Bruce Campbell Horror Festival Full Lineup Announced
By Jeremy Dick
The official full line-up of the films playing at this year’s horror film festival hosted by Bruce Campbell at Wizard World Chicago has been announced.
If you’re able to make it to this event, I envy you.
What better host for a horror film festival to have than the star of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Bruce Campbell himself? The horror fans in attendance hopefully will realize how lucky they are to be there.
Ahead of the event, which will take place at Wizard World Chicago on August 18-21 in Rosemont, the full line-up has been released. Take a look at it below from the official press release:
INAUGURAL GROOVY AS HELL PRESENTATION:
THE MONSTER SQUAD – Fred Dekker, Andre Gower, & Ryan Lambert in attendance!
A quintet of classic movie monsters invades a small town looking for a lost amulet that will help them rule the world. A bunch of kids decide to fight back by forming the “Monster Squad.” Written by Shane Black (THE NICE GUYS, KISS KISS BANG BANG).
Prior to the screening the festival will present director Fred Dekker with the inaugural “Groovy as Hell” award. Following the screening their will be a Q&A with Fred Dekker, Andre Gower, & Ryan Lambert.
Anniversary Screenings!
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS Fred Dekker in attendance!
The night of the prom becomes the “Night of the Creeps” for a small-town college with a big-time problem! No one ever said college would be easy…Johnny (Ken Heron) and his girlfriend Pam (Alice Cadogan), the perfect co-ed couple, are enjoying Lover’s Lane one evening in 1959 when suddenly Johnny’s attention is diverted to an evil light. He leaves to explore it, never to return again. Twenty-seven years later, when two college boys, Chris (Jason Lively) and J.C. (Steve Marshall), pledge a tempestuous fraternity, they encounter Johnny’s frozen body. When life returns to Johnny’s corpse, a reign of terror begins as the mysterious” creeps” leave his brain, permeating the bodies of other frat boys and sorority girls, making zombies of their prey!
FROM BEYOND Barbara Crampton in attendance!
Obsessive scientist Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel) successfully discovers a way to access a parallel universe of pleasure by tapping into the brain’s pineal gland. When he is seemingly killed by forces from this other dimension, his assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs), is accused of the murder. After psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) and detective Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree) take the case, the trio risks a return to the other world in order to solve the mystery. From Master of Horror, Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator)!
BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY Peter Hewitt & William Sadler in attendance!
Amiable slackers Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are once again roped into a fantastical adventure when De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), a villain from the future, sends evil robot duplicates of the two lads to terminate and replace them. The robot doubles actually succeed in killing Bill and Ted, but the two are determined to escape the afterlife, challenging the Grim Reaper (William Sadler) to a series of games in order to return to the land of the living.
Opening Night:
DON’T BREATHE (Chicago Premiere) Fede Alvarez & Stephen Lang in attendance
A trio of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect heist. They’re wrong
Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovato, Stephen Lang
Dir: Fede Alvarez
Distributor: Sony Pictures
U.S. Release Date: August 26
Closing Night:
SIREN (Chicago Premiere) Gregg Bishop and Chase Williamson in attendance!
A bachelor party becomes a savage fight for survival when the groomsmen unwittingly unleash a fabled predator upon the festivities. A feature adaptation of the segment “Amateur Night” from the 2012 horror anthology “V/H/S.”
Cast: Hannah Fierman, Chase Williamson, Justin Welbourn, Michael Aaron Milligan, Hayes Mercure, Randy McDowell.
Dir: Gregg Bishop
ABATTOIR (Chicago Premiere) Darren Lynn Bousman in attendance
How do you build a haunted house? Ask the enigmatic Jebediah Crone, the main suspect in a case of stolen rooms where horrific tragedies have occurred.
Cast: Jessica Lowndes, Joe Anderson, Lin Shaye, Dayton Callie, Bryan Batt,, J. Larose
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman
ANTIBIRTH (Chicago Premiere) Guests to be announced.
Hard-drinking, pill-popping, bong-ripping Lou (Natasha Lyonne) and her best friend Sadie (Chloë Sevigny) spend their days adrift in a druggy haze. But one wild night out becomes a bad trip that never ends when Lou wakes up with symptoms of an unexplained, highly abnormal pregnancy. Spiked with blasts of hallucinatory color, surreal shocks, and subversive comedy, the audacious feature debut is a no-holds-barred descent into delirium.
Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Chloë Sevigny, Meg Tilly, Mark Webber
Dir: Danny Perez
BEYOND THE GATES (Chicago Premiere) Jackson Stewart, Barbara Crampton, Chase Williamson & Brea Grant in attendance
Seven months after their father’s disappearance, two brothers reunite to liquidate the family video store. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse when they find an old VHS boardgame with evil powers, and all hell breaks loose.
Cast: Chase Williamson, Graham Skipper, Brea Grant, Barbara Crampton, Matt Mercer, Jesse Merlin
Dir: Jackson Stewart
FOUND FOOTAGE 3D (World Premiere) Cast & Crew in attendance!
A group of low-budget filmmakers sets out to make “the first 3D found footage horror film,” but find themselves *in* the first 3D found footage horror film when the evil entity from their movie escapes into their behind-the-scenes footage.
Cast: Carter Roy, Alena von Stroheim, Chris O’Brien, Tom Saporito, Scott Allen Perry, Jessica Perrin, Scott Weinberg
Dir: Steven DeGennaro
THE GREASY STRANGLER (Chicago Premiere)
The Los Angeles-set tale follows Ronnie, a man who runs a Disco Walking tour along with his browbeaten son, Brayden. When a sexy, alluring woman comes to take the tour, it begins a competition between father and son for her attentions. It also signals the appearance of an oily, slimy inhuman maniac who stalks the streets at night and strangles the innocent, soon dubbed ‘The Greasy Strangler.’
Cast: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo
Dir: Jim Hosking
HERE ALONE (Chicago Premiere)
A young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has decimated society and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness.
Cast: Lucy Walters, Adam David Thompson, Gina Piersanti, Shane West
Dir: Rod Blackhurst
I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (Chicago Premiere) Guests to be announced!
In a small Midwestern town, a troubled teen with homicidal tendencies must hunt down and destroy a supernatural killer whilst keeping his own inner demons at bay.
Cast: Christopher Lloyd, Laura Fraser, Max Records
Dir: Billy O’Brien
PET (Chicago Premiere)
Seth works at an animal shelter, and for years has been secretly in love with a waitress named Holly . When he repeatedly fails in his attempts to woo her, he naturally decides to lock her in a cage at the shelter where he works. And that’s just the beginning…
Cast: Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jenette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons
Dir: Carles Torrens
SHOW YOURSELF (World Premiere) Cast & crew in attendance!
When his friend dies unexpectedly, Travis heads into the woods with his ashes to say goodbye. But as he deals with his grief, and the way it has affected the relationships in his life, he starts to realize that he actually might not be alone.
Cast: Ben Hethcoat, Corsica Wilson, Barak Hardley, Stephen Cone, David McElwee, Robert Longsteet.
Dir: Billy Ray Brewton
SHORT TRIP TO HELL – Short Film Block
DEATH METAL
A metalhead gets passed down a satanic guitar that riffs to shreds.
Dir: Chris McInroy
GWILLIAM
A recently released criminal is looking for a good time. He can forget his sins but he can never forget…Gwilliam.
Dir: Brian Lonano
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT’S KILLING THEM
A pitch-black comedy about Vivian, a lonely serial killer whose three loves in life are math, accounting, and killing random people. This all changes when she meets Alex, the man of her dreams.
Dir: Joel Ashton McCarthy
KOOKIE
Bree, a dishonest 9-year-old receives a terrifying visitor after a parenting lesson goes horribly wrong.
Dir: Justin Harding
MADRE DE DIOS
A woman wakes up bound to an altar, helpless as she is transformed into a flesh and blood statue of Santa Muerte by two elderly Brujos whose sole purpose is to conjure the anti-Christ into our plane of existence.
Dir: Gigi Saul Guerrero
NIGHT OF THE SLASHER
A teenage girl must commit horror movie sins such as drink alcohol, do drugs, and have sex to lure a killer and finish him off.
Dir: Shant Hamassian
PORTAL TO HELL
A crusty and recluse superintendent is thrown into the ultimate fight against evil when a couple of cultists open a portal to the ancient and mysical city of R’lyeh, awakening slumbering god. Starring the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
Dir: Vivieno Caldinelli
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For more info on the 2016 Wizard World Comic Con Chicago (August 18-21 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont), visit the Wizard World website.