Yorkshire’s best horror movie film festival Celluloid Screams will return for its year to The Showroom Cinema in Sheffield between the 24th and 26th October. Serving up a weekend of blood, chills and scares, the festival is a must for all horror connoisseurs. Today is a special day and the line up for this years festival has finally be released and we believe it is one of the strongest festival line ups that we’ve seen all year. The team behind the festival have really knocked the ball out of the park this year and it is with this in mind that I am proud to tell you about what they have to offer festival goers this year.
Opening the festival will be the latest film from Canadian filmmaking collective Astron-6 THE EDITOR. A homage to the Italian Giallo, The Editor stars Paz de la Huerta (Enter the Void), Udo Kier (Iron Sky), Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede Part 2), Tristan Risk (American Mary) who will be joined by fellow members of Astron-6 Matthew Kennedy, Connor Sweeney and Adam Brooks who also appear in the film. Closing the festival will be Tommy Wirkola‘s epic battle of the undead DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD. Having already seen this film I can tell you that this is a superb way to end what is going to be a fantastic weekend as Wirkola has not only upped the bar with this sequel but he truly surpasses his first instalment in every way possible.
So what about the rest? For starters there is going to be a screening of Gerard Johstone‘s fantastic directoral debut and Kiwi Horror Comedy HOUSEBOUND and there will be the tense and super chilling CREEP from director Patrick Brice. Then director Stuart Simpson serves a rich pitch black comedy about a lonely ice-cream man in his film CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY VANILLA, Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer shows us the more nastier side of LA with their shocking casting couch horror STARRY EYES, then it will be time for the vampire comedy from The Flight of The Conchords team in WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.
After wowing audiences with Excision, Richard Bates Jr is back with his comedy horror SUBURBAN GOTHIC starring Matthew Gray Grubler (Life After Beth), Kat Dennings (Thor), Ray Wise (The Aggression Scale), genre legend Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) and John Waters. Talking about making a return to the festival, the directors of Resolution Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson’s latest offering SPRING will also be showing as part of the festival. Lastly, Celluloid Screams will also be holding a very special screening of ABCS OF DEATH 2 which features 26 new shorts and 26 new ways to die with segments directed by Julian Barrat (The Mighty Boosh), Larry Fessenden (Jug Face), E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills), Aharon Keshales (Big Bad Wolves) and the lovely Twisted Twins themselves Jen and Sylvia Soska (American Mary).
This years SHORT FILM RETROSPECTIVE is dedicated to the work of Astron-6. So you better prepare yourself for some pretty amazing shorts that will have you laughing until your sides split with this carefully curated selection of their best shorts including cool guys, laser ghosts will play. There will be a Q&A after the screening with fellow Astron-6 members Matthew Kennedy, Connor Sweeney and Adam Brooks. In addition to this there will be the return of the annual CELLUOID SCREAMS SECRET FILM which is not revealed until the audience until moments before the film begins. Last year it was ALMOST HUMAN and the year before that was the terrifying CITADEL from director Ciaran Foy. This generates a real buzz amongst festival goers and never fails to strike a chord with the audience.
As if that wasn’t enough, this year will see team Celluloid Screams holding their second allnighter called SCI-FI SHOCKS which will take place on the evening of Saturday 25th October. The films played that evening will be BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and the film that will not do anyone’s coulrophobia any good KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTTER SPACE.
Celluloid Screams will also be showing an amazing collection of shorts that will feature during the festival. The shorts include Can Evrenol‘s BASKIN, Marc Riba & Anna Solanas‘ CANIS, Stephen W. Martin‘s DEAD HEARTS, Jerónimo Rocha‘s DEADALO, David Ferino‘s EMPTIED, Ethan Shaftel‘s FLESH COMPUTER, Lee Cronin‘s GHOST TRAIN and Maarten Groen‘s ROTOR. Joining them will be AUTUMN HARVEST, the latest from the director of Angst, Piss & Drid Fredrik S. Hana (who won Best Short Film at Celluloid Screams 2013) and festival goers will also experience two truly outstanding shorts from the Glasgow’s answer to Cronenberg aka director Andy Stewart whose shorts, SPLIT and INK will certainly impress if not make you feel faint.
So with perhaps the strongest line up to date we have yet to hear on which guests will be attending the festival. However, the cherry on this delicious cake is the announcement that the guest of honour for 2014 is none other than director/producer Brian Yuzna. As producer Yuzna collaborated with director Stuart Gordon to bring H.P. Lovecraft‘s Re-Animator and From Beyond to the big screen. Furthermore, as director he delivered the extraordinary film Society. As for the festival, Brian will be in attendance to host special screenings of SOCIETY and DAGON. He will also be the president of this years Celluloid Screams short film jury.
Festival passes for the weekend are now on sale on the festival website. They start at £65/£55 concessions but for those of you wanting to attend the allnighter, you can expect to pay a respectable £80/£70 concessions.
If you would like more information please visit:
http://www.celluloidscreams.co.uk
http://www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/festivals/celluloidscreams