Stanley Film Festival Announces Its 2015 Lineup and This Year’s Master of Horror Inductee

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We’re going back to the Overlook Hotel!

Okay fine, it’s technically one of the three “Overlook Hotels” related to Stephen King’s classic novel, The Shining, but for our money it’s the coolest due largely to the Stanley Film Fest. This year’s fest will be its third incarnation after debuting in 2013. We attended and loved that inaugural weekend, and while we missed last year’s festivities their latest announcement has us excited to return to Estes, CO later this month.

The lineup includes twenty feature films consisting of festival favorites (The Final Girls, The Treatment, The Invitation, Deathgasm and We Are Still Here to name a few) and three world premieres (Sun Choke, Some Kind of Hate and the highly intriguing-sounding Director’s Commentary: The Terror of Frankenstein). They’re also screening five older films including the likes of David Cronenberg’s Shivers, Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and the eternally awesome Re-Animator which will be playing in honor of this year’s Stanley Film Fest Master of Horror inductee, Stuart Gordon. The director will be on-hand for the 30th anniversary screening and a conversation with Mick Garris.

Stanley Film Fest 2015 runs April 30th to May 3rd. The full lineup – as of now anyway as we’re expecting some last minute reveals – is below.

FEATURE PRESENTATIONS:

• Body — USA/2015 – (Director: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen, Featuring Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen, Lauren Molina, Larry Fessenden) – The loyalty between three young, female friends is tested when a debaucherous evening of drinking turns into a nightmare after they accidentally commit murder. Packed with unexpected twists and strong performances, BODY is a nasty little thrillride.
• The Boy — USA/2015 – (Director: Craig McNeill, Featuring David Morse, Rainn Wilson, Jared Breeze, Bill Sage, Mike Vogel) – Produced by 2014 SFF Visionary Award recipients Daniel Noah, Josh Waller and Elijah Wood, Stanley alum Craig McNeill’s chilling feature debut offers an unnerving glimpse at a boy’s growing fascination with death.
• Deathgasm — New Zealand/2015 – (Director: Jason Lei Howden, Featuring Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberley Crossman, Stephen Ure) – A pair of metalheads start a band, find a piece of music that accidentally unleashes an ancient evil, then have to stop the apocalypse from overtaking everything in this energetic action-comedy from the producers of HOUSEBOUND (SFF 2014).
• Director’s Commentary: The Terror of Frankenstein — USA/2015 – World Premiere (Director: Tim Kirk, Featuring Clu Gulager, Zack Norman, Leon Vitali) – Stanley Film Festival alum Tim Kirk (ROOM 237, THE NIGHTMARE), Rodney Ascher (ROOM 237, THE NIGHTMARE) and Leon Vitali (THE SHINING, EYES WIDE SHUT) team up for this unique cinematic experience, a compelling journey into the past to uncover the dark secrets behind a fateful film shoot, all told through the world’s most unusual director’s commentary track for the 1970s flick, TERROR OF FRANKENSTEIN.
• The Final Girls — USA/2015 – (Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson, Featuring Taissa Farmiga, Nina Dobrev, Alexander Ludwig) – Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends find themselves trapped in the famous 80’s slasher flick that made her late mother a scream queen. The millennial gang joins the throwback camp counselors with raging libidos (featuring a standout performance from WORKAHOLICS’s Adam DeVine) to battle the psychotic killer. A hilarious meta horror comedy with heart, THE FINAL GIRLS is a wonderful send-up to the genre and an ideal Closing Night film for the Stanley Film Festival.
• Goodnight Mommy — Austria/2014 – (Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz, Featuring Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz) – Following a complex, facial reconstructive surgery, a young actress returns home to find that her twin sons don’t believe it is her behind the bandages. Determined to exorcise the imposter, the duo rebel against her, but their suspicions may have grave consequences in this deliciously atmospheric, gruesome, Austrian spine-tingler.
• The Hallow — UK/Ireland/2015 – (Director: Corin Hardy, Featuring Bojana Novakovic, Joseph Mawle, Michael McElhatton) – When a British conservationist unwittingly disturbs a horde of demonic forces in a remote wilderness, he must protect his family from their relentless attacks in this gory creature fable.
• Hollow — Vietnam/2014 – (Director: Ham Tran, Featuring NS?T Ng?c Hi?p, Tr?n B?o S?n, H?ng Ân, Thanh M?, Mai Th? Hi?p) – A little girl drowns in a river, then awakens in the morgue and returns to her family. But whatever has returned possesses secrets to a mystery that once unraveled reveals terrors far more sinister than spirits.
• The Invitation — USA/2015 – (Director: Karyn Kusama, Featuring Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burdge, John Carroll Lynch, Mike Doyle, Michelle Krusiec, Marieh Delfino, Jay Larson) – Two years after a tragic loss ended his relationship, Will accepts an invitation from his ex-wife to attend a mysterious dinner party held at his former house. As the evening progresses, the dread bubbling under the surface is slowly revealed in this superbly directed thriller from Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER’S BODY, GIRLFIGHT).
• Let Us Prey — UK/2014 – (Director: Brian O’Malley, Featuring Liam Cunningham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Bryan Larkin, Hanna Stanbridge) – Liam Cunningham (GAME OF THRONES) stars in this tightly wound horror/thriller taking place one fateful night in a remote Irish town. Sinners will repent and blood will be shed as a mysterious stranger with telepathic powers unravels the local police station with blistering results.
• The Nightmare — USA/2015 – (Director: Rodney Ascher) – From the director of ROOM 237 comes the scariest documentary ever made. Rodney Ascher explores the lives of eight poor souls who suffer from extreme sleep paralysis, uncovering and recreating the deepest subconscious creation of terror the mind can offer.
• Over Your Dead Body — Japan/2014 – (Director: Takashi Miike, Featuring Ko Shibasaki, Hitomi Katayama, Ebizô Ichikawa, Hideaki Itô) – Legendary horror maestro Takashi Miike brings his fervent interpretation to a traditional ghost story from his native Japan with this nuanced tale of a theater production that awakens vicious spirits to possess its unsuspecting actors.
• Scherzo Diabolico — Mexico/USA/2015 – (Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Featuring Francisco Barreiro, Daniela Soto Vell, Jorge Molina, Milena Pezzi) – Returning to the festival for the third time in three years, Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s all new tale of dread concerns a seemingly mild-mannered man who enacts a disturbing plan for vengeance.
• Shrew’s Nest — Spain/2014 – (Director: Juanfer Andrés, Esteban Roel, Featuring Silvia Alonso, Carolina Bang, Jesús Ángel Castrodeza, Nadia de Santiago) – In the tradition of MISERY comes this razor-sharp Spanish thriller about an unfortunate man who finds himself trapped in the apartment of his obsessive, shut-in neighbors after taking a debilitating tumble down the steps in their building. As he is nursed back to health, a vicious sibling rivalry ensues around him in this entertaining and brutal look into family madness produced by Stanley Film Festival alum Alex de la Iglesia
• Some Kind of Hate – USA/2015 – World Premiere (Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer, Featuring Ronen Rubinstein, Grace Phipps, Sierra McCormick, Noah Segan, Michael Polish) – When a troubled teen is subjected to severe bullying, he accidentally conjures the vengeful ghost of Moira Karp. Once a teenage girl pushed to suicide, Moira is now an unstoppable force on a mission of gruesome retribution. But when she goes too far, he must prevent her from spiraling out of control in this passionate and vividly violent supernatural thriller.
• Stung — USA, Germany/2015 – (Director: Benni Diez, Featuring Matt O’Leary, Jessica Cook, Lance Henriksen, Eve Slatner, Clifton Collins Jr.) – A swanky dinner party at a secluded villa is cut short when a gardening mishap involving a toxic fertilizer accidentally breeds a pack of oversized, blood-thirsty wasps. Now a underdog carterer must lead a pack of guests and employees in a fight for survival in this gorey, camptastic, giant monster flick.
• Sun Choke — USA/2015 – World Premiere (Director: Ben Cresciman, Featuring Sarah Hagan, Barbara Crampton, Sara Malakul Lane) – Janie’s just trying to get well. As she recovers from a violent psychotic break, she’s subjected each day to a bizarre holistic health and wellness regimen designed, and enforced, by her lifelong nanny and caretaker. But when she develops an obsession with a stranger, Janie’s buried demons begin to surface.
• The Treatment — Belgium/2014 – (Director: Hans Herbots, Featuring Geert Van Rampelberg, Ina Geerts, Johan van Assche, Laura Verlinden) – Echoing tones of great nuevo-European thrillers like THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, this hard-boiled Belgian mystery tells the story of a hot-headed cop who finds himself caught in a web of deceit when a nine-year-old boy goes missing. He uncovers a secret so dark that it makes all other stories of the genre feel like warm and fuzzy child’s play.
• We Are Still Here — USA/2015 – (Director: Ted Geoghegan, Featuring Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham) – A quaint New England town’s dark history returns when a couple trying to start over moves unknowingly into a storied haunted house. Featuring Tales from Beyond the Pale’s Larry Fessenden and produced by Stanley alum Travis Stevens (STARRY EYES) this Fulci-esque fright goes beyond the traditional ghost tale to terrifying extremes.
• When Animals Dream — Denmark/2014 – (Director: Jonas Alexander Arnby, Featuring Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Jakob Oftebro) – In a remote seaside town in northern Denmark, a young woman with an independent spirit begins to display troubling signs of her werewolf heritage in this restrained supernatural thriller.

RETROSPECTIVES:

• Diabolique — France/1955 – (Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Featuring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Jean Brochard) – The wife of an abusive headmaster teams up with her husband’s mistress to kill him in what they think is the perfect crime. When his body mysteriously disappears, the two find they are in deeper than they bargained for. In honor of the film’s 60th Anniversary, the Stanley Film Festival is proud to present this eeiry, French milestone of the horror canon.
• Re-Animator — USA/1985 – (Director: Stuart Gordon, Featuring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton) – Join Mick Garris for a conversation with the 2015 Master of Horror Award recpient Stuart Gordon and a special 30th Anniversary screening of his cult classic. In this Lovecraftian tale, medical student Herbet West attempts to unlock the secerts of life with his experimental serum.
• Repulsion — UK/1965 – (Director: Roman Polanski, Featuring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux) – The 50th Anniversary of Roman Polanski’s all-time cinema classic of suspense finds demons closing in on a young Catherine Deneuve when left alone in her sister’s apartment.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show — USA/1975 – (Director: Jim Sharman, Featuring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien ) – Let’s do the the Time Warp again! Come celebrate the 40th Anniversay of your favorite horror musical with Colorado’s Elusive Ingredient. Throw Bag’s will be on hand for $5. So dust off those red pumps and fish net stockings and get ready to rock out.
• Shivers — Canada/1975 – (Director: David Cronenberg, Featuring Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry) – Newly restored by the TIFF Cinematheque under the supervision of David Cronenberg, this 40th Anniversary screening of the King of Venereal Horror’s classic will crawl under your skin. In a modern high-rise, billed as the ideal place to live, a parasitic infestation turns the residents into sex-crazed maniacs.

FREE FAMILY SCREENING:

• The Bride of Frankenstein — USA/1935 – (Director: James Whale, Featuring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson) – The Monster must have a mate! Join us at this FREE FAMILY SCREENING for a trip through cinema history with the greatest of all classic universal monster movies as it celebrates its 80th anniversary.

SHORTS:

• 12th Assistant Deacon – South Korea/2014 (Director: Jae-hyun Jang) – Father Kim enlists his new deacon to visit Youngshin in order to exorcise her of the demon living inside her.
• Autumn Harvest – Norway/2014 (Director: Fredrik S. Hana) – A grief-stricken sailor answers a mysterious call from the sea.
• The Babysitter Murders – USA/2015 (Director: Ryan Spindell) – A dark and stormy night. An innocent babysitter all alone. An escaped psychopath out for blood. You know how this story will play out… Or do you?
• Children’s Song – USA/2014 (Director: David O’Reilly) – Children sing a song
• Copycat – USA/2014 (Director: Charlie Lyne) – In the summer of 1990, a teenage filmmaker successfully raises $100,000 to shoot a pioneering horror film. Twenty-five years later, he tells the story of a cult classic that never was.
• CROW HAND!!! – USA/2015 (Director: Brian Lonano) – A husband gets more than he bargains for when he discovers a strange totem on the ground, much to his wife’s chagrin.
• Day of the Dutch – The Netherlands/2015 (Director: Martha Colburn) – A nightmarish stop-motion animation featuring Day of The Dead dolls.
• He Took His Skin Off For Me – UK/2014 (Director: Ben Aston) – The story of a man who takes his skin off for his girlfriend. And why it probably was not the best idea…
• The House is Innocent – USA/2014 (Director: Nicholas Coles) – Tom and Barbara’s new home has a notorious past and it’s going to take more than a fresh coat of paint to whitewash its macabre history.
• Inherent Noise – Poland/2014 (Director: Karol Jurga) – A girl who comes to the house of an old, disabled soundman. The mysterious frequencies he produces guide her to a grizzly discovery.
• Intruders – Canada/2014 (Director: Santiago Menghini) – In the aftermath of a deadly haunting a sinister omnipresent wreks havoc on three unsuspecting characters.
• The Listing – USA/2015 (Director: Luke Jaden) – 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, 1 Dungeon, and a deadly aftermath.
• Man’s Best – USA/2015 (Director: Garrett Weaver) – When the terminal family pet comes back from the vet with a seemingly miraculous recovery, the Bradford’s are overjoyed.
• Moon Studios – USA/2014 (Director: Merritt Crocker) – A great song is a living thing.
• NDA – USA/2014 (Director: David O’Reilly) – Man enacts legal fantasy.
• Night Sirens – USA/2014 (Director: The Meza Brothers, Eric Mainade) – An illegal migrant worker decides it’s time to move on from picking crops and find a better job. Little does she know insidious supernatural forces have a different plan for her.
• Rabbit 105 – Argentina/2014 (Director: Sebastian Rotstein, Federico Rotstein) – After spending the afternoon shopping in the mall, Ana is unable to find her car in the parking garage. She soon realizes a murderous presence is following her every move.
• The Salt of the Earth – France/2014 (Director: Jonathan Desoindre) – Large family gatherings can often produce some stress. But when a hunting excursion gets out of hand, the new fiancée in the fold finds out her extended family is less than hospitable.
• Sea Devil – USA/2014 (Director: Dean C. Marcial, Brett Potter) – In the summer of 2012, an abandoned fishing boat surfaced on the shores of Miami. Its passengers were never found.
• The Stomach – UK/2014 (Director: Ben Steiner) – A spirit medium with a grotesque method of channeling the dead wants out of this life threatening business. But the local gangsters have other plans in mind.
• Superior – USA/2015 (Director: Erin Vassilopoulos) – A stranger passing through town sparks a teenage girl’s desire to distinguish herself from her identical twin sister.
• Teeth – UK/Hungary/USA/2015 (Director: Daniel Gray, Tom Brown) – The life of a misguided and intensely focused man, chronicled through his oral obsessions.
• Thanatos – USA/2014 (Director: Noah Brown, Fiona Bailey, Duncan Lowery, Harper Yates, Cain Cox) – A Denver Film Society’s Young Filmmakers Workshop production. A young woman interviews for a mysterious project.
• Theseus – USA/2014 (Director: Kia Dickson) – In the near future, convicted teenage murderers are sent down to an unknown location to hunt, or be hunted, by a deadly creature known as the ‘Minotaur’.
• The Vector Of Transmission – USA/2014 (Director: Martin Long) – A lone scientist struggles to understand a plague of parasitic insects.
• Waterborne – Australia/2014 (Director: Ryan Coonan) – Contaminated water in an Australian country town causes a virus that turns both humans – and animals – into zombies. Australian wildlife has never been so terrifying…
• Wrong Number – USA/2014 (Director: David O’Reilly) – Girl can’t throw up.

Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.