Films

ALIEN RAIDERS

North Carolina Premiere

(US, R, 2009, 85 min)

Despite the title, Alien Raiders is not a campy gorefest along the lines of Evil Dead II or even last year's Brain Dead.  (Trust us, don't let the title kill it for you.) No, this vicious sci-fi thriller has more in common with The Thing and Dog Day Afternoon than any splatter-a-thon.  Much like The Mist, this is a no-joke film set almost entirely within a cavernous supermarket.  One night as the store is about to close, it's siege by a band of armed soldiers that come roaring out of a van with video cameras and shotguns.  They mean business, and several shoppers are blown away in cold blood as the place is locked down.  All looks familiar until a thin, odd-looking man starts grabbing people by the head and "scanning" them.  He is known as a "spotter." And slowly, Alien lowing the trails of an infestation, looking for the king alien.  Years of underground research have led this team to this supermarket in Buck Lake, Arizona.  But which one of the frightened customers is The King? That's the million dollar question, and it's also the question that these militants seek to answer so that they can blow his head off before the police storm inside to break up this apparent "hostage situation." More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, and language
See the trailer

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BASEMENT JACK

North Carolina Premiere

(US, NR, 2009, 93 min)

From the makers of Evilution comes this throwback to 80’s classic slasher flicks with a glossy modern sheen!  Raised by a looney tunes mother (veteran horror vixen Lynn Lowry) who loved to sadistically electrocute her son every chance she got, Jack now visits homes headed up by blonde-tressed matriarchs who remind him of dear old mom.  He then hides in these families’ basements for weeks at a time to study them before slicing them to bits.  Once everybody’s dead, he arranges the corpses into freaky tableaus of idealized happy homes – just like the kind he wanted as a boy.  But eleven years ago, Jack Riley (Eric Peter-Kaiser) was finally brought down by a policeman’s bullet.  For the past decade, Jack has lived quietly in a state asylum.  But now, Jack Riley has been released!  Haunted by his past, he kills again but this time there is someone waiting.  Karen Cook has waited eleven long years to seek revenge for what was done to her family and end her pain.  If only she can find him before more victims fall to his silvery blade.  Finally, Basement Jack is the second part of a loose trilogy written and produced by Brian Patrick O’Toole.  The first film is Evilution and both movies have scenes set in the same dusty old apartment building called the Necropolitan.  Jack really only includes a few sly nods to Evilution, which can be fun for folks who have seen the first film.  Both films have one or two extended scenes with the same characters, including The Manager. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, and language
Official site: www.basementjackthemovie.com

    Artists in attendance:
  • Eric Peter-Kaiser, Actor/Producer
  • Samuel Skoryna, Actor/Producer

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BLACKSPOT

North Carolina Premiere

(New Zealand, NR, 2008, 84 min)

Ben Hawker's beautifully-scripted directorial debut is part mystery, part road film, part time-travel paradox, and part extraordinarily ambitious supernatural thriller.  It feels like a fascinating, newly discovered episode of The Twilight Zone, but with a very modern twist.  Its plot is almost indescribable without giving away its secrets.  Set in New Zealand on a cold winter night that never seems to end, Blackspot concerns two young men whose friendship is pushed to the limits when their 1970 Valiant station wagon breaks down, stranding them in the middle of nowhere.  They resign to wait out the night in the safety of the Valiant, but soon dread and paranoia start to grip them, and time itself starts to take on a distorted and unsettling quality.  Now, the two friends are fleeing into the chilly countryside, only to find horrors outside the car that far exceed any nightmare, possibly being stalked by a shadowy assailant who seems to anticipate their every move.  And bit by little bit, Blackspot brilliantly reverses on itself; sometimes showing us the same scene from a different perspective, adding new insights about what’s truly happening (or about to happen), and further causing the terrified men to suspect that whomever is now following them is not human.  And why does the dawn fail to arrive?  Radical in concept, risk-taking in execution, and almost obsessively challenging in its quest for originality, Director Ben Hawker creates a nerve-wrecking, audaciously entertaining suspense film for grown-ups.  Blackspot is a devilish changeling that warrants repeat viewings.

The director, Ben Hawker works for the WETA studios in New Zealand.  Previous work includes the effects for 30 Days of Night, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence and language
Official site: www.blackspot.co.nz

Preceded by:

EEL GIRL

(New Zealand, NR, 2008, 6 min)

In a secure military laboratory, a scientist has become obsessed with the half-human/half-eel creature he’s studying.  When she beckons to him, it’s the call of the siren…

Viewer’s Guide: Nudity and violence
Official site: www.eelgirl.net

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CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON in 3-D

Universal Pictures’ original classic!

(US, G, 1954, 79 min)

Nevermore proudly presents this exciting 35mm motion picture in brilliant anaglyphic 3-D!  Starry-eyed scientist David Reed (Richard Carlson), adventurer-investor Mark Williams (Richard Denning) and curvaceous Kay (Julia Adams) penetrate the Black Lagoon to search for a full fossil to match the skeletal claw discovered by Professor Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno).  But what greets them is an aquatic man-fish that takes an instant liking to the way Kay fills out a contoured swimsuit.  The Gill Man decimates the supporting cast while the leads argue the best way to capture it; after he blocks their exit from the Lagoon, the wily creature takes things one step further and claims Kay as a romantic spoil of war.  But you know what they say about fish and visitors after three days. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Nothing objectionable

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THE DISAPPEARED

North Carolina Premiere

(UK, NR, 2009, 96 min)

The Disappeared is a contemporary urban ghost story.  It's been likened to The Omen and The Sixth Sense, but it's also possible to trace influences way back to the good old, and very British days, of Hammer and Amicus, and that's not a bad thing at all.  Matthew's life is devastated after the disappearance of his younger brother.  Matthew watches pre-recorded television coverage of the news conferences and his dad's desperate appeals.  On one of these old tapes Matthew hears his name being whispered.  Suddenly he hears a ghostly voice on one of the tapes telling him, "You never came for me!" It's the voice of his missing brother.  When he tries to sleep, he has recurring nightmares about being buried alive.  In desperation he goes to visit a medium, who tells him that the area has been cursed through the ages.  Her comment sets Matthew down the route of reluctant amateur paranormal investigator as he sets up a cassette recorder to capture a bit of the old Electronic Voice Phenemona.  The voice is there again, this time with a new message.  Matthew starts to see his brother around the estate, and when another child disappears, he feels he has no choice but to follow his instinct, and the voices, whatever the consequences.  The hauntings escalate, Matthew's state of mind deteriorates, and there is no going back as he hurtles towards the stark, chilling truth…you can't bury the past. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Language and violence
Official site: www.thedisappearedthemovie.com

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EVILUTION

North Carolina Premiere

(US, NR, 2008, 92 min)

From the filmmakers of Dog Soldiers and Basement Jack, a recently discovered microscopic alien life form has the ability to possess the living and resurrect the dead; and a young scientist’s last ditch effort to save the human race means he’ll fight through living hell to destroy the living dead.  We open in a military installation in Iraq, where a top secret biohazardous experiment has already gone disastrously wrong.  In the hospital wing we find a white-coated scientist running for his life, the equipment around him toppled and destroyed, the bed sheets and walls bearing ominous sprays of blood.  Less than 28 seconds later a group of wild-eyed, bloodstained zombies block his exit from the building, giving chase with acrobatic tumbling runs and wire-fu gurney-vaults as the doctor runs for his life…and away we go!  Fast, furious, funny and filled with the kinds of arterial sprays that you’ve come to expect from great zombie movies, Evilution is the perfect diversion from all those “serious” horror flicks at the multiplexes.  And the music is by Halloween II and III’s Alan Howarth. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, and language
Official site: www.evilutionthemovie.com

    Artists in attendance:
  • Eric Peter-Kaiser, Actor/Producer
  • Samuel Skoryna, Actor/Producer

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FRANKENSTEIN

Universal Pictures’ original classic!

(US, G, 1931, 71 min)

Victor Moritz (John Boles) and Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) enlist University professor Dr.  Waldman (Edward Van Sloan) to find out why Dr.  Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is acting so reclusive and anti-social about his new research up at the watchtower.  Henry has plenty to hide: He and his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye) have assembled a Monster from parts of corpses and a stolen brain and are preparing to bring it to life.  Waldman stays on to witness the electric revival of the dead tissue, which turns out to be a hulking but essentially pathetic creature, a confused and disoriented Monster (Boris Karloff).  Finding out that its brain is damaged, Henry disowns the creature, leaving Fritz free to torment it with a flaming torch.  The Monster commits murders and escapes from the watchtower, and when its killings spread across the countryside, Henry can no longer deny his connection with it. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Nothing objectionable

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THE HORRIBLY SLOW MURDERER WITH THE EXTREMELY INEFFICENT WEAPON

North Carolina Premiere

Best of Comedy-Horror Shorts

(USA/Canada, NR, 2009, 78 min)

There’s a scream and a giggle in every blood-splattered frame of these hilarious horror comedies.  From Canada comes Auburn Hills Breakdown, a goofy tale about what happens when Leatherface and his clan get stuck for the night in a yuppie, upscale neighborhood.  In Cheerbleeders, a pair of high school outcasts unleashes a timeless evil which turns one of them into…the most popular boy in school!  The fake trailer for Hobo With a Shotgun was the winner of the SXSW Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse Trailer Competition.  Clearly, for trees, Christmas isn't the exciting “peace on earth” that is experienced by most.  But this Christmas will be different, this Christmas the trees have had enough, this Christmas the trees will fight back in Treevenge.  Imagine if Spider-Man and The Hulk were turned into bloodthirsty zombies!  That’s exactly what happens in the live-action short, Marvel Zombies: The Movie.  The neighborhood kids don't believe that their friends' dad killed the Prince of Darkness.  Insisting on proving it, Dad picks up a shovel and starts to dig in How My Dad Killed Dracula.  During a bleak, post-apocalyptic future, two men discover something neither ever expected to meet: A real live woman!  But all is not quite what it seems in The Trade.  A young clerk is sent deep into the dungeon of the Seven Bloody Torturers, where he discovers they are about to face the most painful torture of all: a threat to their name-brand recognition in The Legend of the 7 Bloody Torturers.  And what can be said for The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon?  It's an amazing short film that's not only the wildest comedy of the year, but also the most inspired. More  »

Auburn Hills Breakdown (Canada, 2009, 17 min);
Cheerbleeders (US, 2008, 11 min);
Hobo with a Shotgun (Canada, 2007, 2 min);
The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon (US, 2009, 11 min);
How My Dad Killed Dracula (US, 2009, 14 min);
The Legend of the 7 Bloody Torturers (Canada, 2008, 5 min);
Marvel Zombies: The Movie (US, 2007, 2 min);
The Trade (US, 2008, 7 min);
Treevenge (Canada, 2008, 16 min)

Viewer’s Guide: Language, violence, and gore

    Artists in attendance:
  • Richard Gale, Director/Writer of The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon

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PIG HUNT

North Carolina Premiere

(US, NR, 2009, 97 min)

When John takes a group of his San Francisco friends to his deceased uncle’s remote ranch to hunt wild pigs, it seems like a typical guys’ weekend with guns — despite the presence of John’s sexy girlfriend.&nbp; But as John and his crew trek deeper into the forest, they begin tracking the awful truth about his uncle’s demise and the legend of The Ripper — a murderous three thousand pound black boar!  Their pursuit leads them into the muddy landscape of Big Wallow, involving high-powered weaponry, the violent and unpredictable Tibbs Brothers, massacred emus, a machete-toting Hippie Stranger and throat-slitting Cult Girls who grow dope by day and worship a giant killer pig by night.  By the time the Pig Hunt is done, no one is innocent… or unscathed.  Not for the faint of heart, Pig Hunt is a darkly comic horror film which combines the best elements of Jaws, Razorback and Diner! More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, nudity and language
Official site: www.pighuntmovie.com

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REEL ZOMBIES

North Carolina Premiere

(Canada, NR, 2009, 98 min)

The old adage holds true: Anything that can go wrong on a movie set, will go wrong, including a zombie who will eat your Ipod.  If you've ever wanted to make a horror movie, worked on a horror movie, or wondered what it's like to be on the set of a horror movie, you must see Reel Zombies, a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at a group of Canadian indie filmmakers who want to make a horror movie more than anyone else in the world.  David J.  Francis and Mike Masters are a pair of 30-something year-olds from Ontario who have been making movies like Zombie Night and Zombie Night II: Awakening and now dream about completing their epic trilogy during the wake of an actual zombie apocalypse.  Reel Zombies is a very funny, sometimes very sad film involving desperation, discouragement and diehard ambition.  Unlike Mark Borchardt in American Movie, David J.  Francis and Mike Masters are in on this joke.  They realize that the best laughs aren't found in the grainy footage of the zombie film they are making, but in the smoldering train-wrecked production offices of the cinematic turkey they know they are making, somehow made for peanuts, enlisting volunteer cast and crew.  As Masters hilariously deadpans to the camera, "It's so funny, you start this kind of project off and you're like, "It's gonna be so much better than the last one and we're gonna do all these things different"...but you still do them equally bad.  We've just found new ways to make things shit." Every year, Nevermore receives countless submissions from aspiring filmmakers whose movies test the endurance of our programming committee.  They’re not movies, but instead video journals of what went wrong on location; of interest only to the people who were there to witness the wreckage.  The rest of us stare at the screen, scrutinizing helplessly for an angle of approach.  In Reel Zombies, David J.  Francis and Mike Masters have reconstructed this bad-movie scenario into something wholly original, laughing aloud smartly with the audience at the blinding (and sometimes endearing) self-delusion that is modern low-budget horror movie-making at its worst.  From a Director of Photography who communicates only in foreign bursts of snarkiness and starlets who can't keep their bras clasped to an exasperated cast and crew who show pluck in trying to outlast (and outlive) the material, Reel Zombies is an ambitiously brave horror-comedy about a group of filmmakers who have (finally!) learned that sometimes the most terrifying things about making a horror movie are the filmmakers themselves.  Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the funniest feature film of the festival.  More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, nudity and language
Official site: www.reelzombies.com

    Artists in attendance:
  • David Francis, Co-Director/Producer
  • Stephen Papadimitriou, Producer
  • Mike Masters, Co-Director/Producer
  • LeAne Armano-Masters, Executive Producer

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RESURRECTION COUNTY

North Carolina Premiere

(US, NR, 2009, 98 min)

Hillbillies attack!  That’s as good a hook as we’ll ever come up with.  This is the most dynamic-looking, throat-gripping and inspired vision of a camping trip gone horribly wrong we’ve encountered since Deliverance, in good part because Resurrection County wasn’t made by witless hacks but rather by filmmakers who have genuine affinity for neo Southern gothic horror.  This is a smart, resonant and confident film that juxtaposes the beautifully rugged landscape of Arkansas against the rising desperation of two young couples who take one very wrong turn down an all-terrain vehicle trail in the mountains.  When one of the couples kills a country man in self-defense, the whole town of Enoch will stop at nothing to get revenge for their fallen son.  Now, the surviving campers are being savagely hunted and terrorized.  But Resurrection County has much more on its mind than a simple pursuit-and-escape, it’s also the tale of flawed, likable people caught in situations that slide from bad to worse, of sins that spin out of control and come racing back for brutal vengeance.  More than that, though, director Matt Zettell (The Cellar Door) has crafted a rock-on vision about one of America’s greatest horror myths, with a truly fascinating and original look inside the blood-soaked traditions of mountain people, and with a twist ending that’s as credible, and haunting, as it is unexpected. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Violence, gore, and language
Official site: www.resurrectioncounty.com

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THEY’RE COMING TO GET YOU, BARBRA!

North Carolina Premiere

Best of Horror Shorts

(US, NR, 2008-09, 84 min)

These are some of the most mesmerizing and terrifying films submitted to Nevermore.  These shorts are meant to invoke shudders…and perhaps truly disturb you.  Winner of best horror short at this year’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas is Mike Williamson’s In The Wall: On the eve of the hottest New Year on record, a young pregnant wife happily prepares for the birth of her child.  But her secretive husband may have darker plans for the family.  In Harvest Moon, a couple on the brink of divorce struggle to rekindle their relationship as a van full of would-be burglars show up to rob them.  In Richard Bates, Jr.’s squirm-inducing Excision, Pauline has a younger sister who suffers from cystic fibrosis.  Aware that she will one day need a lung transplant, Pauline becomes convinced that she can perform the operation herself.  First Kill is a compelling tale about a lowly hit man who finds himself the target of a burgeoning serial killer.  And an old man travels back in time to undo a horrible tragedy that has haunted his entire life in Erik Courtney’s Forecast. More  »

Excision (US, 2009, 19 min);
First Kill (US, 2009, 16 min);
Forecast (US, 2008, 15 min);
Harvest Moon (US, 2008, 9 min);
In The Wall (US, 2008, 25 min)

Viewer’s Guide: Graphic violence, gore, language

    Artists in attendance:
  • Richard Bates, Jr., Writer/Director of Excision
  • Alexander Pogozelski, Producer of Excision

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VLOG

North Carolina Premiere

(US, NR, 2008, 71 min)

In this extreme-horror film from the producers of Saw, Brooke Marks creates an obsession in one diabolical fan who posts his own video logs where he stalks and kills Brooke’s friends in extremely gruesome ways!  Brooke Marks is a viral sensation who uses her webcam and covert purse cam to document the highs and lows of her life.  She spices up her video program by starting her own social experiments on the guys she dates, while talking about all the facets of each guy as she lounges in her Victoria Secret bests.  One night, she receives a mysterious invite to watch a “master” at work.  This killer gives Brooke a few lessons on viewer programming by wiping her conquests and friends off the face of the earth!  Her self imposed mentor repeatedly and methodically kills, illuminates the body and cleans up all traces of the victim from start to finish all with no gory detail left out.  The police are no help.  All Brooke can do is sit and wait for the killer’s next vlog episode…which might be her own. More  »

Viewer’s Guide: Explicit violence and gore, language

Vlog

Preceded by:

KIRKSDALE

(US, NR, 2009, 22 min)

In the Deep South of 1960s Florida lies Kirksdale Hospital, a plantation turned mental asylum.  On a warm summer day, the peaceful tranquility of Kirksdale will come crashing down!  You have been forewarned: This is a film which had members of our hardened programming committee hitting the “pause” button in order to catch their breath!

Viewer’s Guide: Explicit violence, gore, language and brief nudity
Official site: www.kirksdale.com

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