After Dark Horrorfest 2007 -8 (more) Films To Die For
 

After Dark is planning another 8 movie Horrorfest (link here ) for Nov. 9-18. They claim it will be shown at 350 theaters nation wide, but I haven’t seen a list of theaters yet.

I was really hot to see last years Horrorfest, but as far as I know it didn’t come to San Diego. After seeing all of the movies on DVD it turned out to be a mixed bag of what would have normally been direct to DVD movies.

I still want to go see this if it plays here (maybe some of us San Diego DVDTalkers could get together and plan an event), but the hype is much less this time around.

So far the movies planned are:
THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE
NIGHTMARE MAN
FRONTIERS
UNEARTHED
MULBERRY STREET
BORDERLAND

Of the six I’ve only seen reviews of 2. Mulberry Street (which looks bad) and Borderland (which has a great review by Bloody-Disgusting.com , and I’m excited to see).
Anyone else looking forward to this?

Crap, according to the website there are no planned showings in San Diego yet. Hopefully they'll add more. I can't see how they can have is set for 15 different locations in California and not have one of them be in San Diego.

Oh Happy day! They've added a bunch of new theaters, including the theater closest to my house. I've got the weekend of Nov. 16th off so I'm seriously considering buying some of the weekend passes and trying to hit all 8 movies with my son (3 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday for $75).

I know last year was a bit of a bust but I can't believe there isn't a little more excitement about this.

They've announced all 8 movies already. Here they are with a synopsis:

Crazy Eights: Circumstance brings six childhood friends together to face their past, and a secret they share.

Lake Dead: Beneath the calmest surface lies the deepest nightmare.

Mulberry Street: A deadly infection breaks out in Manhattan, causing humans to devolve into blood-thirsty rat creatures. Six recently evicted tenants must survive the night and protect their downtown apartment building as the city quickly spirals out of control.

The Deaths of Ian Stone: "Deaths" tells the story of an all-American guy who is murdered each day by horrifying pursuers, only to wake up in slightly different lives to experience the terror of being murdered again.

Nightmare Man: After receiving a mysterious demonic African mask in the mail, ELLEN MORRIS is attacked by a "being" she refers to as THE NIGHTMARE MAN. Her doctors and husband, William believe Ellen is a paranoid schizophrenic and needs to spend some quality time at a mental facility for further examination.

Borderland: In BORDERLAND, three Texas University seniors, on the eve of their graduation, road-trip to a Mexican Border town for a final weekend of drinking and debauchery. Their vacation becomes a living nightmare as the trio runs afoul of an ancient blood cult looking for human sacrifice. Based on true events, Borderland blends the raw fear of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the gritty true crime realism of In Cold Blood, evoking a world of paranoia, death and terror.

Tooth and Nail: A group of young people, called Foragers, fight to survive against a band of vicious cannibals, known as Rovers, in a post-apocalyptic world which has been depleted of fossil fuels.

Unearthed: After a sinister crash on the highway in a small New Mexican town, people start disappearing and animals and nature begin dying. The Sheriff (Vaugier) investigates, only to actually witness a killer creature and realizes that the creature is the reason for the disappearances and deaths. After surviving an attack, The Sheriff and others try to survive the creature and being killed

Blood-Disgusting.com (one of my favorite horror movie review sites) has reviewed 4 so far. Unearthed looks like complete crap, Mulberry Street looks like it could be OK, and Nightmare Man and Borderland could turn out great.

The films all have trailers at the After Dark website.

Frontiers, mentioned in the first post, was actually yanked from the Horror Fest lineup just a day or two ago. It'll be released at a later date.

Huh, I never noticed it was missing from the 2nd list. Any reason why it was pulled?

Not to offend anyone looking forward to these movies (heck, I might see one or two myself), but why is it that a Horror Film Fest can happen all around the U.S. for a bunch of select movies but they can't do the same during a different time in the year for science fiction films? Are not enough made? The Sci-Fi channel sponsers this and it just seems unfair. Of course, what I really want is for more art-house flicks to appear in my city. Yeah-friggin'-right.

You need to start a holiday devoted to Science Fiction. We horror fans have Halloween.

From the After Dark Press Release:

================================
Frontiers, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews will receive it's own separate theatrical release. The film, which in its original state did not meet the requirements for an R rating from the MPAA will bow at a later date to be announced by After Dark Films. Solomon stated that, "rather than sacrifice the artistic integrity of this beautiful film, we've chosen to allow audiences to view the film in its unedited form as a separate theatrical release. We'll be announcing details of this release on horrorfestonline.com shortly."

Good idea. I can call it "Trekkieween", and sci-fi fans can dress up as robots or space-ship pilots going door to door with our light sabers demanding candy be put in our invisible time-portal candy bags that will automatically send our junk to our 22nd century alternate-reality selves. Then we can hop in to our De Lorean car's and go back to the past, meet our younger selves, and debate with them whether or not Star Trek or Star Trek: The Next Generation is better (depending on how old one is).

I'm interested in this year's more than last years. Wonder if Omaha will get it. They did last years, but if SD ain't getting it...

Actually, if you read the third post you'll see where I get all giddy like a school girl because they added theaters. The only showing in San Diego is literaly right down the road from me.

According to their web site it is showing one place in Omaha:

AMC OAKVIEW 24
3555 S 140TH PLZ
OMAHA, NE 68144

The weekend of Nov 9th and again Nov 16th

Looks like they have a deal with AMC theaters.

Mulberry Street is one of the most impressive no budget films I've seen in a while.

I still think they charge too much for these movies. I'll be out of town the 2nd weekend so I might try to catch a movie or two the first weekend.

Wished they showed these at the AMC closer to me than Dave :D

:D Just like Hatchet, eh? I guess they know where TRUE horror fans live.

It's disappointing that Frontiers was pulled, as that was the #1 reason I planned to hit the 'fest this time around. I'll still probably try to get a day off from work and see Deaths of Ian Stone and Borderland (which will hopefully be showing on the same day) or Mulberry Street in a pinch.

:chainsaw: I don't know what the deal is. You'd think they want better coverage by showing 'em at least in one of the Mission Valley locations.

At least Blade Runner: The Final Cut is playing close by :)

I figured they would but was playing it safe. ;) Might check a few, but its a busy weekend when they come out with other new releases.

Mulberry St.

I Dug this flick. Prob wouldn't watch it again but it was a nice suprise. I'm in complete agreement with Ian Jane's review (which you can read here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=32695) and would have rated it exactly the same.

It was just different and while it may be a tad bit goofy to some it really is suprising at how effective it is.

I've got these movies on order. I was hoping to have them already but there's been a shipping snafu. :(

So far I have seen Tooth and Nail (thought this one was OK, give it a 2.5 out of 5)
Borderland this one struck a chord with me and I really enjoyed it, especially the feature on the real case. 4 out of 5
Nightmare Man, I couldn't get farther than 20 minutes into this one, maybe it gets better but I couldn't get past the shitty acting...
The Deaths of Ian Stone was really well made and should have been released on its own, I actually think this one would have done well considering all the shit Japan remakes that came out recently. 4.5 out of 5 for this one.

I am looking forward to the rest.

I've seen two of the eight so far.

Mulberry Street was quite impressive especially when you know the history behind the making of it. Talk about guerilla filmmaking at its best.

Nightmare Man was awful. A half-assed, cliche-ridden, shitty acting, piece of crap.

Borderland - It was decent although it felt like it was really reaching. They could have done so much more with the true events that really happened which by the way the movie didn't come close to portraying correctly. Instead, it went the way of the shootout. Not sure what the hell the mindset was here and the film was a mess and way too long.

Make sure you check out the bonus feature for the true story - they show actual crime scene footage and the discovery of the bodies as it first happened - really creepy stuff.

Still a barely decent one time sit through.

Just saw Crazy Eights. This is the first I've seen of the Horrorfest group and it was pretty much what I expected. A good, basic story with some good, somewhat jumpy, moments but the plot and characters were not fleshed out at all. Add about 40 minutes of straight character development and backstory and this would have been much, much better.

Saw Mulberry St last night. We all liked it. I was impressed with the scope on such a low budget. Kudos to those guys who made it, well done. Most impressive is that the took what could have been a completely laughable concept and made it work.

Unearthed could have been better it they didn't show the creature... or blatanlty rip-off Alien...

It look like everyone tried here but the result was pretty poor... 1.5 out of 5 for this one... some good gore though, that is the only thing that kept it going.