Creepy, kooky and altogether Spooky

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

I’m back!! Miss me? I’ve come back from Seattle a little more cultured and a little more sick (it was crazy cold there!). If you ever go out there, in addition to eating Cascadia mini burgers and cruising up the Space Needle, you HAVE to get your geek on at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Good stuff abounds all around, as there are lots of old books, phasers and other famous props, and robots galore. (Plus, 15 bucks also gets you admission to the very cool Experience Music Project.)

And I’ve come back right in time for some super crazy fun with the third annual Spooky Movie: Washington, D.C., International Horror Film Festival. Count Gore De Vol, Northern Virginia’s favorite horror host since the 1970s, kicked off the proceedings tonight at Fairfax’s Cinema Arts Theatre, and continues it Friday night with a special “grindhouse night.” The festival continues until Monday chock full of blood and beasties. All-festival passes run 30 bucks, while individual programs cost between $8 and $12.

A few highlights:

Any fan of Quentin Tarantino will want to stop by for some good ol’ grindhouse cinema on Friday, an ode to the exploitation flicks of yesteryear. (Think anything involving gratuitous sex, lots of kung fu and unnecessary amounts of the ol’ ultra-violence.) ”Night of the Hell Hamsters” and “Prombies!” are two of the notable featured shorts, while the coup de gross will be “Brain Dead.” Come on – flesh-eating zombies AND a hot assistant? Doesn’t get much better.

On Saturday, “The Blue Rhino vs. the Diabolic Brain” is a piece of local Mexican wrestling-fueled goodness, “Cheerbleeders” sounds like a pretty fun time (goth girl falls for geek boy who then turns into Mr. Popular – uh oh!) and “Vlog” gets its world premiere, where an innocent (hah!) female video blogger documents her life on the Internet, and she finds out she has a certain nutso fan who posts the serial killings of her posse.

Sunday features no less than 19 – yes, you read that right, 19! – flicks, both short- and long-form. Check out some of these doozies: “Zombie Night Theatre,” “Casting Call of Cthulhu,” “Lawn of the Dead,” “Transerexia,” “Attackzoids!” and “Shut-Eye Hotel.” Old-school film buffs will want to go the distance for the last movie of the day, “Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story,” an insightful look at the master of the gimmick and man behind inflatable flying skeletons and the “fright break.”

Closing night on Monday brings the world premiere of the British thriller “Bane,” which follows four women who wake up in an underground dungeon thingy and have to survive the likes of … the Surgeon!

Now, if you can handle it, here’s a little trailer for the festival:

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Tags: movies, video