Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival, presented by Starz and their hit original series Ash vs. Evil Dead, is returning for the third annual show, bringing back all the gnarly, the ghastly and the fantastically awesome gore to Chicago again. Horror and gore fans won’t want to miss out on this summer’s show and film festival during August 18-21st, once again all in conjunction with the annual geek and cosplay grand mecca known as Wizard World Comic Con Chicago 2016.
Last year’s SHOW was an eye-dropping experience for horror fans and a dream to behold all around with the grand displays, countless vendors and wall-to-wall cosplay!
Today, the Festival announced a huge highlight for the ultra groovy show as Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival (BCHFF) is thrilled to present the 25th anniversary celebration of everyone’s favorite time-traveling metalhead slackers with a special screening of “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” with the films’ director Peter Hewitt in attendance! Additional guests for this screening will be announced at a later date.
The festivities will kick off on Thursday, August 18, with the opening night film “Don’t Breathe”, the highly anticipated shocker from director-producer-writer Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead ) and produced by Sam Raimi & Rob Tapert. Alvarez will be in attendance. This will reunite Campbell with Alvarez, who directed the successful 2013 remake of Evil Dead. Sony Pictures is set to release “Don’t Breathe” on August 26, 2016.
The festival will also mark the World Premieres of “Found Footage 3D”, the long-awaited satirical horror film produced by Kim Henkel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ) and directed by Steven DeGennaro, and “Show Yourself”, a haunting & remarkable genre-bending feature debut from Billy Ray Brewton (subject of the wonderful award-winning 2014 documentary Skanks, and programmer for Slamdance Film Festival).
Fans in the region will also experience the Chicago premieres of:
● “The Greasy Strangler” – The most hilariously disturbing film of the year. From Elijah Wood’s Spectrevision, Drafthouse Films, & Ant Timpson.
● “Here Alone” – Winner of the 2016 Tribeca Audience Award.
● “Abattoir” – From Darren Bousman, the director of Saw 2, 3, 4, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Mother’s Day, and The Devil’s Carnival. Darren will be in attendance to present the film.
● “Pet“ – The SXSW hit starring Dominic Monaghan (Lord of The Rings Trilogy).
● “I am Not a Serial Killer” – Starring Christopher Lloyd in yet another career defining performance.
● “Beyond The Gates” – Winner of the midnight audience award at Los Angeles Film Festival.
The Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival jury this year includes some well-known dignitaries to horror fans:
Tom Holland (writer/director, Fright Night, Child’s Play)
Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show )
Cerina Vincent ( Cabin Fever)
Zach Hagen (producer, He Never Died)
“It’s been another astonishing year for horror cinema”, said festival director, Josh Goldbloom. “I’m overwhelmed by the amount of talent & creativity working in this field. Their contributions are innovative, visionary, beautifully unnerving, defiantly weird, and of course, bloody as all hell. This year’s festival is a showcase of all the many reasons why genre film & its fans are the best in the world.
The inaugural “Groovy as Hell” award will be presented to writer/director Fred Dekker (Fox’s upcoming The Predator). The awards ceremony will consist of a 30th anniversary screening of the cult classic “Night of The Creeps” and a very special screening of “The Monster Squad” with actors Andre Gower (Sean) & Ryan Lambert (Rudy) also in attendance.
Festival favorite Doug Benson (Doug Loves Movies, Chromic-Con, Super High Me) will be in town for a very special ‘Doug Benson Movie Interruption’ of Army of Darkness, with guest interrupter Bruce Campbell! The two will sit in the front row together with a selection of mystery comedy guests, and say whatever hilarious stuff that pops into their head. A limited amount of single tickets for this event are on sale now!
Many additional titles, surprises and guest announcements will be announced over the coming month.
Festival badges are $100, and are on sale now at www.bchff.com! Limited single tickets sales for screenings will go on sale Wednesday, July 6th.
The festival and all screenings will be held at the Carmike Muvico Rosemont 18.
Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival: Wave 1
“DON’T BREATHE” (Opening Night)
A trio of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect heist. They’re wrong
Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovato, Stephen Lang
Dir: Fede Alvarez
Distributor: Sony Pictures
U.S. Release Date: August 26
“ABATTOIR”
How do you build a haunted house? Ask the enigmatic Jebediah Crone, the main suspect in a case of stolen rooms where horrific tragedies have occurred.
Cast: Jessica Lowndes, Joe Anderson, Lin Shaye, Dayton Callie, Bryan Batt,, J. Larose
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman
“BEYOND THE GATES”
Seven months after their father’s disappearance, two brothers reunite to liquidate the family video store. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse when they find an old VHS boardgame with evil powers, and all hell breaks loose.
Cast: Chase Williamson, Graham Skipper, Brea Grant, Barbara Crampton, Matt Mercer, Jesse Merlin
Dir: Jackson Stewart
“FOUND FOOTAGE 3D”
A group of low-budget filmmakers sets out to make “the first 3D found footage horror film,” but find themselves *in* the first 3D found footage horror film when the evil entity from their movie escapes into their behind-the-scenes footage.
Cast: Carter Roy, Alena von Stroheim, Chris O’Brien, Tom Saporito, Scott Allen Perry, Jessica Perrin, Scott Weinberg
Dir: Steven DeGennaro
“THE GREASY STRANGLER”
Pure. Fucking. Chaos.
Cast: Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar, Elizabeth De Razzo
Dir: Jim Hosking
“HERE ALONE”
A young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has decimated society and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness.
Cast: Lucy Walters, Adam David Thompson, Gina Piersanti, Shane West
Dir: Rod Blackhurst
“I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER”
In a small Midwestern town, a troubled teen with homicidal tendencies must hunt down and destroy a supernatural killer whilst keeping his own inner demons at bay.
Cast: Christopher Lloyd, Laura Fraser, Max Records
Dir: Billy O’Brien
“PET”
Seth works at an animal shelter, and for years has been secretly in love with a waitress named Holly . When he repeatedly fails in his attempts to woo her, he naturally decides to lock her in a cage at the shelter where he works. And that’s just the beginning…
Cast: Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jenette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons
Dir: Carles Torrens
“SHOW YOURSELF”
When his friend dies unexpectedly, Travis heads into the woods with his ashes to say goodbye. But as he deals with his grief, and the way it has affected the relationships in his life, he starts to realize that he actually might not be alone.
Cast: Ben Hethcoat, Corsica Wilson, Barak Hardley, Stephen Cone, David McElwee, Robert Longsteet.
Dir: Billy Ray Brewton
Fans can visit www.BCHFF.com and here on Popculthq.com for full details and additions to the slate as they happen and dates and times for each screening. Follow the festival on Twitter: @groovyfest
