Back in the day, we had Tom Savini on Horror News Radio talking about the special effects he created for Bill Lustig’s Maniac. The Grue-crew have a special place in their crimson hearts for this gory 1980s classic. To hear that the Nightmares Film Festival is going to screen the 4K restoration os Maniac this year is great news indeed. To hear that director Bill Lustig himself is going to be attending to present the film is mind-blowing. Read below to find out more and start planning on heading toward Columbus, Ohio in October.
NIGHTMARES FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES OPENING NIGHT FILM
Never-Before-Seen Maniac 4K Restoration, Director Bill Lustig to Kick Off the “Cannes of Horror”
Columbus, OH – Hang on to your wigs, horror fans.
A horror legend and his iconic slasher will open the 2018 Nightmares Film Festival (Oct. 18 to 21) when director Bill Lustig (Maniac Cop) brings the just-revealed 4K restoration of his 1980 classic Maniac to opening night.
“We’re honored to have Bill, one of the true legends of independent horror, join us to open this year’s edition of Nightmares,” programmer and co-founder Jason Tostevin said. “The newly-restored Maniac is the perfect tone-setter for four days of better horror.”
Maniac is a bona fide cult classic with a rabid following that’s grown over the three decades since its release — especially for its Tom Savini-created practical effects. But almost no one has seen the film the way it really looked upon release. That’s because the available print for home-video was a 35mm blow-up — a transfer that washed out the picture, reduced resolution and created artifacts.
This year, the original 16mm negative was rediscovered after being thought lost for decades. That allowed Lustig and his team at Blue Underground to scan a new clear, clean and vibrant 4K print — and for the world to discover the true film that’s been hiding in the home video version.
“In a very real sense, no one has seen the true Maniac since it played a handful of theaters almost 40 years ago,” said Nightmares co-founder Chris Hamel. “That makes this screening a must-see for every horror fan.”
Creating a genuinely unique experience, director Bill Lustig will introduce the film live, take Q&A afterward, and meet and greet fans and filmmakers at the festival.
Maniac joins other early selections Nightmares has announced, including the world premieres of The Final Interview from director Fred Vogel (August Underground), The Bad Man from Scott Schirmer (Found, Harvest Lake) and Skeletons in the Closet from Tony Wash (The Rake); the Midwest premiere of The FP 2: Beats of Rage from Jason Trost (The FP, All Superheroes Must Die); and new short films from the directors of Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich and Wyrmwood: Road of the Damned.
Nightmares, called “the Cannes of horror” by iHorror, is a prestige celebration of the genre and an annual pilgrimage for fans and creators around the world. It’s been the number one-ranked genre festival on FilmFreeway continuously for more than two years, as rated by attending filmmakers and screenwriters.
Festival passes are available at GatewayFilmCenter.org/NFF. Submissions are being considered until mid-September at FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/NightmaresFilmFest.
Doc a lifelong fan of horror films, sci-fi flicks and monster movies first discovering Universal Monsters and Planet of the Apes as a young child in the 1970's searching out every issue of Famous Monster of Filmland (and, later, Fangoria). Favorite films include Jaws, The Car, The Birds, The Tingler, Vampire Circus and The Exorcist. Still a huge fan of horror films from the 70s, Doc continues consuming horror films to this day for the site, for the podcasts and for the fun of it all.
