Skip to main content

2008 Festival Film Guide

2008 Films

Film Guide

Film Category

100 Feet

Synopsis
A young woman, Marnie Watson, is granted early release from her prison sentence for manslaughter (killing her husband - a violent NYC cop - in self defense) on condition she wear an electronic ankle bracelet and remain within her home, effectively under house arrest, for the remainder of her sentence. Her late husband's partner keeps tabs on her from a patrol car parked across the street, hoping she'll violate probation and he can send her back to prison. But the 100-foot radius her ankle bracelet allows isn't the worst of her problems. Her dead husband --now a malevolent ghost--is still in the house, where he died -- intent on savage revenge.
Film Category

Zombiemania

Synopsis
One hour documentary that chronicles the evolution of the zombie from its roots in Haitian voodoo to is coveted role as the world's most popular monster.
Featuring : George Romero, Tom Savini, Max Brooks, Wade Davis
Film Category

A Break In The Monotony

Synopsis
In a post Zombie holocaust world, a man laments his empty lifestyle and questions the futility of working in a corporate wasteland. But all is not what it seems.
Film Category

Acolytes

Synopsis
Three teenage friends discover a buried body and, more importantly, the man who buried that body. They conspire to blackmail the killer into murdering the brutal bully who has victimized them all their lives. What could go wrong?
Film Category

The Alphabet Killer

Synopsis
When police investigator Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) becomes obsessed with the brutal murder of a young girl named Carla Castillo in the town of Churchville, her failure to catch the killer leads to a nervous breakdown. Two years later she emerges as a shadow of her former self. When the killer strikes Wendy Walsh from Webster, Megan is back on the case, determined to bring the culprit to justice.
Film Category

Anyone There?

Synopsis
Violet is looking forward to spending a nice long weekend house- sitting at a friend's mansion. She is not expecting to be stalked by a psycho killer.

Or is she?

There are a few cliche's that can't be missed in any good horror flick: A sexy girl, a slow killer and the question: "Hello, anyone there?"
Film Category

Boogeyman 3

Synopsis
The follow-up to the successful hit Boogeyman is the story of an evil that every culture has tried to define by giving it a name and a face. For college sophomore Sarah Morris, that evil is the Boogeyman. When Sarah witnesses the alleged suicide of her roommate, it sets into motion a series of horrific events that cause Sarah to fear the supernatural entity. As she tries to convince the rest of her dorm that the Boogeyman does exist, the evil force grows stronger and her friends begin to pay the price. Now Sarah must stop this ultimate evil before the entire campus falls prey.
Film Category

The Burrowers

Synopsis
The Dakota Territories. 1879. A handful of brave pioneers maintain isolated settlements in the badlands beyond civilization. Irish Immigrant Fergus Coffey is near to winning the hand of his beloved Maryanne when she is suddenly taken from him, her family brutally abducted in a nighttime attack on their homestead. Suspicion falls immediately on hostile Indians. Experienced Indian fighters Will Parcher and John Clay form a posse and set out to rescue the kidnapped settlers, taking along a naive teenager hoping to prove himself a man, an ex-slave looking for his place, and their ranch-hand, Coffey. But as men vanish in the night, and horrific evidence accumulates with the dead and dying, the group discovers that their prey is far more terrifying than anything human, and their prospects are far more terrible than death.
Film Category

Burying The Ex

Synopsis
Zak (John Francis Daley) is still coming to terms with his ex-girlfriend's recent passing. Plagued with nightmares of his ex but determined to get on with his life, Zak agrees to go on a blind date with the cute and quirky Olivia (Danielle Harris) and the two hit it off instantly. Their date, however, comes to an abrupt and terrifying end when Zak's dead ex shows up with an ultimatum!
Film Category

Butchers Hill

Synopsis
17th Century New England. A brother and sister wonder into the woods in search of food. They come across an abandoned cottage full of candy and treats. But what are these treats made of? And what are those noises they keep hearing coming from the walls? A fairy tale atmosphere corroded into darkness. This surprisingly evil short has been freaking people on the fest circuit and is currently in the process of being expanded into a feature.
Film Category

Circulation

Synopsis
A man sits alone in a dark room and plays a deadly version of the game "spin the bottle" - the results of which may not go as planned.
Film Category

Citizen

Synopsis
In an eerie not-too-distant future, a young man tries to escape from his homeland in the dead of winter. As this teenage boy is chased by hunters through the harsh wilderness approaching the border, he recalls the perilous steps of his journey and the fateful doctor's visit that motivated his departure.
Boy or Man? Hero or Traitor? Refugee or Fugitive? Citizen.
Film Category

Clown

Synopsis
Boost Mobile Short Competition:
1856.... an unfortunate boy is held hostage for a number of weeks by three drunken and twisted carnival clowns. They smear clown makeup on his face as he sits bound to a chair, calling him ""broken little clown""...but he didn't break. Managing to escape his bindings while the trio of clowns were away, he moves to a mirror and peers at his new face. He picks up a straight razor from the sink, and waits. This broken little clown is a victim no more.

1896...A man known only as CLOWN, with tattered worn clown makeup, joins with a traveling sideshow...The unsuspecting Township of Fable doesn't welcome ""their kind"". It's up to Clown to protect his "family" from the raging religious fanatics.
Film Category

The Collective

Synopsis
Tyler Clarke is on the red-eye to New York City. Two days ago she received a cryptic voice-mail from her sister Jessica. She was asking for help but she didn't say why. And now that Tyler has come to the city to help her, Jessica is nowhere to be found. In order to find out what has happened, Tyler must delve into a world of darkness and lies, the underbelly of a spiritually depraved community living in a deconsecrated cathedral. They call themselves "The Collective." And Jessica is one of them. Tyler is forced to ask the ultimate question, is she ready to risk her own life to save her sister's?
Film Category

Dance Of The Dead

Synopsis
On the night of the big high school Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to dance.
Film Category

Dante 01

Synopsis
At the edge of the galaxy, drifts Dante 01, a hellish space station designed to contain and study the worst of the criminally insane. After an unidentified mute inmate arrives on the ship, he begins to reveal frightening alien powers, and both captives and crew must decide whether he's a monster or a Messiah. From the acclaimed co-director of the post-apocalyptic The City of Lost Children, Dante 01 takes sci-fi films to a whole new dimension.
Film Category

Detour

Synopsis
A motorist struggles to come to terms with his past after picking up a hitchhiker who claims to know the future....
Film Category

The Disappeared

Synopsis
When Matthew hears chilling voices on the recording of a news conference about his brother's disappearance, he begins to question his sanity. Ignored by his troubled father, Matthew visits a clairvoyant who reveals a history of missing children in the area. When a friend's sister is also abducted, the ghostly voices guide him to an underground labyrinth and a terrifying confrontation with the killer.
Film Category

Eden Lake

Synopsis
When nursery teacher Jenny escapes to the country for a relaxing weekend away with her boyfriend, she is unaware of a romantic surprise he has in store. The location is perfect. A lake enclosed by woodlands, seemingly deserted. The scene is set for a picturesque proposal. But before the happy couple can enjoy the retreat, their peace is shattered by a gang of violent youths. What follows is a shocking and unrelenting game of cat-and-mouse, as Jenny is forced to fight back against her attackers.
Film Category

Eel Girl

Synopsis
In a secure military lab, a Scientist has become obsessed with the strange half-eel, half-human creature he's studying. When she beckons him to her, it's the call of a siren...
Film Category

El Rey de la Montana (King of the Hill)

Synopsis
Terror hits new heights in this"brilliant, vicious little piece of work" (twitchfilm.net) set in a remote mountain wilderness. A couple is suddenly forced to abandon their car when an unseen sniper puts them in his crossfire. Without understanding why they are being targeted, the strangers must survive their ruthless pursuers and their harsh surroundings
Film Category

Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds

Synopsis
From the writers/director of Feast comes the next chapter in this new classic horror series. It's the morning after the initial attack and the nasty flesh-eating monsters are invading the nearby town. Those lucky enough to have survived the night join a twisted group of locals whose only goal is to stay alive - - - no matter the cost.
Film Category

Fold

Synopsis
In this suspenseful cross-genre short, the quiet suburban life shared by a young engaged couple is torn apart when Rachel (Winter Ave Zoli) must wait for a ride after class. Maki (Mei Melançon), the shy and mysterious Japanese classmate that invites Rachel back to her house, is confused by Rachels friendly ways and thus hurt when Rachel refuses her advances. Like Makis fantastic origami creations, the lives of Rachel and others prove fragile in a sequence of dazzling twists following Makis disappointment.
Film Category

Fun On Earth

Synopsis
A fresh-faced, small-town kid "EVAN" comes to New York and gets a job at a Mexican restaurant. The joint is actually a front for an alien run tour program which arranges for an amoeba-like race of extraterrestrials to experience having human bodies, serve burritos, and, hopefully, have FUN ON EARTH.
Film Category

The Gates Of Hell

Synopsis
Shrouded with mystery and years of speculation, the foreboding Von Diebitsch Manor is notoriously renowned. Decades of abandonment have built a reputation of evil and myth, but its true origins remain obscured behind the 15-foot bluestone walls that enclose the entire property.

Tonight, five filmmakers set out to make a film within the grounds, but unwittingly stumble across the estates heinous truth and find themselves caught in a relentless struggle to survive against a brutal antagonist.
Film Category

Harvest Moon

Synopsis
Sometimes, love sucks! Walter and Cleo have been married for ages, but their relationship has recently soured. Walter has lost his taste for life, while his beautiful wife, Cleo just wants to paint the town red like they used to. One night, while the couple argues over dinner, a group of burglars break into their palatial mansion expecting a huge score. This just might be the marital counseling Walter and Cleo have been waiting for.
Film Category

Highway 191

Synopsis
A weekend of booze, drugs, girls and rock & roll gets off to a horrible start for two teens in the summer of 1983. While in route to Flagstaff, AZ, the wild and careless boys pass through a small town. They decide to take a detour to save time. A shortcut that would lead them to Highway 666, "The Devil's Highway". This will turn into the longest ride of their lives. A night of horror and macabre, that will last for an eternity on the cursed road of the devil.
Film Category

Keepsake

Synopsis
Stranded and alone on a deserted highway, Janine's call for help soon becomes a fight for survival.
Imprisoned in a cellar with only thirty days to live, Janine must contend with both the ghosts of her past and the demons of her present.
The body count rises and the blood begins to flow as the true nature of her situation becomes apparent. Janine is caught in a grisly game with one ultimate goal... stay alive.
Film Category

Langliena

Synopsis
A young man tapes his statement on an horrible and bloody secret he discovered one day when, driven by curiosity, he entered in an isolated cabin in the woods. The place is in fact an abattoir where human beings are butchered and fed to a corpse-eating creature, a ghoul. As he is about to conclude his account, the protagonist receives the visit of an unexpected and unwanted visitor.
Film Category

Les Inhumains/The Inhumans

Synopsis
At home, a family crisis: The baby cries, the sisters fight, the father shouts. The mother seizes a big knife. On TV, things are getting worse. The army has the situation under control, so they say.
Film Category

Let The Right One In

Synopsis
Oskar is bullied by classmates but never strikes back. His wish for a friend comes true when he meets Eli. A pale, serious young girl, she only comes out at night. Eli's arrival coincides with mysterious murders. Blood links them and before long Oskar realizes that Eli is a vampire. But romance has blossomed and Oskar cannot forsake her. Eli knows she must keep moving. But when Oskar faces his tormentors, Eli must defend him the only way she can.
Film Category

Martians Go Home

Synopsis
Legend has it that Sarah Clockwork, a great virtuoso disappeared in the middle of the show in a large theater in New York in 1928. Was she abducted by Martians? In 1986, Fran - young person, doing use of his precocious faculties like scientist, makes a Theremin. Fran uses it to communicate with Sarah Clockwork, his platonic love. What began as a simple game ends at strange events that force Fran to think that the Theremin has the power to attract the Martians.
Film Category

Martyrs

Synopsis
Lucie, a 10 year old girl, is found wandering in the streets, bruised and bloodied. Unable to say who did this to her, or why, she is placed in a hospital where she meets Anna, another young girl who had been abused. Fifteen years later, with Anna's help, Lucie sets out to get revenge on her attackers. When she believes she has found the couple who abused her, she confronts them . . . and that is when the terror truly begins.
Film Category

Marvel Zombies The Movie

Synopsis
Based on the popular Marvel Zombies comic series. This is a world where our heroes (i.e. Spiderman, Hulk, etc.) have become blood thirsty for those whom they are there to protect. The real torture comes when they have quenched their hunger. It is then they return to their normal frame of mind and must deal with the mental anguish of feasting on the ones they have cared for. Then the hunger returns.
Film Category

Night of the Living Jews

Synopsis
On the first night of Passover the residents of a remote Jewish bungalow colony are turned into flesh-eating zombies by matzo with a dark history. In the hunt for human flesh these Hasidic zombies descend on an unsuspecting gentile family in their quiet farmhouse. The loving mother and father and their mischievous son and nubile teenage daughter face an almost certain end until a mysterious stranger miraculously appears to save the day.
Film Category

Parasomnia

Synopsis
Parasomnia is the latest film from acclaimed horror film director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill, Tales from the Crypt, Masters of Horror) who presents his macabre twist on the "Sleeping Beauty" legend. Parasomnia introduces the human drama of young art student, Danny Sloan (DYLAN PURCELL), who falls in love with the innocent and beautiful Laura Baxter (CHERILYN WILSON), a young woman afflicted with a rare sleep disorder. In her treacherous forays in and out of reality, she encounters a mentalist and serial killer Byron Volpe (PATRICK KILPATRICK) who tries to bend her fragile mind to his will. Using an array of hypnotic weaponry, that's manifested through his unsuspecting host s in the real world, as well as the dangerous and deadly creatures he commands on the dark imagined plane, Volpe entraps Laura and Danny in a psychotic hell so frightening that there appears to be no chance for survival. The film is a gripping peril-packed love story, one that not only taps into the zeitgeist of dark yet edgy love-driven fantasies, but also pushes the familiar slasher film landscape into a more unique story driven world of the surreal.
Film Category

Quietus

Synopsis
Margo stares at the moon and thinks of the man she loves. He has callously ended their relationship and Margo is angry, violent thoughts swirling in her head. Meanwhile, an evil intruder is in the house, butcher knife in hand, ready to kill. Soon, Margo will be confronted by this intruder and she will have to choose what her life is worth. Will she embrace the light of life or the dark of the QUIETUS?
Film Category

Sandman's Box

Synopsis
After celebrating his victory on a very important case, attorney Michael Perez (Rene Rosado), gets attacked, beat up and robbed by two individuals. After being left unconscious, Michael is confused for a homeless person and kidnapped by three masked men. Michael is forced to play a game, called Sandman's Box, and compete with Chris (J.W. Cortes), a homeless man, where the winner of the game is the last one alive.
Film Category

The Season

Synopsis
Rural Iowa. A quaint store. Strangers, deemed suitable breeders, find their vehicles sabotaged. Before dawn, they are subjected to the unholy practices of the excommunicated Amish family, as well as several defective "kin" amongst them. It is once again, the time of THE SEASON.
Film Category

The Shadow of the Night

Synopsis
Contemporary and classical cinemas collide in this tale of a vampire in a modern-day city. Presented in silent black and white, this film tells the story of a mysterious detective who has taken it upon himself to hunt down and destroy an illusive vampire that plagues his town. After finding one of the vampire's victims discarded at a construction site, the detective follows him home, seeking to confront and destroy the vampire. But is the detective prepared for what awaits him...
Film Category

Snip

Synopsis
Glued to his TV set, a man channel-surfs frenetically, zapping from one stultifying show to other. As he grows more and more indifferent to the constant stream of violent and crude images, he stands up and engages himself in unspeakable act of self-liberation.
Film Category

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story

Synopsis
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story chronicles the last great American showman. Filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.
Film Category

Splinter

Synopsis
A couple retreats to the wilderness for the weekend but are car-jacked by an escaped convict and his girlfriend on the run from the police. As they travel the backroads, they find themselves in deeper trouble. A parasitic creature has taken over the woods, and the two couples are now in its sights. Finding shelter at a gas station, they must use their wits and every weapon at their disposal to stave off the onslaught, not only from the insatiable creature, but also each other.
Film Category

The Tale of Haunted Mike

Synopsis
Haunted Mike makes his living trolling the internet in search of the arcane and bizarre (or, at least, extremely cheap). By concocting scary (if not entirely true) histories for the items he finds, Mike ekes out a shut-in's existence selling the things on e-Bay under the tag "haunted". His days of sniping are number, however, when he stumbles upon a genuine pants-sh*tter: an antique prosthetic arm made for a child.
Film Category

Thermae 2'40"

Synopsis
A small boat, with five people, approaches an isolated villa where, years before, the younger sister of two of them died in the thermal spring baths. Since then, the house has been abandoned. As night falls on the splendid landscape, changes occur. One character's surreal visions turn into a nightmare for everyone in the group. In an inexorable spiral of fear, the mysterious secret which lives and hides in the house is slowly revealed.
Film Category

Tour de Fright

Synopsis
Boost Mobile Shorts Competition:
A team of American cyclists discover that while competing in the Tour de France is difficult, surviving it might be impossible.
Film Category

Train

Synopsis
In Europe, a group of American college athletes unknowingly board a train that will become one deadly ride.
Film Category

Trick 'r' Treat

Synopsis
It is said that Halloween is the night when the dead rise to walk among us and other unspeakable things roam free. The rituals of All Hallows Eve were devised to protect us from their evil, and one small town is about to be taught a terrifying lesson that some traditions are best not forgotten. Nothing is what it seems when a young couple learns the dangers of blowing out a Jack-o-Lantern before midnight; four beautiful women cross paths with a costumed stalker; a group of pranksters discovers the horrifying truth buried in a local legend; and a cantankerous hermit is visited by a strange trick-or-treater with a few bones to pick. Costumes and candy, ghouls and goblins, monsters and mayhem... the tricks and treats of Halloween turn deadly as strange creatures of every variety-- human and otherwise --try to survive the scariest night of the year.
Film Category

Verboten

Synopsis
The only beauty in Todd Gorman's life is Laura Hagen, his abusive father's bewitching girlfriend. When Todd's odd behavior drives Laura away, the lonely teenager embarks on a menacing quest for something lovely for himself.
Film Category

Violeta

Synopsis
Otto and Lola, two cabaret artists, fill their lives with their passion: acting.
Film Category

Welcome Home

Synopsis
Adi is a teenager admitted to a mental institution due to a series of schizophrenic hallucinations. After few months, she has to choose between staying at the asylum with the weird shrink or to go back home to her threatening father. Adi decides to go home for her first vacation, bus as the night descents the residence turns into a slaughter house! Will Adi confront her worst fears and discover the truth behind her nightmares?

The film was funded by the "Rotem Moria Film Fund" in memory of Rotem Moria, who had dreamed of making movies and was only 27 when he died in a 2004 terror attack in Egypt. Starring Lucy Dubnchik, an Israeli Film Academy Award winner.
Film Category

Zombie Gets A Date

Synopsis
Zombie has a date tonight, but his poor partner doesn't seem as excited as he is. Truth be told, dating an undead corpse isn't exactly this side of glamorous. In fact, it can be quite shocking.
Articles

News & Videos