The Sundance Film Festival's Park City at Midnight showcase annually features horror, exploitation, surreal comedy and all things offbeat, in tribute to the midnight movies of the '70s and early '80s. Here is the exciting 2011 lineup of horror and suspense films, some of which are sure to hit theaters in the future. Visit the Sundance website for ticket information.
Black Rock
Director: Katie Aselton
Starring: Katie Aselton, Lake Bell, Kate Bosworth
Plot: Three childhood friends set aside their personal issues and reunite for a girls' weekend on a remote island off the coast of Maine. One wrong move turns their weekend getaway into a deadly fight for survival. Written by "mumblecore" stalwart Mark Duplass (Baghead).
Excision
Director: Richard Bates, Jr.
Starring: AnnaLynne McCord, Traci Lords, Ariel Winter, Roger Bart, John Waters
Plot: A disturbed and delusional high school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother. Based on a short film of the same name.
Grabbers
Director: Jon Wright
Starring: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Bronagh Gallagher
Plot: When the residents of an idyllic Irish fishing village are attacked by mysterious, blood-sucking sea creatures, a high blood alcohol content could be the only thing that gets them through the night. From the director of Tormented.
John Dies at the End
Director: Don Coscarelli
Starring: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Doug Jones
Plot: A pair of college dropouts discover a paranormal, psychoactive drug that allows users to drift across time and dimensions.
The Pact
Director: Nicholas McCarthy
Starring: Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Agnes Bruckner, Dakota Bright
Plot: As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her mother's death, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home.
Red Lights*
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Elizabeth Olsen, Joely Richardson
Plot: Two investigators of paranormal hoaxes investigate a legendary blind psychic who reappears after an enigmatic absence of 30 years.
Room 237*
Director: Rodney Ascher
Starring: N/A
Plot: This experimental documentary explores the numerous theories about the real meaning of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining.
V/H/S
Directors: Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence
Starring: Joe Swanberg, Calvin Reeder, Adam Wingard, Sophia Takal, Kate Lyn Sheil
Plot: When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more "found footage" than they bargained for. From the directors of The House of the Devil, The Signal, A Horrible Way to Die and I Sell the Dead.
*Playing outside of the Park City at Midnight section.
