LINEUP ANNOUNCED FOR FEARnyc 2017
NEW YORK CITY’S MOST TERRIFYING HORROR FILM FESTIVAL
FEATURING SCREENINGS OF 30 NEW HORROR FILMS, SPECIAL APPEARANCES, AND A TRIBUTE TO HORROR ICON GEORGE A. ROMERO
OCTOBER 27 – 29, 2017
THE SONNET THEATER — TIMES SQUARE
“A HUGE, AUTHORITATIVE HORROR FILM FESTIVAL.” — TIME OUT NEW YORK
“THE BEST THING HAPPENING IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY THIS OCTOBER.” — DREAD CENTRAL
“A MUST FOR HORROR FANS.” — TRULY DISTURBING
“YOUR IDEAL HALLOWEEN WARM UP EVENT.” — WICKED HORROR
NEW YORK, NY, October 12, 2017 — FEARnyc, New York City’s most terrifying horror film festival, has announced the lineup for the 2017 festival. Sponsored by Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central, FEARnyc will be held October 27-29, 2017 at The Producer’s Club Sonnet Theater in Times Square.
FEARnyc will feature 30 new horror films including the world premieres of Inoperable starring scream queen Danielle Harris (Halloween), Brent Nurse and Steven Spencer‘s Boneyard, and Brandon Graham‘s Flesh Blanket, starring comedian Ramsey Moore in his final performance. The festival will also feature the North American premiere of Adam Graveley‘s 3rd Night, the East Coast premieres of Kai E. Bogatzki‘s Scars of Xavier, Sean Patrick O’Reilly‘s Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom, Joseph Terhaar‘s Nudist of the Living Dead, and James Rewucki’s Tempus Tormentum, and the New York City premiere of Nicholas Paul Pontoski‘s Within the Woods of Undead County.
The festival will feature a special screening of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead performed with a live score by Ben Singer of Modern Robot. The screening is part of FEARnyc‘s 2017 tribute to Mr. Romero, recipient of this year’s Legacy Honor.
A complete list and description of the films can be found below. Most screenings will be followed by a live Q&A with the directors, writers, producers, and casts.
“This year’s lineup is full of memorable, intelligent, and downright scary horror films, many of which are making their debut on the big screen,” said John Capo, founder and festival director of FEARnyc. “Our audience will be among the first in the world to see these terrifying new films and get to meet and mingle with the writers, directors, and casts on the weekend leading up to Halloween.”
The Distinguished Jury for FEARnyc 2017 includes Matt Boiselle (Senior Film Critic, Dread Central), Terry Castle (Producer, House on Haunted Hill, Thirteen Ghosts), Jay Kay (Journalist, Horror Happens, Icons of Fright, Horror Hound Magazine), Jim Klock (Executive, Terror Films), Brad Miska (Producer, V/H/S, Southbound; Editor-in-Chief, Bloody Disgusting), Lee Peterson (Indie Theater Programmer), Peter Phok (Producer, The House of the Devil, I Sell the Dead, Stake Land), Johnny Recher (Asst. Director, The Purge: Election Year, Underworld Awakening), Jeffrey Reddick (Screenwriter, Final Destination, Dead Awake), Joshua Rothkopf (Film Editor, Time Out New York), Kate Siegel (Screenwriter and Actress, Hush), Stacy Title (Director, The Bye Bye Man) and Dee Wallace (Actress, The Howling, Cujo, E.T: The Extra Terrestrial).
Tickets for each film are $15, which includes access to the post-screening Q&A. All Access 3-Day Festival Passes are also available for $125. To purchase tickets, visit www.FEARnyc.com
The Producer’s Club Sonnet Theater is located at 358 West 44th Street.
For more information visit www.FEARnyc.com
FEARnyc 2017 Schedule
Friday, October 27
6pm — Welcome Party
Join FEARnyc filmmakers, staff, and special guests as we celebrate the opening of FEARnyc.
7pm – Opening Night Film: Scars of Xavier
East Coast Premiere
Director: Kai E. Bogatzki
Germany; 89 min
Followed by a Q&A with the director and cast
Xavier lives an apparently uneventful life on the fringes of Prague’s society. The introverted man in his mid-forties spends his days keeping to himself and avoiding the limelight. At night, however, his true colors reveal themselves as a brutal serial killer, picking up young women and brutally murdering them, his deeds not seeming to follow any predetermined pattern.
9pm — Boneyard
World Premiere
Directors: Brent Nurse, Steven Spencer
Canada, 98 min
Followed by a Q&A with the directors and screenwriter
Jane and David Morrison, a couple from the city, flee to a secluded farmhouse ahead of a mounting scandal that threatens to ruin them. Jane, unsure of her husband’s guilt or innocence, takes a fateful walk in the woods, and discovers The Boneyard, an ancient graveyard that local legends say is haunted. In the wake of her discovery, Jane is plagued by visions, but is her mind falling apart, or is the shadow from the woods reaching out to her, scratching on the walls of reality, trying to break in?
Saturday, October 28
9:30am — Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom
East Coast Premiere
Director: Sean Patrick O’Reilly
Canada, 79 min, Animated
Before he becomes the famed horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, young Howard Lovecraft is a curious and imaginative boy living with his mother, because his father is locked up in Arkham Sanitarium. But after his mother unwittingly gave Howard the legendary Necronomicon, Howard went to a dangerous and frozen land where he saved and befriended a monstrous creature he named Spot. Howard thought that was behind him, but now there is a new threat, and only Howard and Spot can save the day. Howard’s mother has been kidnapped and evil forces are turning Howard into a fish creature. Howard will have to find his father’s old journals if there is any hope to save him mother and himself.
11am — Shorts Block: Sci-Fi, The Supernatural, and The Unexplained
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Level
New York City Premiere
Director: Andrew Hunt
Minneapolis, 19 min
Trapped in a never-ending nightmare, a cat and mouse game plays out between a man and a hellish beast lurking in the shadows.
Adam Peiper
Director: Monica Mateo
Spain, 17 min
An enveloper of a tasks depot works tirelessly. What appears to be a dull and machining day will become his worst nightmare.
Tethered
New York City Premiere
Director: Daniel Robinette
Greensboro, 12 min
Abandoned by his mother, Solomon is left to live in isolation while abiding by three rules. Having grown accustomed to his routine, he begins to realize the rules may be a hindrance to a life-changing discovery.
Fe
U.S. Premiere
Director: Juan de Dios Garduño
Spain, 11min
Adolfo, the town’s priest, gets a phone call from a desperate family. They believe that their daughter is possessed by the devil, but things are not what they seem.
Three Skeleton Key
New York City Premiere
Director: Andrew Hamer
Los Angeles, 11 min
Set in 1921, an American lighthouse crew on the small island of Three Skeleton Key become unnerved when a ship ignores their beacon, running aground on the reefs surrounding the island. They soon discover that something is on board the ship, and it’s not human.
Sol
New York City Premiere
Director: Carlos G. Gananian
Brazil, 14 min
That voice in her head. It just won’t let go.
Drip
New York City Premiere
Director: Christopher West
Los Angeles, 13 min
A young woman moves into a new apartment and wakes up the next day to find a picture on her phone of her sleeping.
1pm — Panel Discussion: Masters of Horror
Join horror filmmakers, journalists, and experts as they discuss the works of some of the masters of horror from yesterday and today and speculate on where the genre is heading.
3pm — Steven Berkoff’s Tell Tale Heart
Director: Stephen Cookson
United Kingdom, 83 min
Steven Berkoff’s interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story about a servant who plots to murder his master because of his “vulture” eye. Starring Steven Berkoff and Henry Goodman.
5pm — Flesh Blanket
World Premiere
Director: Brandon Graham
Los Angeles, 86 min
Followed by a Q&A with the director, cast and producer
A selfish filmmaker fails at creating the cutting-edge freedom of speech documentary he had envisioned and inadvertently unleashes holy hell from a 500-pound comedian on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Starring Ramsey Moore in his final performance and a cast of stand-up comedians.
7pm — Zombie Double Feature
Nudist of the Living Dead
East Coast Premiere
Director: Joseph Terhaar
Minneapolis, 24 min
A young man gets caught with his pants down, literally, as the zombie apocalypse begins. Unable to find shelter or clothing he must make a go of it with the help of an eccentric neighbor.
Within the Woods of Undead County
New York City Premiere
Director: Nicholas Paul Pontoski
Philadelphia, 80 min
Followed by a Q&A with the screenwriter
Four people escape into the woods outside Philadelphia after the release of a pharmaceutical drug turns its residents into members of the undead.
9:30pm: Night of the Living Dead: The Live Event
Director: George A. Romero, 97 min
It’s the zombie classic as you’ve never seen it before, performed with a live score by Ben Singer of Modern Robot. There is panic throughout the nation as the dead suddenly come back to life. The film follows a group of characters who barricade themselves in an old farmhouse in an attempt to remain safe from these flesh-eating monsters. Part of FEARnyc’s tribute to 2017 Legacy Honoree George A. Romero, featuring a special introduction by Tyler Hixson.
Sunday, October 29
9:30am — Shorts Block: Experimental Shorts
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Toward the Entryway
New York City Premiere
Director: Kyle Klubal
Big Bear, CA; 23 min
A haunting tale of the odd and macabre as a young woman is terrorized by several supernatural forces which may be real or only in her imagination.
Low Budget Nightmares
New York City Premiere
Director: Raistlin Skelley
Aliquippa, PA; 21 min
A blood-soaked love letter to no-budget horror video classics of the 70’s and 80’s. A series of four short stories take our hero on a paranoid journey through nightmares fed on horror movies and television.
Through the Wide Gate
World Premiere
Director: Patrick Clement
New York; 15 min
A sensitive young woman stalks a romantic rival in this 1970’s-revival psychological drama.
11am — Charismata
New York City Premiere
Directors: Andy Collier, Tor Mian
United Kingdom, 97 min
Followed by a Q&A with the director, producer, and cast
Rebecca Faraway fears she might be out of her depth. As a rookie detective struggling to find acceptance in a police department defined by a culture of intolernace, things go from bad to worse when the chief suspect in a series of brutal ritualistic murders takes a personal interest in her. A game of cat and mouse finds Rebecca’s grasp on reality beginning to spiral out of control, leading to a terrifying climax where she needs to fight for her life, her sanity, and maybe even her soul.
1pm — Shorts Block: Psycho Killers, Crazy Clowns, and Babysitters in Peril
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
Your Date is Here
New York City Premiere
Directors: Todd Spence, Zak White
Los Angeles, 7 min
After dusting off an old Mystery Date-style board game, a mother and daughter realize the game holds more evil than amusement.
Crave
New York City Premiere
Director: Carl Shanahan
United Kingdom, 9 min
Rob sits with a small group of misfits, each waiting for an appointment with Edmund. As one sweaty, confused client leaves the room, Rob braces himself and enters Edmund’s chamber, leaving the other strangers waiting in silence. As the queue of clients continue to wait outside, Rob has to decide whether to indulge his fantasy at whatever cost or face the repercussions of his exchange with Edmund.
Balloon
New York City Premiere
Director: Mitchell Slan
North Hollywood, 14 min
Penny and her therapist battle her phobia of balloons through psychological experimentation.
Bubblebath
World Premiere
Director: Frederik von Lüttichau
Germany, 6 min
When Helen takes a bubble bath, she gets a sudden visit.
Don’t Ever Change
East Coast Premiere
Director: Don Swaynos
Austin, 10 min
A reunion between a woman and her estranged daughter is interrupted by a stranger with an unusual request.
Rotary
New York City Premiere
Director: Lorenzo P. Adams
Galax, VA; 11 min
In 1968, a young babysitter’s evening is interrupted by strange and unsettling occurrences.
First Date
World Premiere
Director: Kyle Martin
Philadelphia, 6 min
A man and woman share an unforgettable night together.
The Jitterman
New York City Premiere
Director: Alex Mathieson
United Kingdom, 13 min
A babysitter, alone in a house, is tormented by an evil entity.
3pm — Tempus Tormentum
East Coast Premiere
Director: James Rewucki
Canada, 82 min
Followed by a Q&A with the creative team
A drifter passing through a small town is drugged by three masked psychopaths and forced into a bizarre game of cat and mouse. He is chased through a series of more and more bizarre events until, in the end, he finds that this evening of terror has lasting consequences. It’s a feel bad film, nasty and brutish, red in tooth and claw.
5pm — 3rd Night
North American Premiere
Director: Adam Graveley
Australia, 72 min
Followed by a Q&A with the cast
A couple move to an Australian orchard surrounded by natural bushland to escape the madness of modern life but are terrorized by the mysterious Watcher.
7pm — Closing Night Film: Inoperable
World Premiere
Director: Christopher Chapman
Tampa, 85 min
Followed by a Q&A with the director, cast, screenwriter, and producer
Amy (Scream Queen Danielle Harris from the Halloween franchise), presumably injured in a car accident, wakes up in a hospital. Although she feels like she is recovering from an injury, she doesn’t know how, or why, she is there.
9pm — FEARnyc Award Ceremony and Tribute to George A. Romero
Celebrate the Best of the Fest as we announce the winners of Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, and more. Featuring a special tribute to 2017 Legacy Honoree George A. Romero, featuring a special appearance by members of Mr. Romero’s family.
