Horror Film Fest premieres boast prominent pedigrees
The 19 world premieres at this week’s Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival include nine feature-length films with several boasting casts full of familiar faces.
All showings will be held in the Historic Central Theater at 1008 Central Ave. The first showing is the feature-length horror film “Red Eye” at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. A number of world, U.S. and Arkansas premieres fill the lineup through the final showing on Sunday at 10:20 p.m., the world premiere of “Hell Of A Night.”
A standout of the festival’s opening day on Thursday is the world premiere of “Buckout Road,” a thriller by Matthew Currie Holmes, who has worked on dozens of movies, television series and shorts, but two films in 2017 mark his first forays into writing and directing. “Buckout Road” stars Danny
Glover, Evan Ross, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Colm Feore and Henry Czerny.
Glover may be most wellknown for the “Lethal Weapon” series with Mel Gibson, but his career includes a litany of starring roles in films such as “The Color Purple,” “Predator 2,” “Angels in the Outfield,” “Saw” and
“2012.” His career is approaching
200 credits as he maintains a busy schedule with nine projects already lined up for release in 2018.
Ross and Provost-Chalkley star as the film’s two young leads. Ross, 29, has worked steadily in a number of movies and several television series since 2006 with roles in “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” “90210,” “Just Before I Go” and both “Mockingjay” movies in “The Hunger Games” franchise. Provost-Chalkley, 27, has seen her career accelerate after appearing in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015 with roles in the Syfy shows “12 Monkey” and “Wynonna Earp.”
Veteran actors Czerny and Feore bring presence in their supporting roles. Czerny is an experienced antagonist with past roles in “Mission: Impossible” and “The A-Team,” as well as “Clear and Present Danger,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” “The Tudors,” “Revenge” and “Quantico.” Feore’s 30-plus year career features roles in “Face/ Off,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” “The Chronicles of Riddick,” “Thor,” “Pearl Harbor,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Changeling” and recently as vice presidential candidate Ted Brockhart on the Netflix series, “House of Cards.”
“Buckout Road” is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. on Thursday.
Another feature-length world premiere, “Witch-Hunt,” will be shown at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. First-time filmmaker Philip Schaeffer wrote and directed the thriller about five young women who suspect a witch is among them.
Director Mark Blair, also known as John Dwyer, will debut the director’s cut of the cult classic horror film, “Confessions of a Serial Killer,” at 1:50 p.m. Thursday after 25 years in the vault of Roger Corman. The film is based on the crimes and confessions of Henry Lee Lucas.
Friday’s showing begins with the world premiere of “Devil’s Tree: Rooted Evil” at 11:45 a.m. The horror thriller, based on real events, follows a journalist with a dark past.
Penelope Mitchell, Sally Kirkland and Kyle Gass star in the horror film, “Gnaw,” directed by Haylar Garcia. The world premiere is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. Friday.
Mitchell starred in the Netflix series, “Hemlock Grove,” as well as “Zipper,” “The Fear of Darkness” “Curve” and “The Vampire Diaries.” She will appear in next year’s “Hellboy” remake.
Kirkland has more than 230 credits to her name dating back to the early 1960s with roles in films such as “JFK” and “Bruce Almighty.” Viewers may recognize Gass from his appearances on “Seinfeld,” “Saving Silverman” and “Friends,” as well as “Shallow Hal” and “Tenacious D” with Jack Black.
An international cast stars in the horror film, “The Shadow,” set to premiere at 1:15 p.m. Friday. The midnight premiere of “Happy Hunting” is the final showing scheduled for the day.
A prominent voice cast headlines the animated science-fiction movie, “Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom,” scheduled for 8:45 p.m. Saturday. The kid-friendly flick is directed by Sean Patrick O’Reilly, who also lends his voice to the film.
The star-studded cast features “Hellboy” and “Sons of Anarchy” actor Ron Perlman and Academy-Award winner Christopher Plummer, who has more than 200 credits during his career. The voice cast also includes “Star Wars” icon Mark Hamill, who will star in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” this December.