Horror Programming at the Hollywood Film Festival

For those of you in the LA area, the 13th annual Hollywood Film Festival kicks off Oct. 23 and continues through the weekend with some promising horror programs at 9pm each evening.

First up on Friday is the Interplanetary (accompanied by short Attackazoids), a B-movie romp across the surface of Mars from Birmingham film-maker Chance Shirley, who shot on old-school 16mm “like it was still 1983”. Originally pitched as “Alien meets Office Space”, this is Shirley’s follow-up to 2004’s zombie comedy, Hide and Creep. Saturday’s line up is all about the walking dead and includes Spanish chaos-in-a-mall short, Zombies and Cigarettes, followed by zombie/serial-killer hybrid Die-ner.

Tightly constructed around strong performances, Die-ner ponders the existential dilemma of a sociopath stuck in – obviously – a diner, facing an onslaught from his recently deceased victims. If you prefer bloodsuckers on a Saturday night, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead is a dark comedy starring Jeremy Sisto and Devon Aoki, and deals with an off-Broadway theatre director who has to deal with feuding vampires in his cast. Sunday night sees The Rain, one of David Carradine’s final movies. This haunting, Gothic tale spans three centuries of life in a remote Midwestern farming community plagued by an Indian curse. Stick around for Must Love Death, a festival favorite mash-up of romcom and torture porn.

Festival tickets and more details are available at Arclight Cinemas; 100 free screening tickets will be given away free each day in the ArcLight lobby – check at the Festival info desk.