In the spirit of Halloween, we thought we’d feature four horror films that are part of this year’s line-up: one featuring the Jewish spirit dybbuk; one a schizophrenic montage of fire, blood and sex; one the latest work from the director of Jennifer’s Body; and one a morbid, yet oddly graceful exploration and distillation of the nature of evil. Like always, we’re making things interesting: all four films will be screened at midnight, at arguably the spookiest of our venues, The Projector. (It’ll be awesome!)
1. Ludo
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It starts off simple enough: a girl flees her overbearing mother and dingy apartment to join her girlfriend out for a night of hedonistic fun with two guys they met off the Internet. Lacking available hotel rooms, the quartet, completely drunk, decide to sneak into a closed shopping mall where they stumble upon a creepy old couple. The quartet joins them for a game of Ludo; when all hell breaks loose as the old woman bites off the lips of one of the men, guts and then feasts on his bowels. What follows next is a schizophrenic montage of fire, blood and sex that both dazzles and confounds.
2. Demon
A rural Polish wedding is interrupted by the emergence of “dybbuk”, a Jewish spirit that cleaves to the soul of the possessed. The spirit, belonging to a dead person determined to see its final wishes fulfilled, possesses the bridegroom, Piotr (Itay Tiran) – influencing him to behave oddly at his wedding and later, speak Yiddish. The onset of these symptoms are traced back to the instance when he finds mysterious human remains buried beneath the grounds of their new home.
3. The Invitation
After Will and Eden lost their son, Eden became insufferable from her despair, and they fell apart. Two years later, Will receives an invitation from Eden to a dinner party. Old friends reunite and an oddly exuberant Eden introduces her new friends. As the night progresses, Will’s instinct tells him that something is awfully wrong with this social engagement.
4. Violator
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Set in the unsaturated gray of a city besieged by a great storm, Violator begins with a series of vignettes, ostensibly before the hurricane hits: a cancer-stricken man recounts minutiae of his life, an exhausted couple shares one last smoking break and a pregnant teacher goes to her classroom where she receives a nasty surprise.
This lack of apparent connection begets a genuine sense of dread, as the last act unfolds in a police station stranded by the storm, where five men are confronted with what might just be the face of evil itself.