THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

Best Worst Movie
Dir. Michael Stephenson, 2009, 91 min.
Troll 2 star Michael Stephenson steps behind the camera to explore the phenomenon behind the low-budget Italian-produced horror sequel that young movie fanatics have christened "the Rocky Horror of our generation" in this documentary that proves just because a movie is awful, doesn't mean that it won't find an audience. Twenty years ago, a group of inexperienced Utah actors teamed with an Italian-speaking production crew to shoot Troll 2. At the time it seemed like the production was a complete fiasco; little did they realize that they were making cinematic history. Flash forward two decades, when Troll 2 is playing to packed theaters across America, and fans of the film get the unique opportunity to find out just how this messterpiece came to be. Can director Claudio Fragaso come to terms with the fact that his biggest failure has since defined his cinematic legacy? And what ever became of the Alabama dentist-turned cult-icon who delivered the immortal line, "You can't piss on hospitality!" Discover the answer to both of these questions and more as Troll 2 star Stephenson reveals why the film that should have been a forgettable horror sequel is still being celebrated twenty years later.

Q&A with director and child star of Troll 2 Michael Stephenson.

Stick around for a late screening of Troll 2.

THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

Document of the Dead
Dir. Roy Frumkes, 1985, 83 min.
Filmed in 1978 during the shooting of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1979), the documentary Document of the Dead was originally intended as a teaching aid for a film school class taught by filmmaker Roy Frumkes. However, a decade later Frumkes commercially released Document of the Dead after returning to shoot extra footage of George Romero making Two Evil Eyes (1990). Document of the Dead serves as a fascinating profile of Romero, covering not only Dawn of the Dead and Two Evil Eyes, but also Night of the Living Dead (1968) and to a lesser extent Martin (1976). The film offers many fascinating glimpses into the quiet-spoken and at times shy Romero and the process whereby he works. It covers the myriad problems that were presented by shooting Dawn of the Dead in a mall. Romero discusses the problems of funding and distributing his films and offers some interesting reflections on the indie film since Dawn of the Dead. We also get to watch cult makeup effects artist Tom Savini at work.

Q&A with director Roy Frumkes to follow screening.

THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

Demon Lover Diary
Dir. Joel Demott, 1980, 90 min.
A rarely screened yet widely praised intimate look at horror filmmakers losing everything, including their minds, as they struggle to finish their film. Don and Jerry, factory workers who grew up on comic books and B-movies, are fulfilling a lifetime dream: they're producing their own low-budget horror movie. Jeff and Joel, lovers and cinema-verité filmmakers, and a friend of theirs named Mark have come out to Michigan to help the dream come true: they're shooting The Demon Lover for Don and Jerry. Two weeks after production starts, Jeff and Joel and Mark are fleeing Michigan, bullets ricocheting off the car, lives and a complete record of the events in jeopardy. The subject of this film isn't just the ups-and-downs of making a horror movie, it's about cultural snobbery, the disintegration of friendship, puppy love, violence, boredom, money... A diary about encountering the Midwest when you're from someplace else.

THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

American Movie
Dir. Chris Smith, 1999, 107 min.
American Movie centers on a low-budget horror-film buff named Mark Borchardt, who grew up on such horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead. Now in his late twenties, he has decided to make the ultimate horror opus in the form of an indie feature entitled Northwestern, the scariest film ever made in his Wisconsin town. Filled with determination and passion (and very little else), this documentary follows Mark for a year and a half in the making of Northwestern. The audience sees Mark fending off creditors, including the IRS, and avoiding child support payments so he can make this direct-to-video flick. His efforts to round up cast and crew are disastrous, as there is nobody in his town who shares his knowledge and passion for moviemaking. Eventually he decides to star in his film and wears a dozen crew members' hats as writer, producer, director, cameraman, editor, and soundman. American Movie follows this man with a dream to his dying uncle's trailer park, where he raises three thousand dollars. Unable to make an entire feature for that price, he scraps the idea in exchange for completing one of his many abandoned short films, Coven, which also premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. The end is a world premiere as satisfying as getting accepted into Sundance.

Followed by Coven

THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

Romero Double Feature

Night of the Living Dead
Dir. George Romero, 1968, 96 min.
The movie that spawned several generations of zombie movies. The dead come back to life and eat the living in this low budget, black and white film. Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night. Outside are hordes of relentless, shambling zombies who can only be killed by a blow to the head.

Dawn of the Dead
Dir. George Romero, 1979, 126 min.
This sequel to "Night of the Living Dead" is filled with splattered blood and brains in living color. The dead have come back to life to eat the living. This is the story of the escape of four people from an urban nightmare to a suburban nightmare. They barricade themselves in a shopping mall and try to start new lives. Much of this movie was filmed outside Pittsburgh.

THE HORROR!
Curated by Michael DiBenedetto and Sara Maysles

Zombie Triple Feature

Night of the Living Dead
Dir. George Romero, 1968, 96 min.
The movie that spawned several generations of zombie movies. The dead come back to life and eat the living in this low budget, black and white film. Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night. Outside are hordes of relentless, shambling zombies who can only be killed by a blow to the head.

C.H.U.D.
Dir. Douglas Cheek, 1984, 88 min.
A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photo journalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.

Wild Zero
Dir. Tetsuro Takeuchi, 2000, 96 min.
Ace, a wannabe rock star, is on his way to a concert of the band Guitar Wolf when space aliens invade the Earth. As a result the dead rise to their feet in the countryside setting of Asahi, Japan, with an appetite for flesh. Enlisting the help of Guitar Wolf, Ace and the members of the band get entangled in many misadventures with crazy rock managers in very tight shorts, transsexuals, naked women shooting guns in the shower, and bloodthirsty zombies ready to tear them apart. Leather jackets, loud over-modulated music, laser guitar picks, motorcycles, guns, muscle cars, and fire abound. Guitar Wolf, a Japanese trio signed to Matador Records in the US—and self-proclaimed coolest rock band in the world—star as the well-coiffed heroes.