Knoxville Horror Film Fest – Feature Lineup

EIGHTH ANNUAL KNOXVILLE HORROR FILM FEST ANNOUNCES

FEATURE LINEUP & 2016 DATES, OCTOBER 21 – 23

KNOXVILLE, TN (August 30, 2016) – The Knoxville Horror Film Fest (KHFF) will return for its eighth annual celebration of sinister cinema on October 21 – 23, 2016 at Regal Cinemas Downtown West 8 and Scruffy City Hall.

Dedicated to bringing the genre film festival experience to East Tennessee, KHFF 2016 will once again showcase a weekend’s worth of premier indie horror features and startling short films from around the world, in addition to parties, special guests and other fun.

This year’s lineup is headlined by ten feature films, each preceded by a selection of shorts:

• PHANTASM (dir. Don Coscarelli) – 1979’s beguiling indie horror classic returns to the big screen in Bad Robot’s revelatory 4K restoration.
• PHANTASM: RAVAGER (dir. David Hartman) – The long-awaited fifth and final installment in the Phantasm series promises the ultimate showdown with the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm, RIP).
• THE GREASY STRANGLER (dir. Jim Hosking) – Bewildered buzz out of Sundance and SXSW has put this depraved comedy on the fast track to midnight movie notoriety… and KHFF will be Knoxville’s only chance to experience it with an audience.
• TRASH FIRE (dir. Richard Bates Jr) – Adrian Grenier leads an unsuspecting girlfriend into the jaws of domestic horror in the riotously bleak new film from KHFF favorite Bates (Excision).
• BEYOND THE GATES (dir. Jackson Stewart) – Two brothers chase their inheritance into a devilish VHS board game hosted by scream queen Barbara Crampton (ReAnimator).
• SADAKO V KAYAKO (dir. Kôji Shiraishi) – The ghostly gals from Ringu and Juon: The Grudge face off in Japanese horror’s answer to Freddy Vs Jason.
• THE MASTER CLEANSE (dir. Bobby Miller) – Johnny Galecki attends an unusual spiritual retreat in the cutely creepy feature debut of KHFF alumni Bobby Miller (Tub).
• FURY OF THE DEMON (dir. Fabien Delage) – A coy documentary-style look at a legendarily violence-inducing lost short by silent film wizard Georges Méliès.
• RED CHRISTMAS (dir. Craig Anderson) – Genre legend Dee Wallace (The Howling, ET) is a matriarch with secrets in this boundary-pushing Australian holiday chiller.
• BAD BLOOD (dir. Tim Reis) – The creators of Goat Witch (winner of “Weirdest Film” at KHFF 2014) return with their wildest creature feature yet, presenting an amphibious twist on the werewolf flick. (Filmmaker in attendance.)
  

Other events include Saturday night’s premiere of the 2016 Grindhouse Grind-out Filmmaking Contest (KHFF’s unique film event challenging locals to create wild, grindhouse-style fake movie trailers) and Sunday evening’s Awards Ceremony recognizing the festival’s best films.

KHFF 2016 programming will run Friday night and all day Saturday at Regal Cinemas Downtown West 8, then all day Sunday at Market Square’s Scruffy City Hall.  Further details will be announced through September, with the festival schedule and full slate of short films to follow in October.

KHFF will also host a free KHFF8 PREVIEW NIGHT on October 6 at Scruffy City Hall, featuring trailers & shorts teasing this year’s festival plus the premiere of locally-produced horror feature Something’s in the Woods, based on a trailer created for the first Grindhouse Grind-out contest in 2009. And on Thursday, October 20 horror fans are invited to warm up for KHFF with the KNOXFERATU silent film celebration at Scruffy City Hall, featuring The Unknown (1927), Nosferatu (1922) and more.

Submissions for this year’s Knoxville Horror Film Fest remain open through September 29 via FilmFreeway.com, with special discounts for films produced in Tennessee. Knoxville-area filmmakers are also invited to compete in the Grindhouse Grind-out contest (kicking off September 30) which gives teams six days to produce their own horror themed short film or trailer for competition during KHFF’s main event on Saturday night. Registration information & more can be found on the KHFF website.

ABOUT THE KNOXVILLE HORROR FILM FEST:

Founded in 2009 by genre enthusiasts William Mahaffey and Nick Huinker, Knoxville Horror Film Fest has grown from a single night program at Knoxville’s Pilot Light to a multi-venue, weekend-long event known for its expert curation and endless entertainment value. Over the course of eight festivals and countless standalone events, KHFF has presented hundreds of short films by up and coming filmmakers and strived to bring the best in current and classic horror cinema to fans who value the theatrical experience. For more information, visit KnoxvilleHorrorFest.com