Photo: Virginia Film Festival
As a Halloween warm-up, the Virginia Film Festival’s After Hours collection offers four monster movies, even though none are being screened particularly late at night. Curated by Igor Shteyrenberg of the Miami Jewish Film Festival and horror fest Popcorn Frights, this thematic group of what the VFF calls “films that walk on the wild side” deals in various strengths of scare-inducing cinema.
An apocalyptic demon zombie thrasher, Deathgasm II: Goremageddon is a heavy-metal sequel that rejoins the doofus titular group nine years after the last blood bath. A comedic take in the tradition of Shawn of the Dead, the film has Trivium’s Kiichi Heafy on soundtrack duties, which provides it with a level of metal credibility.
10/22, Violet Crown 6 and 7
The latest iteration of Frankenstein comes from fantasy auteur Guillermo del Toro and stars Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Oscar Isaac, as the doc who the story’s really named after, and Jacob Elordi as the monster. This one goes big with an immersive widescreen epic feel.
10/25, The Paramount Theater
Saturday night’s gala screening features Sinners, which also includes a conversation and performance by musician/actor Miles Caton. Director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) brings a supernatural, demonic take on the Jim Crow South driven by Michael B. Jordan in a dual role.
10/25, The Paramount Theater
Dust Bunny delivers a more family-friendly frightfest: It’s a tale of a kid (Sophie Sloan) hiring her hitman neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill the monster under her bed. And Sigourney Weaver’s in it, too!
10/26, Culbreth Theatre
