Presented by Deadhouse Films, the 11th annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival and Fantastic Planet, Sydney Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival announce full program and opens ticket sales for the 2017 event today. The festivals will run concurrently at Dendy Cinemas Newtown, from November 29 to December 3, 2017.
The event’s opening night film is the Sydney premiere of Bloodlands from Australian writer/director Steven Kastrissios (The Horseman), followed by a Q&A. I was fortunate enough to catch this film earlier this year, and can recommend it as a unique revenge thriller with supernatural elements behind it. It is one of my 10 favorite horror films of 2017 so far. “Shot and set in Albania, the film tells the tale of a traditional family’s blood feud with a witch and her violent clan,” said programming director Dean Bertram. “And it just oozes atmosphere, mythology, and palpable dread.”
Just a few of the other titles that the festival is announcing include, from the official press release:
Alya (Director: Elias, USA). Haunted by the mysterious death of his four-year old sister, Elton (Nicholas Wilder) brings her back to life thirty years later as an adult woman. Starring genre royalty Dee Wallace (E.T., Cujo, The Howling) and Tristan Risk (American Mary, Father’s Day, Mania), this movie mixes eroticism with repulsion and familial love with terrifying obsession. Director Elias (Gut, The Horror of H.P. Lovecraft) has crafted a haunting chiller that is both genuinely moving and deeply disturbing.
Borley Rectory (dir: Ashley Thorpe, UK). This spine-tingling film chronicles the real life story of “The most haunted house in England.” Narrated by Julian Sands (Warlock, Gothic), and starring Reece Shearsmith (Shaun of the Dead), Borley Rectory features a mesmerising combination of live action and hauntingly animated photographs from the period. It is unlike any movie you have seen before.
Sixty Minutes to Midnight (Dir: Neil Mackay, Canada.) On New Year’s Eve 1999, a construction worker-come-doomsday prepper (Robert Nolan) finds himself starring on a bizarre game show that kills its contestants. He has just 60 minutes to survive, or die trying. With a group of heavily armed men descending on his farmhouse, every second counts. Fresh from its raved about world premiere at Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Sixty Minutes to Midnight is loaded with the type of action that harkens back to the high octane, high body count classics of the 1980s and 1990s. Prepare to be blown away!
For full program details and to book tickets, visit the festival’s official website at http://www.anightofhorror.com
or Dendy Cinemas Newtown at
https://www.dendy.com.au/events/a-night-of-horror.
He is a contributing writer for the "Phantom of the Movies VideoScope" and “Drive-In Asylum” print magazines and the websites Horror Fuel, Diabolique Magazine, The Scariest Things, B&S About Movies, and When It Was Cool. He is a co-host of the "Uphill Both Ways" pop culture nostalgia podcast and also writes for its website. Joseph occasionally proudly co-writes articles with his son Cohen Perry, who is a film critic in his own right.
A former northern Californian and Oregonian, Joseph has been teaching, writing, and living in South Korea since 2008.
