AFI FEST 2009: Halloween Movies
The Loved Ones by Sean Byrne (top); The Hole by Joe Dante (bottom)
AFI FEST 2009 presented by Audi has announced the list of films scheduled for Halloween. They are:
Joe Dante’s The Hole
Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones
Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright
Michael Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie
All four films will screen on Saturday, October 31, at the Mann Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood.
Presented in 3-D — a first for a feature film at AFI FEST — Joe Dante’s thriller The Hole follows two young brothers who "stumble upon a mysterious hole in their basement that houses an evil force that can create a physical manifestation of their deep-seated fears. After unwittingly unleashing the force, the brothers must team with the teenage girl next door to find a way to defend themselves against the darkness." The Hole stars Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Nathan Gamble, Bruce Dern and Teri Polo.
The Midnight Madness Audience Award winner at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, Sean Byrne’s Australian thriller The Loved Ones chronicles the travails of a "troubled high school senior who finds himself trapped in a bizarre ‘prom’ and fighting for his life after he is abducted by a psychotic father-and-daughter pair." The Loved Ones stars Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, John Brumpton and Victoria Thaine.
Originally released in 1971, Ted Kotcheff’s Australian-made Wake in Fright was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and, according to the AFI FEST press release, "has developed a reputation as one of Australia’s great, lost films. Recently recovered and restored, the film is a brutal and uncompromising thriller about a young teacher who arrives in a rough outback mining town planning to stay overnight before catching a plane to Sydney. However, his dealings with the hard-drinking, violent locals and a harrowing kangaroo hunt plunge the man headlong toward his own destruction." Wake in Fright stars Donald Pleasence and Gary Bond.
Michael Stephenson’s documentary Best Worst Movie "looks at both the behind-the-scenes origins of Troll 2 and the film’s journey to become a cult classic years after its initial release. Two decades later, Stephenson, the legendarily inept film’s child star, unravels the improbable, heartfelt story of an Alabama dentist turned cult movie icon and an Italian filmmaker as they try to come to terms with this genuine, internationally revered cinematic failure."
Also screening on Halloween are Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean submission for the 2009 best foreign-language film Academy Awards, the thriller Mother (above), in which a mother tries to prove that her son is innocent of a nasty crime, and Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, and Anand Tucker’s trilogy Red Riding, described as "three inter-connected films set in the years 1974, 1980 and 1983 [that] trace the crime and corruption in West Yorkshire, England." The Red Riding films star Mark Addy, Sean Bean, Paddy Considine, Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall.
Complimentary tickets are available beginning on October 16 to all Festival screenings in advance at AFI.com/AFI FEST at the Mann Chinese 6 Theatres (6925 Hollywood Blvd.) beginning October 26, or on the day of scheduled screenings via Rush Lines. Priority seating to all screenings can be secured by becoming a patron of the Festival and purchasing an AFI FEST Patron Pass. For more details, visit AFI.com.
Subscribe / Syndicate
Leave a Comment
Tags: AFI FEST, AFI FEST 2009, Best Worst Movie, Film Festivals, Halloween Movies, Horror Movies, Los Angeles Screenings, Mother, Red Riding, The Hole, The Loved Ones, Thrillers, Wake in Fright
Comments
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
