Hudson Horror Show 13: 35mm Film Festival Announcement

"The Rules of Hudson Horror Show" Trailer:



Official press release:

Now in its sixth year, Hudson Horror Show continues to be the fastest growing retro horror film festival in New York. Fresh off another sold out triple feature at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, NY, Hudson Horror Show returns to its stomping grounds, the South Hills Cinema 8 in Poughkeepsie on Saturday, May 14th, 2016 for Hudson Horror Show #13! This all day event will start around noon and run past midnight, showing six full length horror/cult movies, all off vintage 35mm film. That’s twelve hours of movie madness for only $35.00! Tickets are exclusively available at www.hudsonhorror.com.

While theater’s around the country are ditching 35mm film in favor of all digital film presentations, Hudson Horror Show recently retro-fitted one of the theaters at South Hills Cinema 8 from digital back to 35mm film! HHS #13 will be held on two screens, but one screen is already sold out, so get your tickets for the remaining theater while you can.

So what are showing in May? Hudson Horror has been threatening to show a blaxploitation movie for years and thanks to our friends at Vinegar Syndrome we are proud to present DOLEMITE!! Be prepared for the Rudy Ray Moore classic which is easily the most politically incorrect movie we’ve ever shown!!

You’ve seen the sequel, now it’s time for the original, Robert Englund’s star turn in 1984’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET! With John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp and Johnny Depp this is the movie that turned the slasher genre on its head and made Freddy Krueger a household name.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, HHS presents JAWS 2!!! The giant fish movie that many feels plays like a slasher flick, the shark sequel brings Bruce back to Amityville and the results are just as disastrous. JAWS 2 rarely gets any play theatrically and we are pleased to have this as part of our show.

Presented by The B-Movie Film Vault, we are excited to be screening NIGHTBREED! Clive Barker’s monster mash features more on screen creatures than any other movie ever filmed. The original theatrical cut from Clive Barker is still the most entertaining version of the movie out there and after six years we are pleased to finally have this at a Hudson Horror event.

On top of all that we will have not but TWO MYSTERY HORROR MOVIES!! Want to know what we are showing? Get your tickets and find out!

HHS is thrilled to announce that Louis R. Pisano who co-authored Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel (with Michael A. Smith) will be in attendance! Louis will have copies of this amazing fact filled Jaws book on hand and will be signing at the show.

Of course we’ll have vendors galore with DVD’s, shirts, toys and collector’s items; there will be door prizes, giveaways and so much more. That’s 12 hours of fun for only $35.00 a ticket! Each ticket sold comes with a free Hudson Horror Show/Leatherface sticker spoof sticker. Theater #6 is already sold out; get your tickets for the remaining theater now at www.hudsonhorror.com! If you have any questions shoot us an email at chris@hudsonhorror.com. We’ll see you at the South Hills Cinema 8 in Poughkeepsie on May 14th for Hudson Horror Show #13!

http://www.hudsonhorror.com
http://www.bmoviefilmvault.com
http://vinegarsyndrome.com

Beneath (2013)

"Six high school seniors celebrating with day's excursion find themselves on rowboat attacked by man-eating fish and must decide who must be sacrificed as they fight their way back to shore."

As much as I would like to write "Beneath" off as nothing but a load of bickering teenagers who you've never heard of (plus Mark Margolis in a creepy cameo) being menaced by a more evil version of the big fish from "The Singing Ringing Tree" (1957), I really can't. For what it is, which is another highly sanitised Chiller TV movie, "Beneath" is far more entertaining than most of the sources it homages, but not in a good way.

Essentially, what director Larry Fessenden has done is rip-off the only good segment of "Creepshow 2", throw in a healthy dollop of "Lifeboat" (or "Lifepod"), and then stir-it all up with some pop culture references, a little bit of social commentary, and even some trendy GoPro camera product placement. All this without any nudity or swearing too! The guy is clearly a genius! Or not, as the case may be.

The biggest problem, other than the ridiculously ginormous piranha-style fish, is that the script isn't very good. The characters are so poorly written that even though you can see that everyone is trying their hardest to act and take it all seriously, there's nothing much for anyone to work with. As a result, there's not one likeable character, and the story becomes little more than a "slasher in water" as you just wait and hope for each annoying idiot to meet his or her demise.

All of them are toast fish food.

The great thing about "Beneath" is that it isn't a comedy. Of course the giant fish is one of the most poorly realised practical creature effects in any movie about giant fish since "Jaws", but as the story progresses, it becomes easier to accept its existence than to believe that the teenagers are really teenagers or were ever friends with each other. Their reactions are more wooden than the bored hosts who used to take the boats of tourists round the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios, which, alas, is no longer a future employment option for anyone involved in this production.

The gore is surprisingly good for a hypocritical American TV movie with various cuts, bites, slashes, and dismembered limbs oozing blood all over the place. It's not to the same standard as "Piranha 3D", but "Beneath" obviously didn't have the same $24,000,000 budget to play with. I'd be amazed if this movie had even a third of the $1,000,000 budget that The Asylum sets as a maximum for each of their mockbusters.

As with every low-budget abomination nowadays, the camerawork isn't exactly brilliant, and the oh-so-important GoPro inserts make things look even worse. If you can get past that, there's barely any tension in the teenagers' predicament either. There is some, but it's mostly ruined by the stupidity of their childish behaviour. A different director might have got a better balance, but it is what it is. I've got a feeling that Larry Fessenden knew exactly what he was doing. I just can't prove it.

If you're a grumpy old misanthropist like me who is always on the look-out for something else to hate about people, "Beneath" has a lot to say about smartasses, snarkiness, white knighting, entitlement issues, relationships, cliques, and, basically, how disgustingly selfish today's teenagers are. It's almost as good as reading through the online dramas on horror message boards! The only difference is that everyone gets what they deserve this time! And it's glorious! Absolutely glorious!

"Das singende, klingende Bäumchen" has a lot to answer for!