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Fifth Nevermore Film Festival

When: 23-25 January, 2004.

How much: Tickets: $7.50 per film/$33.00 for a 5-pack

On-sale Date: Tickets go on sale January 5, 2004

What:
Fifteen horror films, filmmakers of several in attendance, etc.

North Carolina Premiere!
2009 LOST MEMORIES
(Korea, NR, 135 min, 2003)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantosporto
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantastick Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantasy Filmfest
This mega-budget Korean blockbuster delivers the goods! 2009 Lost Memories is entertaining, beautifully produced, and incredibly crowd-pleasing. Not enough you say? 2009 boasts the largest sets in the history of Korean film. One single scene blows away a quarter of a million dollars! 20,000 rounds of ammunition were fired during filming and are the largest single shipment in Korean history. This sci-fi action spectacular is set an alternate future where Japan has won World War II and Korea has become almost entirely Japanese. There's a grassroots movement called the Korean Liberation Army (KRA) which uses bad-ass techniques (and lots of high-tech gadgets) to establish Korean independence. Enter cops Masayuki Sakamoto (Jang Dong-Gun) and Shojiro Saigo (Toru Nakamura). They're members of the Japan Bureau of Investigation (JBI). It's their job to untangle the mystery behind KRA's latest terrorist action, which involve the theft of mysterious Korean artifacts. Sakamoto is actually Korean, but he believes that the KRA are criminals first, and patriots second. In truth, he couldn't care less about Korean independence. That is, until this particular case. It seems that one of the artifacts is a curious quarter-moon, which also resembles a dangling necklace from one of his mysterious dreams; dreams of a strange woman being hauled at gun point into a pillar of light. And kiddies, we've only described the first ten minutes! From here 2009 goes into uncharted territory, and makes a daring leap into the unknown. You can't remotely expect the degree of plot-twisting-gun-blaring-FX-madness that takes place. Prepare to be blind-sided.
Viewer's Guide: Violence.

North Carolina Premiere!
THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
(US, NR, 2001, 92 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Sundance Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Toronto International Film Festival
One of the Ten Best Films of 2001---Film Threat
There are films that inspire rage, and then there's something like The American Astronaut, a movie so goofy and affable about its willful, second-rate cheesiness that anger becomes a waste of time. You either go along with it or you don't go at all. A self-described "retro-futuristic musical space Western," shot in black and white against what look like cardboard sets, this is what might have resulted if the late Ed Wood Jr. had been hired to direct Paint Your Wagon. Here's a midnight movie so trippy and hallucinogenic you don't need any brain-altering substances to enjoy it. The plot: Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee, acting as director, writer, star, and composer) is a space trader who zips around the galaxy in a spaceship that looks like a trailer. Traveling the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, he ends up in the least friendly tavern in the universe, where thugs assault him with a... mean-spirited song-and-dance routine. Yep, a musical number. Curtis trades a cat (named "Monkeypuss") for a pre-cloned woman in a box. He trades that for The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast (Gregory Russell Cook) whose nightly description of a woman's breast (a sight he alone on the outpost has glimpsed) provides the all-male population inspiration to continue living. Curtis intends to deliver the Boy to a Venus populated only by Victorian women who need a fresh stud every few years to keep their elitism in check. Meanwhile, deranged Professor Hess (Rocco Sisto), apparently angered by a forgotten birthday, pursues Curtis across the solar system, leaving a trail of vaporized innocents in his wake. The American Astronaut is alive in a way that films just aren't anymore. Words may not do this film justice. The American Astronaut could conceivably become the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. Or at least the next Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai!
Viewer's Guide: Language.

Triangle Premiere!
AT NIGHT WITH NO CURTAINS
(US, NR, 2003, 85 min)
From NC Writer-Director Ian Hayes Brett and Producer Matt McElfresh (including a cast and crew from NC), comes this chilling indie ghost story filmed in black-and-white at the Buckland House in Gates County, NC. Set in 1958, At Night With No Curtains tells the tale of five teenagers who set out to explore the legend behind the abandoned plantation home. The legend involves Elizabeth Hatley, a Civil War-era wife and mother who went mad after learning of her husband's death. The widow told her servant to stab each one of her children in the stomach and lock them in the closet. She then placed her rocking chair outside the closet and listened to the sounds of her dying children. Nowadays, it's said that anyone who enters the closet and repeats three times, "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth," will awaken the vengeful spirit of Elizabeth Hatley. Creepy and atmospheric, and filled with images that'll make your skin crawl, At Night With No Curtains is a solid, scary indie flick!
Viewer's Guide: Violence and language.

Festival Centerpiece Film!
NC Premiere!
BUBBA HO-TEP
(US, R, 2003, 92 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Toronto International Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Hong Kong International Film Festival
From Don Coscarelli, the man who gave us Phantasm and Bruce Campbell, the star of The Evil Dead comes a single exclusive screening of this wickedly glorious flick about two American legends and one really nasty Mummy in a Tony Lamas cowboy hat. This is the one you've been screaming for! Bubba Ho-Tep has finally arrived in North Carolina. The plot: Elvis and JFK did not die, and today they're roommates in an East Texas nursing home whose residents are being killed by an ancient Egyptian Soul Sucker named Bubba Ho-Tep. Yes, Elvis (Campbell) became sick of his lifestyle, his buddies, his groupies, his pills, his songs, his movies and his Colonel Parker. He struck a deal with an Elvis impersonator to trade places. There was even a contract guaranteeing that Elvis could switch back if he changed his mind -- but the contract was burned up in a barbecuing accident. Down the hall from The King is John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis). "But, Jack..." Elvis says hesitantly, "you're black." JFK nods in confirmation. When his assassination was faked by Lyndon B. Johnson, "they dyed me." After a series of grisly murders at the Mud Creek Rest Home, the two old men find themselves in battle against a flying cockroach, Elvis on a stroller, JFK using a motorized wheelchair. Turns out the cockroach is actually giant scarab beetle, and that's a clue for JFK, who realizes that an evil Soul Sucker has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds. (He's initially convinced that it's Lyndon Johnson.) Elvis, after some initial reluctance, sees a chance at redemption. Here is an opportunity to actually be the heroic figure he played in all those god-awful movies, to save people too helpless to save themselves, and to kick some Egyptian mummy butt. Soon enough, the stage is set for an epic clash between our geriatric heroes and their ancient foe. Bubba Ho-Tep has a lot of affection for Elvis and JFK, takes them seriously, and -- this is crucial -- isn't a camp horror movie, but treats this loony situation as if it's really happening. This is the must-see film of the festival.
Viewer's Guide: Language, some sexual content and brief violent images.

North Carolina Premiere!
GHOST OF THE NEEDLE
(US, NR, 2003, 86 min)
GRAND PRIZE WINNER for BEST FEATURE! Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival
WINNER for BEST FEATURE! Cinemacrabe Horror Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Festival of Fantastic Films
Ghost of the Needle simply kills. It is a truly scary horror flick, serious minded and never silly. There are no smart quips, horror film references or annoying scantily clad teens. It's smart, well acted, nicely produced and directed by Brian and Laurence Avenet-Bradley and thoroughly terrifying. Ghost of the Needle made us jump while previewing the film on video...with the volume down. In the theatre, expect to shriek blue hell. It works like an adrenaline rush. Jacob (Brian Bradley) is an eccentric and talented photographer. While the art is very therapeutic for him, it's killing his models. You see Jacob lures women to his basement studio where he poisons them, takes their pictures---not lurid sexual ones but arty ones---and then vacuum-seals the bodies in plastic bags and keeps 'em in the downstairs storage room of his gallery. But when one of his victims almost escapes, the experience gives Jacob a rather nasty sense of paranoia. He begins seeing and hearing things in the dark, awful things like people who have been vacuum-sealed in plastic and....maybe aren't really dead. Maybe, in fact, are coming back to get him. Be careful who you kill. Now a haunted Jacob begins a violent and disorienting descent into his own private hell. Dead, alive, or all in his head... one way or another, they're getting him tonight.
Viewer's Guide: Violence, gore, adult situations and language.

North Carolina Premiere!
THE GHOSTS OF EDENDALE
(US, NR, 2003, 90 min)
SILVER LAKE AWARD! 2003 Silver Lake Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest IV: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
Some people are dying to make it in the movies. From the maker of The Last Broadcast comes a haunting supernatural thriller. Kevin and Rachel move to Los Angeles to follow their dream -- making it in the movies. They can't believe their luck when they find the perfect house on a hill called Edendale - right next door to Hollywood. Here, all the neighbors are in "the business," and they have high hopes for Kevin and Rachel. But just how far are they willing to go? When Kevin becomes a cold, hard stranger obsessed with writing his new screenplay, Rachel discovers that Edendale once belonged to Tom Mix -- the King Cowboy of the Silent Movie Era. Killed in a freak car accident, Tom Mix died on his way back to Hollywood to make the "comeback" film of his career. In horror, Rachel realizes that Edendale has drawn them here for its own dark purposes. As the neighbors gather in anticipation of the completion of Kevin's work, Rachel must convince him to leave this place before the powerful Ghosts of Edendale reach through time to possess his very soul. Writer/director Stefan Avalos delivers a ghost story with the creepy paranoia of The Shining and the Hollywood cynicism of The Player. "Disturbing...what horror movies should be." --- Philadelphia Inquirer
Viewer's Guide: Violence, language and sensuality.

North Carolina Premiere! THE HUMAN BEEing
(US, NR, 2002, 35min)
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER! New York Independent Horror Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantastik Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Scarefest Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Rhode Island Horror Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest IV: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
****1/2 stars "...a hilariously surreal experience." --Film Threat
The Human BEEing is a hilarious homage to 1950's B-horror movies. (Think William Castle.) It's the story of an evil boss and a mad scientist who plan to get rich by turning all their employees at a typing company into worker bees. Things are looking up for Danasco Typing Company owner Allen Danasco. Allen's hired mad scientist, Dr. Charles Metzenbeamer, has created "the worker of the future" - The Human BEEing - to replace all his human employees. Cleverly disguising his creation in a moustache and toupee, Dr. Metzenbeamer introduces his creation into the office typing pool as the new employee, Mr. Hives. The disguise doesn't prevent the innocent typist, Stacey Van Meterson, from falling for the "interesting" Mr. Hives. But Stacey's jealous boyfriend, the All-American Joe De Compana, doesn't take too kindly to his girl's wandering eyes. When Joe finally confronts Dr. Metzenbeamer it may already be too late to stop Allen's sinister plan. Will our hero Joe prevail over evil? Will the face of humanity be permanently changed? To find out, you'll have to watch The Human BEEing. A talented cast of seasoned actors and a gifted crew - including Rick Baker's special effects artist Cory Czekaj - have all conspired to bring you The Human BEEing.
Viewer's Guide: Mild violence and language.

North Carolina Premiere!
I'LL BURY YOU TOMORROW
(US, NR, 119 min, 2003)
FEATURE FILM WINNER! 2002 Telluride Indiefest
BEST HORROR FEATURE! New York Int'l Independent Film & Video Festival
The GORE-GORE Award! Festival of the Macabre
FEATURE FILM WINNER! 2003 KeyWest Indiefest
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest IV: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
Now this is a horror movie not for the squeamish! Kudos go to director Alan Rowe Kelly for creating an old-fashioned gorefest for grown-ups in the tradition of Alice, Sweet Alice and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Delores Finley (Zoe Dealman Chlada) is a young woman with a strong...uhm, attraction to dead bodies. Luckily for her, Beech's Funeral Home in Port Oram is in hiring an assistant. Poor Mr. Beech's employees, Jake and Corey, are turning a hefty profit illegally selling human organs on the black market. Needless to say Dolores and her oddities fit in fairly well...or so you would think. But what's a pair of hard-working grave robbers to do when "natural causes" aren't providing enough bodies to keep up with consumer demand? And what's that awful smell coming from Dolores' room? Before long, drugs, car wrecks, chainsaws, butcher knives and of course, some very gory dismemberment are lowering the population of Port Oram. And at the rate people are dropping, there might not be anyone left to attend the funerals. Yes, kiddies. I'll Bury You Tomorrow is the real deal. You have been forewarned!
Viewer's Guide: Extreme violence, gore, adult situations, language and nudity.

North Carolina Premiere!
LETHAL DOSE (aka LD50)
(UK, R, 2003, 97 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
In conjunction with First Look Pictures, NEVERMORE presents two exclusive screenings of this blood-soaked, mind-bending British supernatural horror flick! LD stands for Lethal Dose. LD50 is the amount of a material, given all at once, which causes the death of 50% of a group of test animals. An idealistic group of young animal rights activists rescues an imprisoned colleague from a research facility where humans, not animals, are the subjects of experiments. Their rescue mission leads them to a disused lab, but what should have been a simple raid turns into a series of terrible deaths as they now find themselves hunted by a sadistic, evil ghost! Starring Katharine Towne (Mulholland Drive, What Lies Beneath,) Melanie Brown (Spice Girl, "Mel B",) Tom Hardy (Star Trek: Nemisis,) and Leo Bill (28 Days).
Viewer's Guide: Violence, gore, language and sexuality.

North Carolina Premiere!
MONSTER MAN
(US, R, 2003, 95 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantasy Filmfest
In conjunction with Lion's Gate Films, NEVERMORE presents this exclusive screening of an all-new scare-flick that proclaims, On this highway, the road kill is HUMAN! There's a fine line between what makes a flick scary and what makes it funny. Dead Alive crossed that line, Re-Animator did too and Monster Man follows in those very footsteps, willingly taking those extra leaps to make you laugh while closing eyes. In other words, this is a good pic to bring your pals. A couple of friends go on a cross-country trip and end up playing a gory cat-and-mouse game with a crazy monster truck driver. Sounds like Joyride, you argue? (Or Road Games for you older folk. Or Duel if you're a geezer. You know who you are. Don't even get us started on The Hitcher.) Instead, think all of the above crossed with Jeepers Creepers, we say. It's a monster truck driver, and not a monster truck driver, get it. Get it? If you liked any of the films we just mentioned, then Monster Man is your ticket, Smokey. You copy that?
Viewer's Guide: Strong horror violence, gore, language and sexuality.

Special Return Engagement! MY LITTLE EYE
(UK, R, 2003, 95 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Fantasy Filmfest 2003
WINNER! BEST FILM Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival 2003
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2002 Frightfest
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Toronto International Film Festival 2002
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest IV: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
**** (Four stars) The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review
If you missed My Little Eye‘s NC Premiere at the ESCAPSIM Film Festival, prepare yourself for one helluva scary movie. This one's so good, we wanted to give audiences a second chance to experience its madness. My Little Eye is set in a big house in a snowy, remote area of Canada. Five strangers are recruited for a six months stint in an isolated house together. They can't leave. Their every move is filmed by numerous cameras for broadcast on the Internet. The prize - $1 million. The rules - if one person leaves, everyone loses. It all starts out good, but the remote house along with strange sounds and the cold, snowy weather soon gets to the five contestants. Heated arguments and sexual tension make things worse. Soon the contestants start getting packages that contain bricks and guns. As the group enters their final week, events suggest that a murderous psychopath may be on the outside, wanting in. But is this real? Or a gimmick created by the filmmakers to increase ratings. As the body count rises, one thing's for certain...something in the house wants them dead!
Viewer's Guide: Strong violence and sexuality, pervasive language and some drug use.

North Carolina Premiere! OCTANE
(US, R, 2003, 91 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 FrightFest
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Cannes Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Exofest IV: Detroit International Horror Film Festival
In conjunction with First Look Pictures, NEVERMORE presents two exclusive screenings of this creepy supernatural flick about modern vampirism! Ever wondered whom all those interchangeable people are you see floating around motorway service stations when stopping for coffee to keep you alert en route home? In this intriguing and unusual terror tale, liberally laced with jolting surprise, the answer is they are all members of a sinister blood cult keeping a watchful eye out for the lonely and rebellious teenagers. When her daughter, Nat, is lured into taking part in gore guru Jonathan Rhys-Meyers sex-and-splatter rituals, Senga (Madeleine Stowe) attempts to track her down with help from the mysterious Recovery Man on his own quest to destroy the brainwashing sect. It's a gripping collision of neon-washed car smashes, fake police and paramedics adjusting disaster scenes to cover up the sinister activities, extreme disorientating close-ups and well-oiled eerieness. A riveting take on undead mythology (Near Dark its closest comparison) and auto-focused religious mania (Crash its antecedent), Octane is a haunting danse macabre of vibrant imagery and surreal nightmare scenarios with a lethal tread.
Viewer's Guide: strong violence, language, some drug and sexual content.

North Carolina Premiere! SUSPENDED ANIMATION
(US, R, 2003, 114 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Hamptons International Film Festival
30 years after director John Hancock terrified audiences with Let's Scare Jessica to Death, he now returns to the world of horror with this chilling and gruesome frightfest set in the snowy hills of Northern Michigan as well as the Hollywood hills of California. Alex McArthur stars as Tom Kempton, a major Hollywood animator who goes snowmobiling in the middle of nowhere with his buddies. Unexpectedly lost in the woods, he stumbles across a cozy two-story cabin owned by the Boulette sisters, Vanessa and Ann, who kidnap the handsome stranger with sudden, lip-smacking aplomb. You see, Vanessa and Ann are one supremely scary middle-age sister act with a nasty habit of capturing, cooking, and eating strangers. But make no mistake, kiddies. All references to Misery end right there as Tom now finds himself in the same kind of grim fairytale that he once created for the movies. This is the kind of flick that's got shocks and surprises so extreme as to border on literal overkill, including a close-up pimple-popping moment that makes Dario Argento's work look like Patch Adams. To give away more of the plot would seriously ruin Suspended Animation's pleasures. We guarantee you won't predict where this fearfest is going. Let's just say that the action leaves the cabin after the first thirty minutes...and that's when John Hancock closes his eyes and steps on the gas. Hey, did we mention it also includes some great animation? How about a score by Angelo Badalamenti?
Viewer's Guide: Violence, language, nudity and gore.

North Carolina Premiere!
YESTERDAY
(Korea, NR, 2003, 121 min)
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Fantasy Filmfest
After three years of planning and production, Korea's biggest sci-fi film has come to the US to roost! Yesterday marks Korea's biggest budgeted film to date, with sets built the size of cities and a budget for special effects/CG work that matches Bill Gates' entertainment fund. The special effects are reminiscent of films like Blade Runner or The Fifth Element. The plot opens in 1990 as a number of children suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense selects an elite group of scientists for a top-secret mission. Then, 30 years later …A killer nicknamed Goliath takes dead aim at the heart of the future! The year is 2020 and North and South Korea have been unified for quite some time. But when a string of heinous murders take place at the old border, the SI (Special Investigations) Unit led by Seok (Kim Seung Wu) is sent to investigate. All the victims are retired scientists. Meanwhile in the megapolis Inner City, the Chief of Police is kidnapped in broad daylight by a band of high-tech terrorists. The chief's daughter, Heesu (Kim Yoon Jin), a renowned criminal psychologist, quickly joins the investigation to find her father. Soon, Seok discovers that he and Heesu share an eerie trait - they both suffer from similar pulsing migraines and neither have any memories of their childhoods. Are the murders a ghastly scheme to bring Seok and Heesu together? Are any of their memories real or instead transplanted? Seok and Heesu's erased memories, Goliath's murderous genius and the serial killings of scientists. … The password that opens all of these secrets is Yesterday.
Viewer's Guide: Violence and language.

North Carolina Premiere!
ULTRACHRIST!
(US, NR, 2003, 92 min)
WINNER BEST COMEDY! Philadelphia Video Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION! 2003 Silver Lake Film Festival
If you thought last year's Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter was a hoot, wait'll you get a load of Ultrachrist! Part man, part Divine, all Christ! A new pro-sex kind of savior! Quite simply, this is the best feature film about a present-day, super-hero Jesus who wears spandex tights and fights Hitler, Nixon and Jim Morrison to save the world. "I just can't seem to relate to the people of today. There are so many new words to learn, like extranet and foofaraw." What would Jesus (Jonathan C. Green) do if he returned to Earth and discovered that he was wildly out of touch with today's youth? In Ultrachrist!, he dons a Spandex costume and goes into the streets of New York City because the Antichrist, in the guise of the New York City Park's Commissioner (Samuel Bruce Campbell), has resurrected a legion of famous sinners to destroy him. In the words of his Father: "I've had this terrible vision! You go forward as Ultrachrist, but end up wagering your soul to Satan. The rest of the prophecy is too weird to go into." Oh yeah, and there are musical numbers with lyrics like, "What would you do when your soul's at sea/In an ocean of dope and porn that's free?/What would you do?/ Well what would he?/He'd be ... Ultrachrist!"
Viewer's Guide: Language.

Most recent update 17 December 2003.

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