GEORGE ROMERO RETROSPECTIVE at the MELBOURNE FILM FESTIVAL
July 15th 2008 01:57
This year I’m really feeling the pinch. Apart from many movies, especially documentaries, that weren’t in the Sydney Film Festival, there are still more exclusives, including numerous horror, “nightmare” and exploitation movies that I’d kill to see on the big screen!
There’s a selection of “Ozploitation” flicks including Roadgames (1981), Razorback (1984), Long Weekend (1977), Dead-End Drive-In (1986), Turkey Shoot (1981), and, wait for it ... Eric Bana presenting and holding a Q&A following a screening of Mad Max 2 (1981 aka The Road Warrior)! Hot damn!
We're talking 35mm prints of Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Crazies (1973), Martin (1977), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Knightriders (1981), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), and his latest, Diary of the Dead (2007), plus a 16mm print of the lesser known Jack’s Wife (1972), and a new documentary Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George Romero (2008). Romero will also be presenting and holding Q&As with screenings of Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and the bio-pic Dead On.
I'm gutted. I’d chew my right arm off just to see Day of the Dead on the big screen! Chomp! Chomp! Munch! Munch! I’m bloody serious!! Why didn’t the Sydney Film Festival get Romero too??!! My own work commitments mean I am unlikely to be able to travel to Melbourne at short notice. So, if you’re a horrorphile and you live in that city they call Melbourne. I’d strongly recommend you get yourself some tickets.
Other horror/nightmare titles exclusive to the Melbourne Festival that look damn tasty include: the Russian J-horror-inspired Dead Daughters (2006), the Aussie serial killer thriller Acolytes (2008), Canadian cult-esque Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007), Bruce La Bruce’s graphic gay zombie perversion Otto; Or, Up With Dead People (2008), and psychopathic Beatrice Dalle in the very extreme Inside (2007).
My favourite from the Sydney Film Festival, the Swedish vampire twist Let the Right One In screens, which I thoroughly recommend. The Spanish zombie movie [REC] also screens, which I missed, but read good things about.
For more information, screening dates, times and venues please visit the Melbourne International Film Festival website.
For those unfamilar with George Romero's work ... (what the hell are you doing here?!) Here's a couple of trailers to whet your lips with the coppery taste of blood:
The trailer to Romero's latest Diary of the Dead:
And a curiously "comical" original trailer to Day of the Dead I found:
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Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Bucket Snipets
Comment by Anonymous
Really Long Link
Yep, Melbourne is grouse.
John
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Yeah, tis a raw nerve with me at the moment, that I couldn't get down to Melbourne for any of the screenings or the Q&As.