If you’ve never done a horror allnighter before you’re missing-out on an almost unique cinematic experience. Imagine spending your sleeping hours in a darkened room watching gore, comedy, monsters and all manner of indescribably acts (and that’s just the audience). It takes a delicate scientific balance of alcohol, fluids, snacks, steely determination and a black t-shirt to survive the challenge and shamble out the next morning unchanged by the experience.
Celluloid Screams’ third allnighter has a glint of nostalgia about it (or is that a knife?). With the sad passing of Wes Craven, a man who arguably single-handedly thrust the genre into the mainstream, there’s a focus on classic horror this year. His seminal film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (which scared the bejeezus out of this then 10 year old boy) will be kicking off proceedings. Bring a spare pair of pants, a dark sense of humour and party snacks.
Also screening through the night are:
Phantasm
Shortly after losing his parents, teenager Mike (Michael Baldwin) grows suspicious of a tall man (Angus Scrimm) he sees lifting a coffin single-handed at the local graveyard, and decides to investigate. It turns out that the funeral parlour is being used as an assembly line for zombie slaves, and it is left to Mike, with the aid of his brother Jody (Bill Thornburg) and ice cream man Reggie (Reggie Bannister), to stop them.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II
Relocating the cannibalistic Sawyer clan to a cavernous, labyrinthian dwelling beneath an amusement park, Hooper’s deliciously demented sequel sees Leatherface and Co. continue their murderous exploits afresh. This time around, local DJ Stretch runs afoul of the Sawyers when she gets mixed up in the brutal slaying of two youngsters. Meanwhile, Lieutenant ‘Lefty’ Enright, is hell-bent on avenging the murder of his nephew Franklin in the first movie.
Re-Animator
Gory, hilarious and ludicrously entertaining from start to finish, Re-Animator tells the macabre tale of Herbert West, a decidedly peculiar and self righteous medical student (brilliantly played by Jeffrey Combs) who arrives at Miskatonic Medical School with the aim of continuing his highly dubious research into the reanimation of dead tissue. West soon befriends fellow student Dan Cain, who is unwittingly dragged into his twisted experiments, which soon spiral out of control.
There will also be a selection of quality shorts screening with the features.
You can pick up a pass for the allnighter on it’s own or as part of the full festival pass. The allnighter takes place at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield on 24 October.
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