Category Archives: Hype

CHATTANOOGA FILM FEST HITS FANS WITH CINEMA SUPLEX UNLEASHES FINAL WAVE OF 2026 PROGRAMMING

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The Chattanooga Film Festival proves three is indeed the magic number with a ludicrously loaded third and final wave of 2026 announcements.

With two waves of programming, parties and peculiar happenings already announced for its 13th annual event, the Chattanooga Film Festival was just getting warmed up. The festival has now added a third wave of films and fun to the schedule, and true to form it’s as electric as it is eclectic. With screenings and events featuring genre luminaries like Michael Dougherty, Mark Pellington, Barry Bostwick, and C. Robert Cargill, the festival’s fans will be treated to a year filled with reverence for cinema’s history but also the joy of discovering new voices and future favorites.

Leading the charge are a pair of world premieres primed to ooze their way into the hearts (and nightmares) of the festival’s 2026 attendees. Filmmaker Josh Lobo’s Night After Night is a mysterious and maniacal jaw dropper of a follow-up to Lobo’s brilliant debut I Trapped the Devil—which graced CFF’s screens in 2019. In the film, a pair of overnight security guards at a private university experience increasingly disturbing events when a mysterious mute figure begins appearing nightly without explanation. Anchored by a uniformly killer cast including CFF Fan Favorites Scott Poythress and AJ Bowen, Lobo’s latest deftly dodges the sophomore slump and cements his status as one of the coolest voices in genre cinema.

Also, making its debut is the world premiere of filmmaker, writer and photojournalist Andrew Zappin’s wonderfully unhinged The King of Black Goo. From its amazing cast anchored by DJ Qualls (Hustle & Flow, Road Trip), Kathleen Wilhoite, Margaret Cho and Johno Wilson to its colorful world and impossibly detailed production design, Zappin’s bizarro sci-fi comedy may just be the most original and unique rom com you’ll see this decade. The kind of movie practically made for CFF’s audience of warm-hearted weirdos The King of Black Goo follows Qualls and unfolds a genre-bending fairy tale about a bitter, lonely man who undergoes a personality-altering medical procedure in hopes that it will make him worthy of love.

Making its U.S. Premiere at the festival is Australian filmmaker James Branson’s haunting and hard to forget Bunny. In his atmospheric post-apocalypse tale, Branson follows a young woman as she roams the ruins of a world she never got to grow up in. Raised on old books and b-movies, she lives alone in the shack she once shared with her father. Supplies are scarce and food is running out. There’s nothing left to hunt… nothing except other people. Full of incredible imagery and fueled by a remarkable intensity, Bunny is a breathless experience that we think our fans are going to—pun intended—eat up.

Another treat for CFF faithful is the return of the festival’s favorite purveyors of ultra-indie liminal horror. Two years ago the original NOCLIP shattered skulls when it screened here, and last year its equally eerie successor NOCLIP 2 expanded the NOCLIP cinematic universe. And here’s the insane part. While they were here for their NOCLIP 2 screening, filmmakers Gavin Charles and Alex Conn somehow secretly shot an entire third film in our honor, crafting in the process a film as much devoted to the eerie emptiness of liminal spaces as it is to the creativity-crushing difficulties of navigating the film festival circuit. We’re flattered and honored to present our 2026 audience with the opportunity to see a special screening of NOCLIP 3: The Chattanooga Syndrome.

Speaking of special screenings, this year’s virtual fans can also tune in for an episode of the world’s first horror trivia game show Better Luck Than Chuck. Having been raised on a steady diet of MTV’s Remote Control and Tales from the Crypt episodes this is truly a quiz show after our own dark hearts. As with all their virtual events the festival has leaned into interactivity and during the screening audience members can get in on the fun and win mystery movies from sponsor ARROW VIDEO.

CFF is also proud to partner with the folks at Antenna Releasing to present screenings of two incredible documentaries. Nicholas Clark and Dylan Frederick’s American Theater, in which a “canceled” theater director summons a troupe of conservative actors to an abandoned cabin in rural Georgia to plot revenge on the Atlanta theater community with a musical retelling of the 1692 Salem witch trials. Like a non-fiction Waiting For Guffman or Hamlet 2, Clark and Frederick’s wildly entertaining doc is, as one astute Letterboxd reviewer perfectly put it, full of moments that will make you laugh till it hurts and some moments that just hurt. Believe us when we say everyone is going to be talking about this one.

One great doc deserves another, and CFF couldn’t be more excited to honor its tradition of dropping a crowd pleasing banger of a music doc into the mix for its annual SONIC CINEMA offerings. This year it’s not only a great music doc, it’s a great music doc directed by Mark Pellington, one of the undisputed GOATS of the music video era with an insane number of iconic clips to his credit (Alice In Chains, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Flaming Lips and Pearl Jam to name just a few). Pellington also co-created one of the most influential shows in the history of MTV, the short lived but impactful BUZZ. With its sights firmly set on the counterculture, BUZZ reveled in a kaleidoscopic verite approach to culture and the underground and was instrumental in putting diverse and brilliant artists from William S. Burroughs to RuPaul in front of MTV’s 1990 audiences.

In his new doc This Is Buzz, Pellington chronicles the history and the legacy of his influential show as only a true insider could and serves up nothing less than one of the best documentaries you’re likely to see in 2026. Among Pellington’s many incredible contributions to the world of music videos, television and film he’s also the director of one of eeriest and most underrated films of the early 2000s, 2002’s The Mothman Prophecies. CFF is honored to present a special screening of this stone cold cryptid classic with an introduction by Mark himself along with an extended chat about This Is Buzz.

Capping off our collab with ANTENNA RELEASING is a CFF exclusive sneak peek into the whacked out world of multi-time CFF alumnus Mr. Graham Skipper. Skipper will give CFFers an exclusive tease of his forthcoming metaphysical surrealist horror comedy Organonym in which Graham and the equally beloved to CFF’s long time fans actor/filmmaker Jeremy Gardner play versions of themselves. Did we mention the project is produced by one of our other talented 2026 filmmakers Chelsea Stardust (GRIND)?

The CFF’s southern celebration of cinematic strangeness has become a cult-favorite on the festival circuit and the inclusive community of kind-hearted film fans that have embraced the festival have helped to elevate them in just 13 years to one of the key destinations in the U.S. for lovers of fantastic films.

“For fans of genre cinema 13 is an iconic number. This year we turn 13, and we’d be fools not to properly commemorate such a macabre milestone,” said CFF’s Director and Lead Film Programmer Chris Dortch II. “That’s why this year we’ve built a beast for our fans and for everyone that has helped carry us through to our teenage years. Movies have a way of lightening even the darkest of times and every one of us could all use a bit more of that right now. Maybe some cheaper gas and a few less AI data centers too.”

The CFF’s 2026 feature line-up doesn’t end there though with more than 20 additional features and dozens of short films available to both hybrid and virtual festival attendees in addition to the two jam-packed previous waves of announcements. Highlights include the much buzzed about SXSW sensation Sender (featuring Severance‘s Britt Lower and Better Call Saul/Pluribus star Rhea Seehorn), the gorgeous (and deeply strange) animated musical The Obsessed, and a deeply inspiring doc chronicling everyone’s favorite filmmaking family The Adams’ in Blood & Guts.

Then there’s the awesomely intense survivalist slasher Pitfall, Pierre Tsigaridis and co-writer/star Dina Silva’s brilliant and darkly hilarious slasher Frankie, Maniac Woman and the mysterious must-see by Polish filmmakers Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak Glorious Summer, a flat-out masterpiece of a sci-fi drama and one of the best movies of any genre you’ll see in 2026. It also wouldn’t be CFF without at least one skull crusher of a film about a metal band and filmmaker Donnie Hobbie’s JUMP SCARE has its amps turned to eleven and therein Hobbie delivers a crowd-pleasing head-banger of a horror comedy.

Oh boy does the list go on, CFF’s feature line-up, packed with more than 50 films, means that fans will also be treated to brilliant riffs on classic Twilight Zone episodes (The Thing in the Fog), one of the most unique vampire tales ever shot—with stop motion bats no less— (On Gallows Hill), a love letter to physical media that still cares enough to be creepy as hell (Dead Media) and many more.

Also of note is the festival’s multi-pronged salute to Megaforce, one of the finest films in the history of humanity, which we’ll be screening along with filmmaker Bob Lindenmayer’s joy filled celebration of Megaforce, Making Megaforce. The latter is a documentary that will make you cry, warm your heart and remind you that sometimes the only move is to avoid the tyranny of “good” taste and find a little bit of joy in this world. Joining us for an extended chat with doc maker Bob Lindenman and Megaforce star Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show) moderated by the only man for the job—screenwriter, author, producer, and as fans of his popular Junkfood Cinema podcast will know a LITERAL Lieutenant of Megaforce C. Robert Cargill (The Black Phone 1 & 2, Sinister, The Gorge). Get ready to leave CFF 2026 a Megaforce Mega-fan.

Speaking of fans, ensuring that the festival now enters into the sixth year of its on-going commitment to audience accessibility and that fans anywhere in the US can get plugged right into the fun of the festival, the festival’s beloved Fans and Filmmakers Discord Server makes its triumphant return as well boasting its own full schedule of virtual events from filmmaker chats and Q&As to watch parties including nightly midnight gatherings to bask in the wonderful weirdness of the festival’s wildly popular nightly secret screening series REDEYE.

This year the festival’s many night owls will be treated to the craziest collection of films in the block’s history including intros and guest programming by SUPER NEAT special guests including Fangoria’s Amber T to the festival’s longtime collaborator and the madman behind their kinetic annual animations Zack Hall. A nightly celebration of the deepest of cuts and the thriving community of cinephiles that has grown around the festival, REDEYE rides into its fourth year on a pale horse that CFF says fans, “shall know by the trail of dead-ass motion picture madness in its wake.”

On the shorter side of things, the CFF has assembled the largest offering of short films in its 13-year history with more than 130 films from more than 40 countries represented. Anchoring this year’s shorts program and leading the festival’s fan-favorite DANGEROUS VISIONS block is a beautifully restored new version of Season’s Greeting filmmaker Michael Dougherty’s (Trick ‘r Treat, Krampus, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) hand-animated short film that introduced the world to the now iconic Sam character from Dougherty’s beloved Trick ‘r Treat. Season’s Greetings celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and to mark this milestone CFF is honored to have Michael join us for a conversation about Sam’s evolution over the years.

Other highlights of the festival’s stacked 2026 shorts program include the return of can’t miss alumni filmmakers like Chris McInroy (Chair), stop motion animator extraordinaire Matt Eslinger (Cotton Candy Randy), animator Ashley Wong (Forever Home), Aqua Teen Hunger Force creator, writer and actor Dave Willis (Silverbacks), multi-time alumni Chloë Levine (Bloom) , Bill Watterson (Midnight City), Alexandra Basson (Redneck) and more than 100 more of the most creative, crazy and crowd pleasing pieces of short cinema the universe currently has to offer.

FEATURES

Grind (d. Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, Chelsea Stardust): This horror anthology tackles the modern work landscape through four timely perspectives – the hustle culture of an MLM, the endless repetitiveness of a food delivery driver, the online horrors of a content moderator, and the unionization of a familiar-feeling coffee shop.

Camp (d. Avalon Fast) Presented by Dark Sky: Haunted by a traumatic past, Emily finds solace as a camp counselor while navigating grief, witchcraft and the power of female friendship. Emily feels at home as she’s taken in by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and wrap her in a veil of peace & forgiveness. Emily stands at the forefront of a new kind of life, but there’s a voice out there in the woods she can’t quite seem to ignore. The voice is whispering – and she’s telling Emily to go home.

Flush (d. Grégory Morin) Presented by Dark Sky: Middle-aged coke fiend Luc (Jonathan Lambert, Quentin Dupieux’s Reality) is having a pretty terrible night. Having gone to confront his ex at the club where she works, determined to somehow win back her love, one thing leads to another and he soon finds himself wedged firmly in a toilet, effectively trapping him in a bathroom stall. Trapped, we should mention, with a heap of coke that he stole from the bar’s resident dealer. He’s soon found, setting off an increasingly crazy series of circumstances that veer from the hilarious to the intensely grotesque as Luc’s world is assailed from every conceivable direction in a bizarre race against time that will have you gasping.

First Feature (d. Curtis James Matzke) World Premiere: Intrepid student filmmaker Thomas Reilly-King (affectionately known as TRK) spends years doing whatever it takes to complete his first feature film, aptly titled Enduring Destiny, as classmate Curtis Matzke documents his antics and looks back on the experience together ten years later. Searching for fame in a production spanning several years, the unflappable writer/director/actor calls in every favor and spends his last dime to realize his bizarre vision. The resulting film is its own brand of absurdity, featuring an 80s-style theme song, superfluous green screen, and excessive ADR. He even makes talking action figures of his character. What began as a behind-the-scenes student production, First Feature is a love letter to student filmmaking in the digital age, showcasing the absurdity of what could be a future cult classic.

Mockbuster (d. Anthony Frith): A struggling filmmaker’s chance at redemption collides with chaos and compromise as he navigates the eccentric world of notorious production house, The Asylum. Mockbuster is a comedic, behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of a B-grade smash, The Land That. Time Forgot, that is both an unashamed celebration of trash cinema and a forensic look at the collision between art and commerce.

Lucid (d. Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall): A 1990s art student uses a lucid dreaming elixir to break through creative blocks, but soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish underworld where her suppressed memories and inner demons become deadly monsters.

American Theater  (d. Nicholas Clark & Dylan Frederick) Presented by Antenna Releasing: A “canceled” theater director summons a troupe of conservative actors to an abandoned cabin in rural Georgia to plot revenge on the Atlanta theater community with a musical retelling of the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Assets & Liabilities (d. Zach Weintraub): Zach is a burnt-out suburban father haunted by the impending arrival of middle age. When his family heads out of town for the weekend, he seizes the opportunity to live out a day as his younger, less responsible self. A spontaneous encounter with a fellow skater feels like a victory until an unsettling connection between the two emerges. The result is a forcible confrontation with his own bourgeois standing that shatters the illusion of Zach’s carefree day and sends it spiraling into dark territory.

Blood & Guts (d. Carlye Rubin & Katie Green): The lines between real life and reel life are muddied in the story of the Adams, an unconventional family who makes independent horror films. While they may vomit blood onto one another, lack boundaries and make frequent use of the f-word, they also face what every family must: change.

Bunny (d. James Branson) U.S. Premiere: In the aftermath of a climate collapse, a young woman roams the ruins of a world she never got to grow up in.Raised on old books and b-movies, she lives alone in the shack she once shared with her father.Supplies are scarce and food is running out. There’s nothing left to hunt…  …nothing except other people.

Dead Media (d. Joseph Scrimshaw): A troubled young woman wants to relax by streaming an old horror movie. Her lonely Gen X uncle demands they watch it on DVD. But the disc is haunted, plunging them into a movie night that won’t die.

Demonitize (d. Alexander Watson): Out-of-work television ghost hunters discover the key to getting their jobs back – and proving ghosts are real – is by working with the last group of people anyone would expect: Social Media Stars.

Frankie, Maniac Woman (d. Pierre Tsigaridis): After years of wanting to look like those who grace the covers of magazines, Frances Ramirez ends up making headlines in a different way. She is soon to be known as the Maniac Woman.

Glorious Summer (d. Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak): In a serene, sun-drenched world, three young girls spend their days in carefree play, mindfulness exercises, and idle contentment. Their every need is meticulously cared for by an all-encompassing, nurturing system that keeps their lives perfectly stable and predictable. For years, they’ve lived in this blissful, responsibility-free bubble, where summer never ends. But cracks soon begin to appear in this idyllic picture.

Lenore (d. David Ward): In the squalid basement of a suburban home, unemployed filmmaker Max Wren (Nicholas Jaquinot) spends his days and nights hunting for footage of the controversial online performance artist Lenore (Ruby Duncan)—piecing together a distorted tribute to her in the wake of her sudden disappearance. But before he can complete his magnum opus, Max must face a domineering antagoniser from his past, two nosy police officers tipped off about his antisocial behaviour, and most concerning of all: a violent and vengeful spirit that seems to live within his grotesque editing Suite.

Making Megaforce (d. Bob Lindenmayer): The original Megaforce (1982), is widely regarded as one of the worst movies of the Eighties and filmmaker Bob Lindenmayer made a documentary about how awesome it is. Starring Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show), 1982’s Megaforce is packed with futuristic vehicles, spandex jumpsuits, insane stunts, and corny dialogue. It’s an adolescent adventure that time has forgotten. But one man remembers: director Bob Lindenmayer, and he’s on a quest to convince the rest of the world just how amazing this under-appreciated stunt-filled spectacle is. The world’s biggest Megaforce fan, Bob owns a fleet of fully operational dune buggies and motorcycles from the film. At first, Bob’s mission is pretty straightforward – chronicle the making of this box-office flop through cast and crew interviews. But when he meets his hero, Barry Bostwick, the film takes a left turn and becomes something more than a documentary – it becomes a hilarious and touching tribute to the power of fandom, friendship, and flying motorcycles.

Megaforce (d. Hal Needham): Whenever freedom is threatened only the rapid deployment defense unit MEGAFORCE (with a little help from their flying motorcycles) can save the day. On its release in 1982 stuntman turned filmmaker Hal Needham’s MEGAFORCE died an unceremonious death and has since carried with it a reputation as one of the worst films of its era. At CFF we think it’s high time MEGAFORCE had a reappraisal. It’s fun, it’s got martial arts and we know we already mentioned flying motorcycles but c’monnnn! If that doesn’t stir your nethers we’re afraid you might be at the wrong film festival. For the rest of you be sure to catch this as a double feature with Bob Lindenmayer’s doc MAKING MEGAFORCE and make sure to check out our extended discussion with Bob and Megaforce star Barry Bostwick moderated by C. Robert Cargill.

Narcisa’s Will (d. Clarissa Appelt, Daniel Dias): Haunted by the memories of her recently deceased mother, the once known Brazilian star Narcisa, Ana wants to sell her childhood home and split the money with her younger brother, Diego. But when her mother’s ghost starts giving signs of her presence in the dressing room, it becomes clear that Narcisa’s will is still stronger than her own, even after death.

Pitfall (d. James Kondelik): After a young man gets separated from his friends in the woods, he falls in to a 10 foot deep pit of spikes, impaling him through his leg and leaving him trapped. He quickly learns that his fall was not an accident but the beginning of a deadly hunt.

On Gallow’s Hill (d. Ed Shimborske): After college screw-up Matt Bishop is bitten by a vampire, he discovers he can only survive on one thing: his own rare blood type. As his thirst grows, Matt descends into a coven underworld, rekindles an old flame, and uncovers the dark secrets of the blood business- forcing him to confront his own morality (and mortality) to stay alive.

Jump Scare (d. Donnie Hobbie): The female metal band JUMP SCARE retreat to a remote cabin to write their next album only to be terrorized by the family of cannibals next door.

Night After Night (d. Josh Lobo) World Premiere: The lives of two overnight security guards at a private university begin to unravel after the discovery of a mysterious individual who returns on a nightly basis.

Noclip 3: The Chattanooga Syndrome (d. Alex Conn & Gavin Charles) Special Screening/World Premiere: In their self described “meta-found-footage / documentary escapade”, Gavin and Alex head to Tennessee to document the premiere of their previous film, and to follow a tip that will lead them to the most liminal spaces in Chattanooga…

Sender (d. Russell Goldman): After receiving a series of unnervingly personal packages she never ordered, a woman, newly sober and starting over, spirals into paranoia, convinced someone is watching her. As the online retailer denies responsibility, her search for the anonymous sender sends her down a dangerous rabbit hole, forcing her to confront her past and the fragile reality she’s trying to rebuild. A tense psychological descent into surveillance, recovery, and self-doubt.

Sunshine Girls (d. Madeleine Hicks): This is the story of Elaine Hamilton, a timid woman nearing her 30th birthday who must make the difficult choice between motherhood and medically induced photosynthesis. In a world that is quite literally suffocating, society has become dependent on the oxygen-producing Sunshine Girls to sustain life. Within the confines of this organization (part new-age adult summer camp, part dystopian prison) Elaine learns that falling in love can take your breath away.

The King of Black Goo (d. Andrew Zappin) World Premiere: A genre-bending fairy tale about a bitter, lonely man who undergoes a personality-altering medical procedure in hopes that it will make them worthy of love.

The Mid-NIght Driver (d. Alex Cherney): When a young girl summons a driver using a seemingly innocent ritual, she must fulfill his demands if she ever wants to get back home in 1992 Long Island

The Mothman Prophecies (d. Mark Pellington): A reporter investigates strange phenomena in a small town in Mark Pellington’s classic of cryptid cinema.

The Obsessed (d. Wataru Takahashi): Inspired by Shinji Ishii’s short story, this whimsical musical follows Giuseppe, a man powered by fleeting obsessions. One day, he’s singing arias, and the next, he’s collecting insects or mastering embroidery with feverish focus. Every new fascination feels like everything—until the next one comes along.

The Thing In the Fog(d. Chedey Reyes): A veteran airplane pilot and his atypical co-pilot in training will find themselves involved in a series of unprecedented interdimensional events, which will turn them into the only hope to save all humanity from the imminent invasion of the Audryes.

This Is Buzz(d. Mark Pellington): Follows the radical impact and lasting relevance of Buzz, an influential MTV series from the 1990s that featured notable contributors including William S. Burroughs and RuPaul as hosts.

With its commitment to audience and filmmaker accessibility, its warm-hearted southern hospitality, and its consistently surprising and eclectic programming, the Chattanooga Film Festival has, in just 13 years, been chosen as One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World (MovieMaker Magazine), one of FilmFreeway’s Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festivals in the World out of the nearly 14,000 festivals on that platform, been chosen One of the Best Genre Film (MovieMaker) and Horror Festivals (Dread Central) and hailed as “the gold standard on how to run a welcoming, unpretentious, no-bullshit film fest for folks who want to hang out and have a good time together” by legendary cinema publication FANGORIA.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is a 501c3 non-profit run entirely by a small but passionate crew of volunteers. All proceeds from the festival’s ticket and badge sales and donations go directly to the staging of each year’s festival. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube or even join our virtual monthly secret screening series with The Double Secret Cinema Society on Patreon.

DRIVE-IN ASYLUM ISSUE 27 NOW ON SALE!

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At long last, issue #27 is now available for pre-order! Shipping around May 15.

Joe Dante speaks to us about his career in fantastic films, from loving them and writing about them to making them. James L. Conway sheds some light on his experiences working for Schick Sunn Classics, as well as making the unforgettable tentacle-monster film The Boogens. And Catriona MacColl shares memories of working with Lucio Fulci on his Gates of Hell trilogy. Filmmaker Paco Aransaz reveals his film influences, and the effect they had on his found footage horror film Obayifo Project.

AC Nicholas also writes about movies that got a comedy re-dub, (think “What’s Up Tiger Lily”). Stephen Pytak praises Howling II starring Sybil Danning, Andy Turner discusses Framed starring Joe Don Baker, and Jennifer Upton checks in with highlights from “Weird Worcester.”

Plus plenty of vintage newsprint ads to give you those retro vibes you crave from DIA. 68 pages, black and white with several pages printed on colored paper. 5.5 x 8.5 inches in size.

Order it now!

Visual Vengeance in August!

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Cyclops: A secret team of scientists has crossed the line between medicine and madness, implanting embryos into human hosts in a series of hideous experiments designed to create a new form of life. But when their latest subject takes her own life before giving birth, the operation spirals into desperation. Accompanied by a malformed cyclops mutant as muscle, the researchers descend into the city in search of a new victim–dragging an unsuspecting young woman into a nightmare of medical horror that degenerates into a frenzy of deformed flesh, slimy transformations and mutant showdowns.

Emerging from Japan’s late-’80s direct-to-video boom, Cyclops stands as an early, unhinged entry in the country’s underground splatter movement. Directed by Jōji “George” Iida in his debut, the film fuses Cronenberg-style body horror with low budget V-cinema rawness — building methodically before erupting into a chaotic finale packed with grotesque practical effects and full-throttle gore. A lean, mean descent into pure biological terror, it’s a classic cult relic of experimental Japanese horror at its most hardcore and bizarre.

There’s a new 2K transfer from original 16mm film elements, as well as extras including commentary with Justin Decloux of The Important Cinema Club and Patrick Macias, author of Tokyoscope: the Japanese Cult Film Companion; a new interview with director Joji “George” Iida; a video essay on his films and the Japanese DTV market of the mid-80s; an image gallery; a sketch gallery; trailers; a folded mini-poster featuring original pressbook art; a reversible sleeve featuring original Japanese VHS art; “Stick Your Own” VHS stickers; two different liner notes booklets and limited eiditon slipcase art by The Dude.

Fatal Flying Guillotine: Deep in the forbidding Valley of No Return, a reclusive master, driven to madness by his own obsessive training, perfects a nightmarish weapon — the “Lightning Strike,” a savage evolution of the flying guillotine with twin, whirling blades designed for maximum carnage. Any intruder who dares cross into his domain faces instant decapitation with ruthless precision. But when a vengeance-driven fighter (Carter Wong) sets his sights on the valley, seeking justice for his mother’s death, he must confront both the master’s deadly invention and the head-chopping chaos it leaves in its wake.

Arriving cheaply and quickly in the fury of the flying guillotine craze that swept 1970s international martial arts cinema, The Fatal Flying Guillotine taps into the era’s appetite for outrageous kung fu spectacles sparked by the breakout 1976 smash hit Master of the Flying Guillotine. This off-brand Taiwanese entry escalates the formula with its delirious titular weapon variation and near-constant combat – while blending mystical elements, rival factions, double crosses and Buddhist brawls into one of the more kinetic and memorable examples of the short-lived but legendary trend.

There’s a new 2K transfer from original film elements supervised and composited by film archivist Toby Russell, plus extras like a commentary with Justin Decloux of The Important Cinema Club Podcast; A Brief History of Flying Guillotine Movies and Chan Siu-Pang Was There video essays; a 10 Styles of Tamo demonstration; a dirty VHS version of the film; an image gallery; trailers; a folded mini-poster featuring original pressbook art; “Stick Your Own” VHS stickers; a liner notes booklet by C.J. Lines; lobby cards and limited edition slipcase art by Uncle Frank.

Reanimator Academy: The fraternity brothers at Delta Epsilon Delta are your typical red-blooded American party animals, that is except for Edgar Allen Lovecraft. He’s locked up in his room trying to cure death and finds a serum that works on the severed head of a recently deceased comedian. When a mafia hood steals the serum to use on his murdered squeeze, her reanimated corpse goes on a campus killing spree — let the corny puns and one-punch decapitations fly!

Reanimator Academy was produced down and dirty for the booming early 90s video store rental market by legendary producer David DeCoteau (Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) and directed by the equally renowned Bret McCormick (The Abomination), under what is possibly the best pseudonym ever used in a film. This silly send-up of Lovecraftian lore and cinematic tropes will leave you feeling as hungover and headless as a three-kegger blowout would.

First time ever on disc following its initial VHS release!

This has a transfer from existing SD tape masters and features commentary from Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum; an interview with director Bret McCormick; a location tour; an interview with actor Tom Fegan and Fred the Head; a feature on the score; the director’s 2023 soundtrack cut; Bret McCormick’s Children of Dracula; a Q&A; a folded mini-poster; a reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art; a “Stick Your Own” set of VHS stickers, limited edition slipcase art by Giorgio Credaro and a limited edition video store card.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

Here are the drinks for the first night:

Anti-God

  • 1.5 oz green apple vodka
  • .5 oz. Midori
  • .5 oz. Sour Apple Pucker
  • 4 oz. lemonade
  • .25 oz. lemon juice
  • .25 oz. lime juice
  1. Pour it all in a shaker with ice.
  2. Pour and enjoy. You will not be saved by the holy ghost. You will not be saved by the god Plutonium. In fact, YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED!

Possessor

  • 2 oz popcorn-infused rum
  • .75 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • .5 oz. simple syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • Pinch of salt
  1. In a clean glass jar with a lid, combine the 1 cup buttered popcorn and 1 cup rum. Seal the jar and leave at room temperature for 2 hours. Strain, then throw away the popcorn.
  2. Put the rum, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white in a shaker with no ice and shake for 30 seconds; shake again with ice. Sprinkle with salt.

For night two:

Tipsy Tina

  • 8 oz. orange juice
  • 12 oz. orange soda
  • 4 oz. rum
  1. Pour rum over ice.
  2. Follow with soda and juice.

Bay of Breeze (AKA Thirst of the Death Nerve)

  • 2 oz. cranberry juice
  • 2 oz. pineapple juice
  • 1 1/2 oz. vodka
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  1. Combine ingredients over ice.
  2. Stir and serve, then die.

See you at the drive-in.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: Funeral Home (1980)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

Oh, Canada. Your horror movies are so strange, so unlike anywhere else. You remain such a polite country, our neighbor to the north, yet you’ve given us Cronenberg’s body horror, a black Christmas and more tax-shelter slashers than one human can possibly consume. What strange horrors have you brought to me today? Oh look—it’s 1980’s Funeral Home, otherwise known by the much better (and far more Giallo-esque) title Cries in the Night.

Heather—played by Lesleh Donaldson, the quintessential Canadian scream queen who also graced Curtains and Happy Birthday to Me—is spending the summer in a small town with her grandmother, Maude (Kay Hawtrey). Maude has turned her home, which was once a funeral home, into a quaint inn. It’s the kind of business plan that only works in horror movies or if you’re looking to attract the kind of tourists who find the smell of formaldehyde rustic. Maude’s husband has been missing for several years, so she also makes ends meet by selling artificial flowers. She even has her own handyman, Billy (Jack Van Evera), who is mentally challenged in that way that 80s horror movies always portrayed: wearing overalls and acting as a giant, walking red herring.

The only problem is that when people check in, they end up missing. Like that unmarried adulterous couple—because in 1980, checking into a motel for a tryst was basically a signed death warrant. And that real estate developer who wants to buy the land. You know the rule: if you have a briefcase and a suit in a slasher movie, you’re getting a sharp object in your chest before the first act is over.

And when Heather comes home at night, she hears her grandmother talking to someone who isn’t there in the basement. It’s like Psycho, but with more maple syrup and a much slower pace.

Director William Fruet—who gave us the absolutely harrowing Death Weekend (AKA The House by the Lake) and went on to direct episodes of Goosebumps and Friday the 13th: The Series—keeps things atmospheric, even if the “shocker” ending feels like it was lifted directly from Mother Bates’ diary.

Well, it seems like Heather’s grandfather was having an affair with Helena Davis, a fact her grandmother denies to everyone, including Helena’s husband, Mr. Davis (played by Barry Morse, the Inspector from TV’s original The Fugitive). Unfortunately for the Inspector, he doesn’t find the “one-armed man” here; he just finds a pickaxe to the head.

Heather and her boyfriend Rick start investigating, finally finding the corpse of her grandfather in the cellar. Turns out, Maude hasn’t been lonely at all. She’s been keeping Grandpa’s remains in a box and developed a split personality to keep him alive. Now, Maude speaks with his gravelly voice and comes after them with an axe. It’s a total Grand Guignol moment that reminds us that grandmas in horror movies are never just baking cookies. Luckily, the police arrive just in time to stop the family reunion from getting any bloodier.

As the credits roll, the cops explain the entire plot to us in an exhaustive monologue. It’s such a weird ending, with an overly long explanation fighting for screen time with the names of the gaffers and best boys. It’s like the movie didn’t trust you to understand that “Grandma is crazy,” so they brought in the local PD to give a PowerPoint presentation.

And if you’re a purveyor of films with ripped-off artwork—and let’s be honest, who isn’t?—then check out the 1988 supernatural flick Through the Fire. It steals the Funeral Home theatrical and VHS artwork of the screaming face in the window almost pixel for pixel. In the world of regional horror and budget distribution, why pay for a new painting when you can just trace someone else’s nightmares?

Funeral Home isn’t going to change your life, but for fans of slow-burn Canadian creepiness and Lesleh Donaldson’s lungs, it’s a solid double-feature pairing with The Hearse. Just don’t go in the basement. Or the garage. Or Canada.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: A Bay of Blood (1971)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

Also known as Ecology of Crime, Chain Reaction, Carnage, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath, Last House on the Left – Part II and New House on the Left, this is the most violent and nihilistic of all of Mario Bava’s films. It started as a story idea so that Bava could work with Laura Betti (Hatchet for the Honeymoon) again, with the original titles of Stench of Flesh and Thus We Do Live to Be Evil, but had a virtual litany of writers get involved, including producer Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni, Sergio Canevari, Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi.

Bava was devoted to the film, and its low budget meant he would also serve as his own cinematographer, often creating innovative tracking shots with a toy wagon and relying on in-camera tricks to make the location seem much more expansive than it was. In fact, most of the lush forest was actually just Bava moving a few branches in front of the lens to hide the fact that they were filming in someone’s backyard.

There are thirteen murders in the film, many of which are incredibly gory, thanks to the skill of Carlo Rambaldi, as several characters vie to inherit the titular bay. Rambaldi, who would go on to create the lovable E.T., was clearly in a much darker headspace here, crafting throat-slashes and decapitations that look painfully wet even fifty years later.

The film divides critics and fans: some see it as pure gore, while others see it as the nuanced films Bava is known for. For example, Christopher Lee went on record saying he found the movie revolting. This from a guy who played Dracula ten times! If the Count thinks you’ve gone too far, you’re doing something right.

It also gave rise to the slasher genre, as every film that follows owes it a debt of gory gratitude. And some owe it plenty more, in particular Friday the 13th Part 2, which copies two of the kills in this film shot-for-shot. Steve Miner didn’t just take notes; he took the whole damn blueprint.

The story is all over the place and has a mix of dark humor and pure meanness at its core, starting with Filippo Donati strangling his wife, Countess Federica, before being stabbed and killed scant seconds later. His corpse is dragged to the bay, where his murder goes undiscovered as detectives begin their investigation into the death of the Countess.

That’s when we meet Frank (Chris Avram, Enter the Devil), a real estate agent, and his girlfriend Laura (Anna Maria Rosati), who plot to take over the bay. They were working with Donati to kill his wife and now need his signature, but don’t realize that he is already fish food.

Meanwhile, four teenagers hear about the murders and break into the mansion. One of them, Brunhilda, skinny dips in the bay until the dead corpse of Donati surfaces and touches her. She screams and runs toward the mansion, only to be killed by an unseen murderer holding a billhook. That killer uses that same weapon to kill her boyfriend, Bobby, then he impales Duke and Denise together with a spear while they’re having sex. Here’s a good lesson that I constantly yell: don’t fuck in the woods, don’t fuck in a haunted house, don’t fuck when a killer is about.

The killer turns out to be the Countess’s illegitimate son, Simon (Claudio Volonté, brother of Gian Maria Volonté), who is wiping out everyone under Frank’s orders. Renata (Claudine Auger, Domino from Thunderball) shows up to throw a wrench in the work, as she’s the Countess’ real daughter. Along with her husband, Albert (Luigi Pistilli, who Western fans will recognize from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), she begins to make plans to kill her half-brother.

What follows is a near Grand Guignol of back-and-forth murder: Frank attacks Renata, who turns the tables and stabs him with a knife. Paolo, the entomologist who lives on the estate grounds (played by Leopoldo Trieste, whom Bava fans know from The Girl Who Knew Too Much), sees the killing but is strangled by Albert before he can call the police, and his wife is decapitated with an axe. Laura shows up, but Simon strangles her to death before Albert kills him. Frank shows up again, but Albert takes him out, leaving Renata as the sole heir.

They return home to await being awarded the money, but as they get to the front door, their children shoot them with a shotgun, thinking they are playing with their parents. Bored with the game and how long their parents have been playing dead, the kids run out to play another game. It’s an ending that can be viewed as pure comedy or a sad comment on humanity. Maybe both. It’s the ultimate “fuck you” to the audience, suggesting that greed and violence are literally in our DNA.

Bay of Blood isn’t the Gothic art of past Bava films like Black Sunday, but it’s not trash. It’s a mean-spirited and brilliantly executed exercise in style. It’s also been claimed to have been Bava’s favorite film that he directed, perhaps because he finally got to strip away the romance and show the world for the meat grinder it is. Dario Argento adores the movie so much that he literally stole a print of it from a theater! If you ever find yourself in Rome and see Dario running down the street with a film canister, now you know why.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

After the absolute banger ending of Halloween 4, where little Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) went full-tilt boogeyman on her foster mom, we all expected the next chapter to be The Bad Seed of Haddonfield. Instead, Michael Myers, who was shot approximately ten thousand times and dropped down a mine shaft, survives by floating down a river like a waterlogged log of pure evil.

He’s nursed back to health by a hermit and a parrot (yes, really) for a year. Once he wakes up, he kills his benefactor and heads back to town to find Jamie. Jamie is now mute, institutionalized, and sharing a psychic link with her uncle. While Dr. Loomis screams at a child to find a killer, Michael stalks a group of teens led by the hyperactive Tina, leading to a climax in the old Myers house involving a laundry chute and a mysterious Man in Black who has some very aggressive feelings about police stations.

Yes, The Shape takes a page out of Frankenstein, as an old hermit nurses him back to life after the last film’s mine shaft death sequence. Then he goes right back to killing and stalking his niece. The one exciting moment, when a mysterious stranger in black kills nearly the entire cast at the conclusion of the film, suggests that whatever happens next, it’s going to be awesome. I agree with Donald Pleasence and Danielle Harris, who wanted to continue the story of Jamie turning evil after stabbing her stepmother in the past film. Instead, we got Michael crying. Crying! You don’t make the Shape shed a tear unless it’s made of blood.

Here’s an interview with my wife about this movie and why she loves it.

BECCA: One word: Tina. Michael and his convertible… Mikey. That mean asshole, he gets hit with a rake and Michael Myers steals her car to get him. I love that Michael just knows how to drive a stick shift and navigate a 1989 Camaro like he’s in The Fast and the Furious. It’s ridiculous and I live for it.

SAM: How many times have you seen this movie?

BECCA: Five billion. It’s one of the ones I rented every week. I don’t know why my parents didn’t just find this and buy it. It would have saved them $2.00 a week at the local Video King.

SAM: This movie feels like a fever dream directed by someone who had never seen a Halloween movie but had seen a lot of European art house films and Miami Vice. Why are there two bumbling cops with clown sound effects? Why did they change the Myers house into a Gothic Victorian mansion that definitely wasn’t there in 1978?

BECCA: Because it’s the 80s, Sam! Style over logic! Plus, Donald Pleasence is at his absolute most unhinged here. He’s basically using a traumatized child as live bait. He’s more of a villain than Michael is at points. He’s literally barking at her!

SAM: It’s a mess, but it’s a fascinating mess. It gave us the Thorn tattoo and the Man in Black, setting up a sequel that would eventually involve Paul Rudd and Druid cults. It’s the moment the franchise decided that slasher wasn’t enough and supernatural soap opera was the way to go.

This is the middle child of the Thorn Trilogy. It’s loud, it’s confusing, it has a mask that looks like an angry potato with long hair and we love it anyway. Watch it for Danielle Harris giving a performance that is way better than the script deserves.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

After trying to turn the franchise into an anthology, Moustapha Akkad realized that if there isn’t a white mask on the poster, fans aren’t buying tickets. So, ten years after the night he was blown up in a hospital, Michael Myers wakes up from a coma during a standard-issue let’s transport the serial killer in a rainstorm ambulance transfer.

Michael heads back to Haddonfield to wrap up some family business. Laurie Strode is dead (killed off-screen in a car accident because Jamie Lee Curtis had moved on to A-list things), leaving behind a daughter named Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). While Jamie deals with school bullies — Haddonfield may have the worst children ever — and connecting with her foster sister, Rachel (Ellie Cornell), Michael is busy impaling mechanics and shoving thumbs through skulls. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) returns, looking more scarred and frantic than ever, trying to convince a skeptical town that the Boogeyman is back. It all culminates in a rooftop chase and a twist ending that promised a dark future the sequels immediately chickened out of.

This film feels nearly bloodless after the second film. It trades the John Carpenter dread for a slasher-by-the-numbers aesthetic that feels more like a made-for-TV movie than a cinematic nightmare. And don’t get me started on the mask. Michael looks like he’s wearing a department store knock-off that’s permanently surprised to be there. But wow, the opening credits may be the best Autumn mood moments ever. As more Halloween movies have been made, this has moved up on my list, however. I really love the idea that Loomis has lost his mind and been hunting Michael ever since; there are some wonderful small moments, like him sharing a drink with the preacher.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: Evilspeak (1981)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

Post-Carrie, we’ve seen so many films where people turn to the Devil to help them fit in or fight back against bullies. But let’s face it — when you dress up Carrie White or Sissy Spacek or Chloë Grace Moretz, they end up being attractive. But Clint Howard? There’s really no dressing up, Clint.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the man and his many, many contributions to film (Balok from the Star Trek TV series, Carnosaur, Apollo 13, Rock ‘n Roll High School, and so much more). But you can totally see how he fits his role as Stanley Coopersmith in this movie.

Evilspeak starts in the past, where Satanist Father Esteban (Richard Moll, who ends up in these reviews a lot, thanks to films like The Nightmare Never Ends and The Dungeonmaster) and his followers are exiled from Spain and denied the grace of God, unless they renounce Satan and his evil ways. We wouldn’t have a movie if they gave in, right?

Fast forward to the 80’s. Stanley Coopersmith is an orphan, a poor kid who has been allowed into a military school alongside the children of some of the nation’s richest and most powerful people. Everybody — including the teachers — pretty much uses Stanley like a punching bag. While cleaning the church cellar, he finds Father Esteban’s room, which is filled with black magic books and a diary. Stanley uses his 1981 computer skills to translate the book and learn more about Esteban. My words will not translate how great Stanley’s Apple II’s computing power is.

The next morning, Stanley’s classmates tie up his clothes and unplug his alarm clock, which leads him to be punished. As he cleans the stables, the school secretary finds Esteban’s diary. As she plays with the jewels on the cover, pigs attack Stanley. He returns to his room to find all of his belongings destroyed and his book gone.

Sick of running out of computer time, Stanley steals a computer and sets it up in the basement. He’s only missing a few ingredients — human blood and a consecrated host.

That evening, the cook takes pity on Stanley and gives him Fred, a puppy. Seriously, this is the only person in the entire film who treats our hero with an ounce of respect, unlike Coach Collins in Carrie, who tries throughout the film to treat her well.

Stanley gets the Eucharist he needs and notices Esteban’s portrait. As he begins the ritual, students in masks and robes attack him. Stanley’s woes are compounded when the caretaker accuses him of being a thief and attacks him. He yells for help, and the computer starts up, revealing a pentagram. Suddenly, the caretaker’s head is spun around, killing him. As he hides the body in the catacombs, Stanley finds decapitated skeletons and Father Esteban’s crypt.

The secretary tries to pry the jewels out of the black magic book, but bleeds all over it. As she takes a shower, demonic boars attack and eat her. This scene is gratuitous as fuck. It is also incredibly awesome because the movie is just about to stop torturing Stanley and go off the rails.

Stanley gets attacked by his soccer team, who tell him that if he tries to play in the big game, they’ll kill Fred the dog. After seeing him get beaten, the principal kicks him off the team. And it gets worse. As the team goes out drinking, they break into his hidden room and kill his dog.

At this point, I was screaming at the screen for Stanley to do something. It was as if he was listening. He steals another piece of communion and kills a teacher who follows him in by throwing him into a spiked wheel. The ritual begins, and Father Esteban takes control of Stanley’s body, taking up a sword and attacking the church service above.

What follows is a near orgy of destruction. A nail from the Crucifix goes right into the brain of a priest. Wild demon boars emerge while Stanley levitates above them and starts chopping off everyone’s heads in gory, bloody geysers. The lead bully runs, only to meet the zombie caretaker, who rips out his heart. Then, Stanley burns the church to the ground.

I’m not understating this — this is literally five or six minutes of pure Satanic revenge porn. Everyone who did anything to Stanley for the past running time of the film gets it good. It was enough to get this film classified as a “video nasty” in the UK, and there were even more gore scenes, but they have supposedly been lost forever after the MPAA cuts. The final UK release had none of the Black Mass text and none of the gore at the end — what a loss!

If the film ended here, it would be the best movie ever. But no, producer Sylvio Tabet was a devout Christian. That’s why he added a Khalil Gibran quote in the prologue and ended the film with a caption that states that only Stanley survived the attack, but went catatonic and is in Sunnydale Asylum. That said, Stanley’s face shows up on the computer in the basement and promises, “I will return.”

I discovered a great article that discusses just how Evilspeak was allowed to be shot in a Catholic church. Another urban legend of the film is that upon refurbishing part of the church, an aged priest saw the “new church” and dropped to his knees to thank God. I hope he never saw the film, one that Anton LaVey believed explained the Satanic faith (it appears on the approved films list of the Church of Satan’s website and Magus Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the COS, stated that the film is Satanic because it depicts “a fellow who is treated unjustly gets revenge on his cruel tormentors. But of course, there are some nifty jabs at Christian hypocrisy along the way…”).

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2026 Primer: Fade to Black (1980)

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April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 24 and 25, 2026. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included). You can buy tickets at the show, but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 24 are Prince of Darkness, Popcorn, Fade to Black and Evilspeak.

Saturday, April 25 has Halloween 4, Halloween 5, A Bay of Blood and Funeral Home.

A movie about a socially awkward, totally obsessed film fan whose love of old films borders on the obsessive, with nights filled with movie after movie after movie? This one hits a little too close to home.

Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher, Breaking Away) works in a Los Angeles film distributor warehouse by day and watches movies by night. He’s the guy I was referring to earlier — someone so into movies he gets bullied by his family and co-workers. And when he meets Marilyn O’Connor, who looks like Marilyn Monroe, he finally finds someone whose looks are similar to the movie ideal that life does not always achieve. Or maybe he’s just so crazy that when he sees her, he goes into a fantasy fugue state and only sees what his brain will allow him to see.

Somehow, Eric is able to ask her out, but she stands him up by accident. This drives him completely out of his mind, transforming him into various film icons to destroy his enemies.

First, he re-enacts Kiss of Death by pushing his Aunt Stella (who is really his mother) down the steps, then shows up at her funeral as Tommy Udo, the role Richard Widmark played in the film. No one gets it. No one has seen the movies that Eric loves. There is no one to discuss them with. They can’t even put her grave next to Marilyn Monroe’s grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Eric then becomes Count Dracula and attends a midnight showing of Night of the Living Dead. Eric then goes to Marilyn’s house in a scene inspired by Psycho. She screams, he drops his pen into the water, and the ink becomes the blood. “I only wanted your autograph,” he yells as he runs.

Eric then goes back to find a hooker who had been rude to him. He chases her, she falls and dies, then he drinks her blood. Obviously, Eric has not seen Martin. Actually, the way this scene is intercut with scenes from old black-and-white horror films, I am certain the makers of this film have seen Romero’s vampire film.

Now that Eric has gone this far, why not dress up as Hopalong Cassidy and kill off Richie (Mickey Rourke in an early role), a co-worker who bullies him.

Oh yeah — Tim Thomerson is a criminal psychologist who is working with a policewoman (they’re having sex, because 1980 and all) to find what he believes is a serial killer. The big problem is that his captain wants all the glory for himself.

Eric talks to his aunt as if she were still alive, then, after watching Halloween (producer Irwin Yablans also produced that film), he pleases himself while looking at a photo of Marilyn Monroe.

Eric’s dream has been to own his own movie theater and to make his own movie. He tells a sleazeball named Gary Bially his idea, Alabama and the Forty Thieves, and you get the feeling that not much good can come of it.

Eric’s boss fires him and won’t allow him back into work to get his posters. As his everyday self, even when trying to talk like a movie character, Eric is impotent. But when he’s dressed as The Mummy, he can frighten his boss into a heart attack.

After seeing Gary Bially on a talk show, where he talks up the movie Eric created as his own, Eric shows up at the producer’s birthday party. Dressed as James Cagney’s character from White Heat, he fires a submachine gun at everyone in the room before killing the man who stole from him.

The cops are on to Eric, but he’s hired Marilyn for a photo shoot and is all set to re-enact The Prince and the Showgirl when Thomerson’s character arrives. Eric runs to Mann’s Chinese Theater and makes it to the roof before dying just like Cagney in White Heat, yelling, “Made it, ma! Top of the world!”

Director and writer Vernon Zimmerman also created Unholy Rollers, but this movie is way beyond that. It shows how seeing the world only through movies can be dangerous to yourself and everyone else. Eric goes from shy and withdrawn to dark and mean by the end of the movie, becoming a new character. I wonder what he would have thought about the movie made from his life?