On a remote island off the west coast of Scotland in 1846, three survivors of a shipwreck row ashore. They soon discover that the shrouded isle is almost abandoned except for four sole residents....with no way off. When they begin to investigate the myth of a ghostly siren haunting the island, they are lead to uncover a truth that may cost them their lives.
Nature spawns a creature driven by vengeance to destroy a group of cold-blooded cannibals who have been kidnapping people and keeping them imprisoned in the forest. The latest from Hamilton filmmaker John Migliore! FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE
Despite hanging up his boots, JTRO, the legendary Beat-Beat Revelation warrior, must return to the deadly dance sport one last time. JTRO will quest deep into The Wastes, a land decimated by the Beat Wars, to compete in the ancient Beat-Beat tournament, "Beats of Rage," and face AK-47 the sole stealer, JTRO's most powerful and personal foe yet.
At Alex’s farewell party with his friends, three psychopaths descend on the house with the intent to kidnap and torture them. Their goal: to broadcast the violence via a controversial, uncensored streaming platform and become viral sensations.
Buenos Aires, 1985: It's the first anniversary of the tragic death of supermodel Alexis Carpenter, and a haute couture magazine is planning a shoot to commemorate her death. However, the night before the shoot is to take place, Alexis's original dresses are stolen and soon important members of the fashion magazine industry begin to disappear or turn up dead. Has Alexis returned from the grave for revenge?
Rebellious high school senior Johnny Grissom is murdered while on a drunken joyride. Soon, Johnny's classmates turn up dead, murdered by an unknown assailant. Johnny's best friend Eric begins to suspect Johnny has returned from the grave to wreak havoc on those who wronged him.
This heartfelt documentary explores the power of cult film told through the lens of the 1987 classic The Monster Squad and the impact it has on fans, cast and crew, and the industry.
The wait is almost over! On February 20, we will reveal the full lineup and schedule for the 2018 Hexploitation Film Festival in Hamilton, Ontario (March 23-25).
Formerly known as the Fright Night Theatre Film Festival, the Hexploitation Film Festival (HXFF) has carved a bloody name for itself as Hamilton, ON's only screening event dedicated to premiering and showcasing the best in indie horror, exploitation, and cult genre entertainment. If you're looking for shocking gross weirdness, scary tales of terror, and sexy n' silly B-movies choked full of maniacs, monsters and murder, then this is the festival for you.
Just look at the films already confirmed for this year's festival!
RETURN TO RETURN TO NUKE'EM HIGH (aka. Volume 2)
|| HAMILTON PREMIERE || FEATURE FILM
2017, DIR. LLOYD KAUFMAN, 84 MIN. USA
Return to Return Nuke 'Em High (aka Volume 2) is the continuation of Lloyd Kaufman's two-part indie event film, the first part of which took home our coveted BEST FILM - AUDIENCE CHOICE award in 2014. Lauren (Catherine Corcoran) and Chrissy (Asta Paredes), two lesbian lovers, must face and defeat not only the mutant Cretins who have taken over Tromaville Highschool but also the corrupt and evil forces of the Tromorganic Food Stuffs corporation which threatens to destroy not only Tromaville... but the world! Boobs! Blood! Farts! Slime! Mutant Ducks! The last film appearance of Lemmy Kilmister! Grab your festival pass today to guarantee enrollment for Return to Return to Nuke'em High (aka Volume 2).
I WISH I WISH
(Deseo Deseo)
|| CANADIAN PREMIERE || FEATURE FILM
2017, DIR. EDUARDO M. CLORIO, 82 MIN. MEX
Five cousins reunite while cleaning out their recently deceased grandmother's estate. Hidden amongst the junk, they discover a curious board game titled "I WISH I WISH (Deseo Deseo)" that promiseds to make their dreams come true for a price. The rules are simple: each player may ask for 3 wishes that will be fulfilled after completing a challenge presented by the game. If they carry it out they will have what they desire otherwise there are extreme consequences. For those who have chosen not to fulfill the challenge, the game releases a vicious creature to enforce punishment. They soon discover that the only way to survive is to keep playing, even if it means only one will make it out alive.
BLOODSUCKA JONES vs. THE CREEPING DEATH
|| CANADIAN PREMIERE || FEATURE FILM
2017, DIR. JUSTIN ARMAO, 96 MIN. USA
The baddest mofo with the killer afro -- Bloodsucka Jones (Preston Gant) -- and his gorgeous sidekick Vanessa must help a couple of idiots fight an army of zombies unleashed by an evil group of vampires. Bloodsucka Jones is back bigger and more hilarious than ever. More gorgeous girls! More graphic violence! More giggles and guffas! Bloodsucka Jones vs. The Creeping Death is a rapid-fire, free-wheeling exercise in comedy destined for cult film status.
FIRST WAVE - SHORT FILMS
Screening March 23-25 at the HXFF
HUMAN CATTLE
|| SHORT FILM || 2017, DIR. CARLOS HENRIQUES & PHIL PATTISON, 9 MIN. CAN
The Amazon is a beautiful place to visit but you wouldn’t want to die there! Three sexy teenagers take a fun-filled trip out to the Amazon for an exciting getaway filled with seductive pleasures and forbidden desires. Failing to hear the canoe tour guide’s (Mitch Markowitz, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein) warnings about the evils that lurk in the Jungle, they will now have to fight for survival against trigger-happy bounty hunters, blood-thirsty Cannibals and massive flesh-eating monsters. Featuring gruesome gore and crazy creature FX by Hamilton's The Butcher Shop FX Studio, HUMAN CATTLE is a non-stop, action-packed, all you can eat buffet that critics are calling a “Full-Throttle Balls Out Mind Melter!” (Chris Alexander, ShockTillYouDrop.com).
We dare you to come along for the ride!
BUZZCUT
||HAMILTON PREMIERE|| SHORT FILM
2017, DIR. JOHN RHOADS & MIKE MARRERO, 8 MIN. USA
Jane is just a girl trying to get some loving from her girlfriend Melanie who refuses to have sex until Jane's awful haircut is fixed. While Jane is in the process of having her head shaved, the apocalypse happens and her barber is reduced to a pile of ash leaving Jane's hair in even worse condition. She must navigate the crumbling world, fighting zombies and demons along the way to find a barber who can finish her buzzcut so she can get laid before she dies.
LATCHED
||HAMILTON PREMIERE|| SHORT FILM
2017, DIR. JUSTIN HARDING & ROB BRUNNER, 16 MIN. CAN
A choreographer pursues creative inspiration at a cottage retreat while attempting to wean her demanding toddler — and unknowingly awakens a vile fairy corpse in the process. When she discovers the creature’s terrifying intentions, she will have to put her creativity to good use to lure the repugnant beast.
Before Hellraiser, horror legend Clive Barker raised hell with his script for Rawhead Rex, the big screen adaptation of his story from his Books of Blood.
Special Guest: Greg Lamberson
This Friday, August 25, the brand new Kino Lorber restoration of George Pavlou and Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex will have its Canadian Premiere at the Staircase Theatre in Hamilton, ON (27 Dundurn St. N) presented by the Hexploitation Film Festival. We will also be joined by special guest and indie-horror icon Greg Lamberson (Johnny Gruesome, Killer Rack, Slime City)
(advance tickets close August 25, 2017 - 6:30 pm) FULL SCREENING DETAILS 8:00pm - Doors Open * Showcase of classic Clive Barker movie trailers and interview clip in Main Theatre * Collect free raffle tickets and purchase additional tickets for prizes including:
Horror Art Prints, Pins, and Merch by Ghoulish Gary Pullin
Pool Party Massacre Blu-ray & T-Shirt Prize Pack
8:30pm - Short Film: DEATH METAL
8:35pm - Feature: RAWHEAD REX
New 4K Restoration
|| CANADIAN PREMIERE ||
1986, DIR. GREG PAVLOU, 89 MIN. IRELAND / USA/ UK
RAWHEAD REX is the gruesome story of an ancient demon unleashed from hell after a millennia to rip shit up across the rural towns of Ireland and the American Historian who tries to stop him. Featuring rubber monster suits, misty fields, decapitated heads, optical lasers, and a "baptism" scene you have to see to believe! Only the kind of cult film weirdness that could be cooked up in the 80s.
10:00pm - Post-Film PostMortem w/ Greg Lamberson
Indie horror film icon, author, and friend-of-the-festival Greg Lamberson and HXFF director Aaron Allen will engage the audience in an on-the-fly dissection and discussion of RAWHEAD REX.
Before Hellraiser, horror legend Clive Barker raised hell with his script for Rawhead Rex, the big screen adaptation of his story from his Books of Blood. Now, 30 years later, the George Pavlou directed Rawhead Rex is returning to theaters with a brand new 4k restoration, and the Hexploitation Film Festival is proud to host its Canadian Premiere - Friday, August 25 @ 8:30pm.
RAWHEAD REX - New 4K Restoration || CANADIAN PREMIERE ||
1986, DIR. GREG PAVLOU, 89 MIN. IRELAND / USA/ UK
Screens with short filmDEATH METAL (USA) || Director: Chris McInroy
Date: Friday, August 25, 2017 Time: Doors @ 8:00pm / Film @ 8:30pm Tickets: $10 (online - advance*) / $12 (at door - cash only) Location: Staircase Cafe Theatre (27 Dundurn St. N.)
RAWHEAD REX is the gruesome story of an ancient demon unleashed from hell after a millennia to rip shit up across the rural towns of Ireland and the American Historian who tries to stop him. Featuring rubber monster suits, misty fields, decapitated heads, optical lasers, and a "baptism" scene you have to see to believe! Only the kind of cult film weirdness that could be cooked up in the 80s. Hilariously awful or awfully hilarious: you decide!
*online tickets subject to a $1.09 service fee ea.
The Fright Night Theatre Film Festival is excited to announce its first wave of official selections for our Fall program: September 30 - October 1st
Following on the heels of a hugely successful Winter edition, the Fright Night Theatre Film Festival (Hamilton, Ontario's horror, cult, and exploitation genre film fest) returns this Fall with a new slate of killer film premieres guaranteed to push the boundaries of spectacle and imagination (not to mention good taste).
NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE
|| Canadian Premiere! ||
*Gross-Out Body Horror Comedy*
The FNTFF is very proud to present the Canadian Premiere of Jonathan Straiton's award-winning and fan-acclaimed teenage sex comedy / zombie gore fest: NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE
Five teenage friends set out for the beach on their Spring Break vacation. Good times are cut short when one of the group contracts a deadly sexual transmitted disease during a bathroom stop. But this is no ordinary STD! When they stop for the night at an isolated motel, the STD virus starts running rampant, turning those infected into sex-crazed and oozing living dead mutants.
Hot off its award wins for Best SFX, Best Actor, and the Jury Award for Best Film at the Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival, NIGHT OF THE SOMETHING STRANGE is an uncomfortably hilarious and gleefuly disgusting tour de force of comedy, action, and gross-out gore that takes the meaning of bad taste to a whole new level.
NOVA SEED
|| Hamilton Premiere! ||
*Animated Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi Adventure*
From the gross to the gorgeous, the FNTFF is honoured to also announce the Hamilton Premiere of NOVA SEED from Hamilton-born animator Nick DiLiberto.
Enter a fantasy world of pure imagination and exhilarating action. Deep below the surface of a desolated world, the Mad Doctor Mindskull has discovered a way to use the planet’s power of creation as a weapon. With humanity unable to fight back, they enlist the aid of an outlaw bio-engineered N.A.C (Neo Animal Combatant). But will the N.A.C turn against the humans who shun him, and what is the mystery of the Nova Seed's power?
Years in the making, NOVA SEED was produced in 2D, hand-drawn frame by glorious frame. NOVA SEEDis a Heavy Metal meets Ralph Bakshi experience that embodies the true spirit of DIY independent film-making. Destined to be a cult classic, NOVA SEED has already reaped acclaim at Toronto's WTFilm Fest and the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International.
7 feature films and 20 shorts will screen this fall as part of the Fright Night Theatre Film Festival. Submissions officially close August 13 and the full lineup will be revealed in early September. To submit your feature or short, visit https://filmfreeway.com/festival/FrightNightTheatre
Subscribe to our mailing list for more announcement updates
This weekend, the Fright Night Theatre Film Festival launches the first edition of its twice-a-year horror, cult, and exploitation film festival in Hamilton, ON at the Staircase Cafe Theatre for two nights of thrills, chills, and cinematic kills.
From sexually-charged monster movies, to classic 1980s-style horror fun, gut wrenching socially-minded thrillers, disturbing survival horror, and the ultimate in juvenile midnight movie exploitation carnage, we offer something socking, sexy, and silly for genre fans of all tastes.
Acclaimed indie filmmaker Scott Schirmer (FOUND) teams with producer and cinematographer Brian K. Williams (TIME TO KILL) to produce this sexually-charged and boundary-pushing horror film about a group of vacationing campers who fall under the spell of a carnal, otherworldly presence in the woods. Stars Tristan Risk (THE EDITOR, AMERICAN MARY) and Ellie Church (TIME TO KILL, HEADLESS). Trailer | Poster
Screens with short film HEIR (Dir. Richard Powell) Recommended for fans of * Body Horror * H.P. Lovecraft *Artful Booty Shots * INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS * David Cronenberg (SHIVERS, RABID)
9.45 PM: IDYLL (SLOVENIA) - || CANADIAN PREMIERE ||
*Backwoods Redneck Horror*
After a night of carousing, amateur photo model Zina heads for a fashion shoot in the idyllic vistas of rural Slovenia, accompanied by ambitious model Mia and their snobby photographer Blitcz. On their way to the wooded location, they cross paths with a group of hideously disfigured and violent redneck moonshiners. Thus, an ordinary fashion shoot in the woods turns into a fierce fight for survival. Slovenia's answer to Wrong Turn is a sleazy slice of redneck horror exploitation. Trailer | Poster
Screens with short film DIE! SITTER! DIE!: RUPERT (Dir. Sam Boxleitner & Lee Boxleitner) Recommended for fans of * Torture and Survival Horror * Euro Horror * Cannibal Movies * WRONG TURN * TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE * HOSTEL * THE HILLS HAVE EYES
A group of Finnish and British partygoers get stuck at a snowy cabin when they are attacked by a horny creature that is a half human, half rabbit. A brilliant send-up of monster movie conventions or a depraved excuse for gratuitous gore, sex, violence, nudity, and penis jokes? Either way, BUNNY THE KILLER THING is the perfect midnight movie for lovers of exploitation trash and what-the-fuck filmmaking. Trailer | Poster
Screens with short film DICKPROOF 2 (Dir. Sam McGlynn) Recommended for fans of * Gore * Gratutious Nudity * Exploitation * Trashy Movies * Political Incorrectness * Horror Comedies * Satire * DEAD SNOW * TROMA
A freaky and fun showcase of local and international horror, cult, and genre shorts representing outstanding achievements in cinematography, animation, special effects, makeup, and script-writing.
7:00 PM: SHE WHO MUST BURN(CANADA) - || HAMILTON PREMIERE || *Award-Winning Horror Thriller*
The Baarkers, a family group of religious fanatics who believe they are God's chosen ones, polarize a small mining town and force its residents to fight for their lives as their zeal turns murderous and the rule of law decays into brutish mob mentality. A controversial and timely look at the horrific results of religious zealotry from esteemed Canadian filmmaker Larry Kent. Trailer | Poster
Screens with short film THE HERD (Dir. Melanie Light) || CANADIAN PREMIERE || Recommended for fans of * Character-Driven Thrillers * Politically-Minded Horror * Ti West's THE SACRAMENT * Kevin Smith's RED STATE
9:30 PM: THE BARN(USA) - || CANADIAN PREMIERE || *1980s-inspired Halloween Horror* FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE.
It’s Halloween 1989, and best friends Sam and Josh are trying to enjoy what's left of their final Devil's Night before graduating high school. But the two pals and a group of their friends get more trick than treat when they take a detour on their way to a rock concert, finding an old abandoned barn and awakening a trio of Halloween demons inside. Now it's up to Sam and Josh to find a way to protect their friends and defeat the flesh-hungry creatures that lurk within "The Barn." Featuring a rocking cameo by Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhees, THE BARN is the perfect retro throwback to classic 80s VHS horror like The Monster Squad, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and Full Moon's direct to video features. Trailer | Poster
Screens with short film LARRY GONE DEMON (Dir. Matthew John Lawrence)
The Fright Night Theatre Film Festival will conclude its competitive 2015 feature film season with a bawdy and bodacious double feature of screwball horror-comedies headlined by the Canadian Premiere of Greg Lamberson's KILLER RACK
Principal Cast: Jessica Zwolak, Debbie Rochon, Paul McGinnis, Michael Thurber
*FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE*
Screwball horror comedy about a woman (Jessica Zwolak) suffering from low esteem who gets breast enhancement surgery from Dr. Cate Thulu (Debbie Rochon). Her new assets turn out to be man-eating monsters, and only she can stop them. Featuring cameos by Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Thurber, and Brooke Lewis as the Voice of the Boobs. Directed by author Gregory Lamberson, creator of the cult classicSLIME CITY.
The Friday Night Death Slotlampoons late night television in a mash up of weird, wild, and wonky comedic horror shorts. In the style of such spoofs as Amazon Women on the Moon, The Friday Night Death Slot bounces from sketch to sketch full of silly gags and low-budget frivolity. Join your undead host Johnny Ghoulash for a madcap series of silly shorts, terrifying trailers, and kooky commercials that celebrate the joys of homemade independent film-making.
On May 9, Fright Night Theatre is sending in the clowns for the Canadian Premiere of the gory killer clown epic CIRCUS OF THE DEAD
Straight from the blood-soaked indie film world of Texas, Circus of the Dead is the ferocious feature-film debut from Billy Pon (DOLLBOY). To celebrate the Canadian debut of this gruesome new horror picture, Fright Night Theatre will be transforming the lovely Staircase Theatre into a Bloody Big Top Experience for a night of killer clowns and creepy circus thrills.
SYNOPSIS
After a night at the circus, a family man must fight for his life when a marauding troupe of sadistic clowns led by the deviant Papa Corn (Bill Oberst Jr.) ensnares him in an all-night crime spree through oil-soaked West Texas. Armed with guns, knives, and a 68 Camaro, Papa Corn and his insane clown posse bring blood, gore, and mayhem to all they encounter. Circus of the Dead is the Devil's Rejects meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre of killer clown movies. If you're not already afraid of clowns, you will be.....
“There’s a TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE vibe to this entire film as the level of lunacy reaches a fever pitch early on in this film and doesn't let up until the end.” - Ain’t It Cool Horror
"[A] phenomenal film that will be damned hard to beat.” - Horror Society
“With it’s unflinching and unapologetic display of the blackest, most evil of capabilities that can exist in people, Circus of the Dead does what we ultimately want a horror film to do…it horrifies.” - Legless Corpse
"If you are prepared to see a film so menacing it will stay with you for days, "Circus of the Dead" is a must!” - Horror News Network
"This might be the bad guy horror fans have been waiting for. Billy Oberst Jr's performance as Papa Corn is one of the most exciting things I have seen in an indie horror film in the last few years.” - Nathan Thomas Milliner, Horror Artist
