The Carolina Theatre. Never Ordinary.
Tickets: (919) 560-3030
The Carolina Theatre Promises a Monstrous Good Time at the 11th Annual Nevermore Film Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Aaron Bare
919-560-3040 x224
aaron@carolinatheatre.org
THE CAROLINA THEATRE PROMISES A MONSTROUS GOOD TIME AT THE 11th ANNUAL NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL
Durham, N.C. - The Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. (CTD) presents THE 11th ANNUAL NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL, a three-day festival presenting new horror films and classic fan favorites, Friday, February 19 through Sunday, February 21, 2010. A 10-Pass is available for $60 in advance, $55 for Star Members or $65 at the door. Individual tickets are $8 and $6.25 for Star Members. Tickets are available at the Carolina Theatre box office located at 309 West Morgan Street in downtown Durham. Individual tickets go on sale at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 3. Box Office hours are weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. weekends from 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and one-half hour prior to the first film screening of the day.
The NEVERMORE Film Festival is a three-day feast of brand new horror features from around the world, as well as revival screenings. Since its creation in 1999, the festival has grown to become one of the largest premiere genre festivals in the southeastern United States. The festival focuses on unveiling films that may never otherwise receive a theatrical release in the Carolinas. It has become a hugely popular winter tradition for knowledgeable genre film enthusiasts and draws heavy attendance from a wide age-range. While predominantly a horror film festival, NEVERMORE also include thrillers, classic suspense movies and campy tongue-in-cheek comedies as well as some fan favorites.
After receiving more than 100 submissions from around the world for this year's festival, senior director Jim Carl said, "We are amazed at how expensive and slick many of these films look, despite having budgets that wouldn't cover the catering costs of Avatar. Others have plots worthy of Agatha Christie, and that's saying something these days when it seems every new horror movie is an over-produced remake of something that wasn't all that inspired in the first place." Carl is also excited to welcome back director Kevin Tenney (Night of the Demons and Witchboard) who premiered his film Brain Dead at the 2008 NEVERMORE fest.
This year's festival will host nine feature film premieres, four screenings of classic horror films and two distinct shorts programs. Films from Romania, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States are on the schedule. Highlights of the festival will include a screening of the classic 1948 film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which was selected for inclusion on the 2001 National Film Registry, and is considered by many to be one of the best horror comedies ever made, and screenings of three classic 80s horror films: Re-Animator, Night of the Demons and Witchboard.
Feature films include Bonnie and Clyde vs. Dracula, Cryptic, Dawning, Evil Angel, The Hagstone Demon, Scare Zone, Silent Night, Zombie Night and Strigoi. The shorts program, entitled "AM1200 and Other Shorts" runs 78 minutes and includes AM1200, Shrove Tuesday and Sinkhole. The shorts program entitled, "Four Minutes Til Sunrise" runs 76 minutes and includes Crooked Lane, Road to Moloch, Dead Bones and The Familiar. And the shorts program entitled "They're Coming to Get You, Barbara" runs 81 minutes and includes Dead Walkers, Pigeon: Impossible, Hector Corp., The Ugly File, Dead Creek, Monstrous Nature, Shapes and Snuggle Time.
The NEVERMORE Film Festival takes place Friday, February 19 through Sunday, February 21, 2010 at The Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham. Tickets are $8 per film; $6.25 for Star Members and ten-passes are available for $60 in advance, $55 for Star Members and $65 at the door. Tickets are available at the box office at 309 West Morgan Street from 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, weekends from 1:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. and one-half hour prior to the first film screening of the day or by phone at (919) 560-3030.
2010 NEVERMORE FILM SYNOPSES
35mm presentation!
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
(US, G, 83 min, 1948)
Selected in 2001 to be included in the National Film Registry, Charles Barton's 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 film's success. What results is 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 McDougal's 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 Frankenstein's 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 Count's evil plans!
AM1200 & other shorts
(US, NR, 786 min, 2009)
A truly terrifying and suspenseful horror thriller starring Eric Lange (ER, Entourage) and Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Swamp Thing), David Prior's AM1200 may very well be one of the best films at this year's 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 on 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. It's an 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.
Official sites: www.am1200.com (AM1200); http://www.fleshfuryimageworks.co.uk/ (Shrove Tuesday); www.sinkholemovie.com (Sinkhole)
BONNIE AND CLYDE VS. DRACULA
(US, NR, 83 min, 2009)
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!
Official site: www.bcvdmovie.com
CRYPTIC
(US, NR, 83 min, 2009)
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. It's 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! Official site: www.crypticmovie.com
DAWNING
(US, NR, 83 min, 2009)
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.
Official site:www.dawningthemovie.com
Centerpiece Selection!
EVIL ANGEL
(US, NR, 123 min, 2010)
Evil Angel is an adrenaline-charged, high-budget, horror thrill ride in the tradition of Lifeforce and The Hidden. It stars Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible, Dawn of the Dead) as a tough detective in pursuit of an ancient killer. Legendary cinematographer Bill Butler (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) provides the film's 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 Adam's 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 years!
Official site: www.evilangelmovie.com
FOUR MINUTES TIL SUNRISE
(Various Countries, NR, 76 min, 2009)
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 mother's desperate attempt to stay sane after the mysterious disappearance of her daughter. In Robert Glickert's 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 Devil's 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 vampire's assistant just sucks! It's a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek film about an unfortunate human soul who serves as a caretaker to a corrupt and neurotic egomaniac...who happens to be a real bloodsucker.
Official sites: www.crookedlane.com (Crooked Lane); www.roadtomoloch.com (Road to Moloch); www.dead-bones.com (Dead Bones); www.thefamiliarmovie.com (The Familiar)
THE HAGSTONE DEMON
(US, NR, 98 min, 2009)
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.
Official site: www.thehagstonedemon.com
35mm presentation!
NIGHT OF THE DEMONS
(US, R, 90 min, 1988)
In conjunction with Director Kevin Tenney, Nevermore is proud to present this 35mm presentation of an old-fashioned, groovy 80's 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, they're holding a séance to see their futures. Instead, they unleash a legion of terrifying demons which quickly possess the bodies of the party's hosts, Angela and Suzanne (Linnea Quigley). As the mayhem and body count rises...will anyone survive the Night of the Demons?
See the original trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDC_oEuow8I
35mm presentation!
RE-ANIMATOR
(US, R, 84 min, 1986)
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!
See the original trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL_H4gCDjhg
SCARE ZONE
(US, NR, 91 min, 2009)
Scare Zone is a clever, funny throwback to the beloved slasher films of the 80's. It's set in a strip-mall Halloween Horror House, the kind where actors in costumes lunge from the darkness at hapless customers. (Think of Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse.) There's 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 attraction's 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.
Official site: www.scarezonemovie.com
SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT
(US, NR, 83 min, 2009)
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), Ben, is requesting a transfer to another department. Now, all three of them are trapped in Ben's two-story home, surrounded by flesh-eating, fast-moving zombies, and further threatened by the fact that both men love the same woman.
Official site: www.snznfilm.com
STRIGOI
(UK/Romania, NR, 105 min, 2009)
Every bit as unexpected and revivifying as 2008's 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 they've been wronged, their appetites intensified by a hunger for blood. When Vlad investigates a mysterious death in his grandfather's 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 Stoker's Dracula), rather than the much bastardized version of the popular vampire. For further clues about what's going on in Strigoi, it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the Romanian folklore. For instance, you'll 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.
Official site: www.strigoimovie.com
THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU, BARBARA!
(Various Countries, NR, 81 min, 2009)
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 agent's 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. It's 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.
Official sites: www.hectorthemovie.com (Hector Corp.); www.deadcreek.net (Dead Creek); www.marksteensland.com (The Ugly File); www.monstrousnature.com (Monstrous Nature); www.deadwalkers.wordpress.com (Dead Walkers);
35mm presentation!
WITCHBOARD
(US, R, 98 min, 1986)
In conjunction with Director Kevin Tenney, Nevermore is proud to present this 35mm presentation of one of the most underrated horror films of the 1980's! 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 boy's 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.
See the original trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHELM5pIis
[Images & interviews available]
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About The Carolina Theatre of Durham
The Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which manages the city-owned Carolina Theatre at 309 W. Morgan Street, Durham, NC 27701. Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. is dedicated to presenting vibrant, thought-provoking film and live performances that contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of downtown Durham and the Triangle Region.
Live performances at the Carolina Theatre are supported in part by the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of North Carolina, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the A.J. Fletcher Performing Arts Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation.