANNERS), and Bill Mosely (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II) co-star for director Rob Schmidt.
• 7:00pm: BOOGEYMAN 3 – yes, he’s back, like it or not.
• 9:30pm: MARTYRS – years later, a woman abused as a child sets out to avenge herself upon her attackers.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19: Awards Presentation (by invitation only)