Selected in 2001 to be included in the National Film Registry, Charles Bartons Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a rare breed of horror comedy. Unlike latter-day movies of the same ilk, the filmmakers pay their due respects in that they abstain from ridiculing the monsters, permitting them to retain their image while issuing the pratfalls to the comedic duo, thus accounting for much of the films success. What results in a fitting farewell to the most famous monsters in horror history. Baggage clerks Wilber Grey (Lou Costello) and Chick Young (Bud Abbott) receive the packages of Mister McDougal (Frank Ferguson), the proprietor of McDougals Shop of Horrors, from Europe, which contain the bodies of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange). After dismissing an apprehensive warning from Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) not to deliver and – under no circumstances – open the crates, the clerks do just that. The monsters are thereby awakened and the Count, realizing that Frankensteins creation is in a weakened state and must be given a new brain, abducts Wilber as the unwilling volunteer as Chick and Talbot attempt to thwart the Counts evil plans! More »
A truly terrifying and suspenseful horror thriller starring Eric Lange (ER, Entourage) and Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Swamp Thing), David Priors AM1200 may very well be one of the best films at this years Nevermore! This 40 minute flick enjoys a look every bit as professional as a multimillion dollar production. Cocky investment analyst Sam Larson has a lot of his mind. After a financial scam goes horribly wrong, he hits the road in a desperate bid to outrun his guilt. (Think of the first few reels of Psycho.) A fragment of a radio broadcast that may or may not be a distress call lures him to an isolated radio station in the wilderness and into a terrifying mystery! Shrove Tuesday is a dark fairy tale from the United Kingdom. Its homage to the Brothers Grimm and a story about medieval vengeance as a young woman — murdered for her beliefs — returns from the grave to slay all those who sent her to hell. And when a sleazy real estate broker approaches a mysterious landowner to buy an abandoned coal mine in Sinkhole, he finds that there is something far worse than a mine fire underneath the land. More »
AM 1200
Shrove
Official sites
AM1200: www.am1200.com
Sinkhole: www.sinkholemovie.com
Bonnie and Clyde vs Dracula is a film title that instantly conjures up any number of scenarios, each one as zany as the next. Make no mistake: this is not camp, but an honest hybrid of gangster and gothic horror. Fallen on hard times and looking for a big score, Bonnie and Clyde (B movie mainstays Tiffany Shepis and Trent Haaga) meet up with their bumbling acquaintance Henry. The trio decides to knock off a moonshine distribution route, but the heist inevitably goes sour and leaves the group with a hot truck and a handful of dead bodies. In the aftermath, Clyde convinces Bonnie to go down the street to rouse a local doctor from his house for help. But the doctor down the road is not an ordinary doctor. The good doctor, who is so badly deformed from a mysterious "condition" that he wears a bag on his head, has somehow acquired the body of the legendary Count Dracula and is attempting to revive him! More »
Official site:
www.bcvdmovie.com
Cryptic is a dazzling supernatural thriller about going back in time to avert disaster. It features a cast of veteran character actors and stunning debut performances, all portraying a darkly dysfunctional family in meltdown. Its a story of puzzles, ghosts, time-travel, evil plots and twists that fold back on themselves, defying your expectations and creating an unlikely hero. Julie Carlson stars as a teenager who stumbles across the mobile phone she received as a birthday present nine years earlier. On a whim, she dials her old telephone number and reconnects with her younger self on the very day that her mother is electrocuted in the family swimming pool! More »
Official site:
www.crypticmovie.com
Dawning takes place at a Minnesota lake cabin where a brother and sister visit their father and step-mom. As the first night unfolds with uncomfortable small talk and tension, a stranger appears — under the spell of some unseen presence — and tells the family that something evil is watching them from the woods. Filled with the chaotic and the unknown, Dawning takes a cerebral approach to horror, relying on atmosphere and mood rather than shock and gore. More »
Official site:
www.dawningthemovie.com
Evil Angel is an adrenaline-charged, high-budget, horror thrill ride in the tradition of Lifeforce and The Hidden. It stars Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Dawn of the Dead) as a tough detective in pursuit of an ancient killer. Legendary cinematographer Bill Butler (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) provides the films richly atmospheric look. The eye-popping visual effects are by Digiscope (Terminator: Rise of the Machines, Van Helsing, The Mummy Returns). According to Kabbalistic mythology, Lilith was Adams first wife in the Garden of Eden. Adam didn't like her because she wasn't submissive enough, so God banished her from the garden. She's been wreaking havoc on earth ever since, and let's just say that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially not one who can possess the bodies of her victims! Evil Angel is the find of the fest and one of the funnest horror films in year! More »
Official site:
www.evilangelmovie.com
Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and demons are the subjects of these four terrifying (and sometimes hilarious) shorts! Crooked Lane is a supernatural thriller set in New Hampshire about a mothers desperate attempt to stay sane after the mysterious disappearance of her daughter. In Robert Glickerts Road to Moloch, a team of reconnaissance marines encounter a blood-spattered Iraqi man stumbling through the desert. After following the distraught man into the depths of an insurgent cave, the marines make a horrifying discovery bringing them face-to-face with an ancient evil. Dead Bones stars Ken Foree (The Devils Rejects, Dawn of the Dead) as a mysterious bartender in a half-abandoned European village during the Old West. When a bounty hunter arrives in town, searching for an escaped criminal, he soon discovers that the few remaining locals have unusual customs. And what to say about The Familiar except that being a vampires assistant just sucks! Its a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek film about an unfortunate human soul who serves as a caretaker to corrupt and neurotic egomaniac who happens to be a real bloodsucker. More »
Dead Bones
Moloch
Official sites
Crooked Lane: www.crookedlane.com
Road to Moloch: www.roadtomoloch.com
Dead Bones: www.dead-bones.com
The Familiar: www.thefamiliarmovie.com
Douglas Elmore (Mark Borchardt, subject of the 1999 documentary American Movie) is an alcoholic writer and caretaker haunted by visions of his dead wife and pursued by supernatural forces bent on revenge for his past deeds. When tenants start turning up dead in the hallways and stairwells of his brownstone apartment building, Douglas suspects a strange but sexually alluring homeless prostitute named Karna who sleeps in his basement by day and prowls the empty city by night. But as the bodies pile up, Douglas is torn between his growing obsession with Karna and the threat of becoming a prime suspect in a murder investigation. Douglas must find the origin of the evil residing in the old Hagstone building before the secrets of his past return to destroy him. More »
Official site:
www.thehagstonedemon.com
In conjunction with Director Kevin Tenney, Nevermore is proud to present this 35mm presentation of an old-fashioned, groovy 80s teenage horror flick! A group of high school kids decide to party at the mysterious Hull House, an abandoned funeral parlor with a nasty past, surrounded by high walls and an underground stream. Soon, theyre holding a séance to see their futures. Instead, they unleash a legion of terrifying demons which quickly possess the bodies of the partys hosts, Angela and Suzanne (Linnea Quigley). As the mayhem and body count rises will anyone survive the Night of the Demons? More »
See the original trailer at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDC_oEuow8I
In conjunction with Brian Yuzna, Nevermore is proud to present this original 1986 theatrical cut of one of the most outrageously inventive horror films of all time! Deep within the morgue at Miskatonic University, an arrogant madman introduces his fellow graduate students to his startling formula for the reanimation of fresh corpses. But the secret of life and death has some very messy consequences! More »
See the original trailer at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL_H4gCDjhg
Scare Zone is a clever, funny throwback to the beloved slasher films of the 80s. Its set in a strip-mall Halloween Horror House, the kind where actors in costumes lunge from the darkness at hapless customers. (Think of Tobe Hoopers The Funhouse.) Theres the Living Amputation, the odiferous Toilet of Terror, the Vampire Bride (featuring Bat-Baby), and of course a final encounter with the chain-saw wielding Pumpkin Carver. But this year, someone else has come to play. Someone with a grudge against one of the attractions star employees. As the lights dim and the actors take their places, prepare yourself for a stylish, terrifying excursion through this ghoulish maze where the horror is no longer make-believe. More »
Official site:
www.scarezonemovie.com
This is not a campy horror comedy, but instead an intelligent and heartfelt horror drama. Police office Frank Talbot is having a very bad day. A week before Christmas, a viral outbreak has just turned the citizens of Los Angeles into the walking dead. To make matters worse, his wife is leaving him and his partner (and best friend), Nash, is requesting a transfer to another department. Now, all three of them are trapped in Nashs two-story home, surrounded by flesh-eating, fast-moving zombies, and further threatened by the fact that both me love the same woman. More »
Official site:
www.snznfilm.com
Every bit as unexpected and revivifying as 2008s Let the Right One In, Strigoi is a dark and comedical vampire movie that defies categorization. Shedding a fantastic light on a post-Communist Romanian village, the film introduces us to an ancient myth: Strigoi, the souls that rise again after death to seek justice if theyve been wronged, their appetites intensified by a hunger for blood. When Vlad investigates a mysterious death in his grandfathers village, his journey raises questions about land ownership in the community. The trail points to an ex-Communist bully and his wife, but when Vlad confronts them, he discovers that the richest landowners in the village have become real bloodsuckers. Strigoi opts to rely solely on the original Romanian folklore about strigoi (which was an influence on Bram Stokers Dracula), rather than the much bastardized version of the popular vampire. For further clues about whats going on in Strigoi, it wouldnt hurt to brush up on the Romanian folklore. For instance, youll learn why the townspeople are so suspicious of Vlad being a strigoi himself – it has to do with him traveling abroad to a country where another language is spoken. More »
Official site:
www.strigoimovie.com
Eight short films: Dead Walkers, Pigeon: Impossible, Hector Corp., The Ugly File, Dead Creek, Monstrous Nature, Shapes and Snuggle Time A bounty hunter in the Old West stumbles into a town cursed with the undead in Spencer Estabrooks engrossing Dead Walkers. Pigeon: Impossible is the hilarious animated story about what happens when a pigeon gets trapped inside a secret agents multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase. And the employees of Hector Corp. are discovering that their boss has a very unique termination policy: killer rubber penguins! From the director of Peekers (Nevermore 2009) comes The Ugly File, a heartbreaking story about deformed babies and the tragic effects on their parents. Two sisters, lost in the Vermont woods, are haunted by ghosts of their past and the evil lurking along the muddy banks of Dead Creek. Kidnapped from her church, a nun wakes up in the deep woods handcuffed to a dangerous man who reveals his intentions when the full moon rises in Monstrous Nature. During a frightful, restless night, a husband and wife imagine that something is hiding in their darkened bedroom in Shapes. Its bedtime and everyone needs their favorite toy to snuggle with in order to sleep. Snuggle Time is the story of a little girl, a vampire, and the stuffed toy lamb that is caught between them. More »
Pigeon: Impossible
Official sites
Hector Corp.: www.hectorthemovie.com
Dead Creek: www.deadcreek.net
The Ugly File: www.marksteensland.com
Monstrous Nature: www.monstrousnature.com
Dead Walkers: www.deadwalkers.wordpress.com
In conjunction with Director Kevin Tenney, Nevermore is proud to present this 35mm presentation of one of the most underrated horror films of the 1980s! While demonstrating a Ouija board during a party, the sprit of ten year-old David (killed 30 years ago) is contacted. Intrigued and saddened by the boys tragic tale, pregnant Linda Brewster (Tawny Kitaen) invites David to reincarnate himself in the child she is carrying. But David soon becomes increasingly possessive when others threaten their relationship. And after a series of grisly events, Linda begins to suspect that David is not the helpless spirit of a child but a malevolent demon. More »
See the original trailer at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHELM5pIis