Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow

Sydney-side genre fans will get a taste of Monster Pictures’ annual Melbourne-based genre film festival Monster Fest this March, thanks to a unique partnership with Event Cinemas to present the MONSTER FEST TRAVELLING SIDESHOW, beginning at the prestigious George Street Cinema in Sydney on March 9-12, 2017 with subsequent dates to follow in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

MONSTER FEST TRAVELLING SIDESHOW will be a mix of horror-centric highlights from Monster Fest 2016 along with select Australian and World Premieres, including that of the highly-anticipated all-female horror anthology XX and the world premiere Nik Kacevski’s Sydney-made SKINFORD, with cast and crew in person for a hometown red carpet debut.

Other highlights include the recent Sundance ‘secret screening’ sensation GET OUT in its Australian debut and KILLING GROUND, the Aussie Sundance hit in its first hometown outing with cast and crew in attendance.

The touring satellite event will open on March 9th with the Sydney Premiere of Julia Ducournau’s controversial “Golden Monster”-winning feature debut RAW. The fright-filled weekend will also include a new 4K restoration of Italo-horror maestro Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece SUSPIRIA, Sydney director Jai Love’s moving and morbid documentary DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP, about the traumatised frontman of extreme metal band Kettle Cadaver, Nicholas Pesce’s gothic Sundance midnighter THE EYES OF MY MOTHER and André Øvredal’s award-winning THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, recently praised by none other than Stephen King himself, who called it “visceral horror to rival ALIEN and early Cronenberg” and warned: “Watch it, but not alone.”

Monster Fest Artistic Director Kier-La Janisse says the Sydney weekender will be just the first of many such events to be mounted by Monster Pictures over the coming year. “This touring sidebar is an incredibly exciting initiative for us,” she says. “It’s always been our goal to bring the most pioneering and challenging new genre cinema to fans all over the country, and to create a wider platform for its appreciation.”

The Event Cinemas team is proud to be that platform. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Monster Pictures to bring the MONSTER FEST TRAVELLING SIDESHOW to Sydney,” says George Street General Manager Anthony Kieran, “bringing a collection of stories and films not for the faint hearted. A special weekend-long event with new Australian works, exciting Q&As with emerging filmmakers and a diverse collection of highly creative and imaginative films from innovative filmmakers. The MONSTER FEST TRAVELLING SIDESHOW will present a tapestry of horror and wonder and all things truly imaginative and frightening.”

Thursday 9th March
7.00pm Opening Night Film – RAW
Julia Ducournau | France 2016 | 99 Minutes | Monster Pictures

RAW made its World Premiere in Cannes Critics Week where it won the coveted FIPRESCI Prize, and left audiences aghast with some of the most shocking and powerful on-screen imagery since Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE. One of the finest directorial debuts in the genre space in a long time, RAW tells the story of a teenage girl who joins her sister at a prestigious veterinary college, and is forced to partake in a hazing ritual that sees her defying her vegan upbringing by consuming raw rabbit liver. From here she develops an insatiable desire for flesh – of all types, and what we witness is a coming-of-age like no other, an awakening that is carnal and primal and that takes its central character, and its viewing audience, on a journey that is simultaneously harrowing and beautiful. Ducournau has made a something very special here, a gorgeous cinematic exploration of family and cannibalism, a film that’ll seep its way deep into your psyche and resonate long after the closing credits – make no mistake, this is one of the films of the year (Neil Foley)

Friday the 10th of March
7.00 pm KILLING GROUND with Q&A by Director Damien Power
Damien Power | Australia 2016 | 85 Minutes | Mushroom Pictures | Sydney Premiere

When young urbanites Ian and Sam decide to go camping, they arrive at their isolated destination to discover another tent already set up, but no sign of its owners. With the other campers at large, Ian and Sam’s discovery of a child wandering alone sets off a terrifying chain of events that will push them to their limits – and beyond.

Friday the 10th of March
9.30pm THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE
André Øvredal | USA 2016 | 86 Minutes | Umbrella Entertainment

The English-language debut of Norwegian director André Øvredal (TROLL HUNTER) is a riveting, chilling, and utterly original horror story. In small-town Virginia, police are called to a gruesome crime scene where a family has been massacred in their own house. In the basement, an even more disturbing discovery is made: the partially buried corpse of a nude woman. The cops take this unidentified victim to a small, family-run morgue, where they ask proprietor Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his son Austen (Emile Hirsch) to perform an urgent forensic analysis in order to help determine what happened. As they methodically peel back layers of skin, muscle, and bone, Tommy and Austen are baffled by the lack of external signs of trauma on the victim and the alarming extent of her internal injuries. Increasingly perplexed and frustrated by these forensic anomalies, the pair begins to succumb to late-night jitters, getting spooked at apparitions that seem to be lurking in the shadows. As the dread mounts and the atmosphere gets thick with evil, it becomes apparent that the Tildens’ fate is intertwined with a darkness that neither of them can comprehend. (Colin Geddes TIFF)

Saturday 11th of March
3.30 pm – FREE FIRE
Ben Wheatley | UK 2016 | 90 Minutes | Sony Pictures

In his most accessible, action-packed film to date, British visionary Ben Wheatley (KILL LIST, A FIELD IN ENGLAND, SIGHTSEERS, HIGH RISE) places us in the centre of a shootout of absurd, epic proportions when an international arms deal goes horribly wrong in a 1978 Boston warehouse. Wheatley regular Michael Smiley stars alongside a showstopping cast headlined by Cillian Murphy, Brie Larsen, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Sam Riley (as the most resilient junkie ever) and our own Noah Taylor, with Martin Scorsese as executive producer. (Kier-La Janisse)

Saturday 11th of March
5.30pm – THE EYES OF MY MOTHER
Nicolas Pesce | USA 2016 | 76 Minutes

In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a dark form.

Saturday 11th of March
7.30pm – XX
Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Jovanka Vuckovic | USA 2017 | 80 Minutes | Monster Pictures | Australian Premiere

XX is a new all-female helmed horror anthology featuring four dark tales written and directed by fiercely talented women: Annie Clark (St. Vincent) rocks her directorial debut with THE BIRTHDAY PARTY; Karyn Kusama (THE INVITIATION, GIRLFIGHT) exorcises HER ONLY LIVING SON; Roxanne Benjamin (SOUTHBOUND) screams DON’T FALL; and Jovanka Vuckovic (THE CAPTURED BIRD) dares to open THE BOX. Award-wining animator Sofia Carrillo (LA CASA TRISTE) wraps together four suspensful stories of terror featuring a cast including Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool and Christina Kirk.

Saturday 11th of March
9.30pm – GET OUT
Jordan Peele | USA 2017 | 130 Minutes | Universal | Australian Premiere

Universal Pictures’ GET OUT is the new thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift). Now that Chris, a young African-American man and his girlfriend Alison, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate at her family’s estate. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.Get Out is equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary.

Sunday the 12th of March
2.00 pm – DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP with Q&A by Director Jai Love
Jai Love | Australia 2016 | 75 Minutes | Monster Pictures

Thirty-eight year old Edwin Borsheim of the band Kettle Cadaver, was once known for his bizarre stage antics and brutal self-mutilation. Now, years after the bands demise, Borsheim has fallen in to complete seclusion on his acre of land in which he is surrounded by many of the horrible things he has created. As Edwin spirals further in to a hole of drug abuse and self destruction, those closest to Borsheim dissect his mental complexes as he himself reflects on his dark past. Although Borsheim finds himself trapped in his own home, he just may be saved by human interaction. (Kier-La Janisse)

Sunday the 12th of March
4.30pm – SUSPIRIA 40th Anniversary 4K Restoration
Dario Argento | Italy 1977 | 95 Minutes | Umbrella Entertainment

Dario Argento’s undisputed horror masterpiece is widely considered to be the most shocking and hallucinatory horror movie in history and is described by Argento as “an escalating experimental nightmare”, SUSPIRIA stars Jessica Harper as a young American ballet student who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy and is confronted by a series of bizarre and horrific deaths. Packed with ultra gory effects and dazzling cinematic set pieces, SUSPIRIA is a gruesomely gothic masterpiece of the macabre. A freshly restored Director-approved 4K presentation will screen to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of its original release.

Sunday the 12th of March
7.00pm – SKINFORD with Red Carpet and Q&A by Cast & Crew
Nik Kacevski | Australia 2016 | 85 Minutes | World Premiere

It was supposed to be so simple. You do a job, you make the meet, you get paid. As an experienced flipper, Jimmy “Skinny” Skinford knows the protocol all too well. Having said that, being kidnapped and forced to dig your own grave will spanner the nicest of deals in the sharpest of ways. But his fortune turns when a push of his dead mans shovel unearths the opportunity of a life time; a woman, buried but still breathing, who just can’t seem to die. Her mysterious gift extends to others through touch and in her company Skinny launches head first into a scheme of unparalleled mayhem. Coming face to face with the most depraved deviates of the criminal underworld, Skinny will have to pay his dues in order to make the meet, get his payload and have his chance at immortality. But this gift horse comes with plans of her own, and dark consequences that threaten to sever Skinny’s world piece by piece.

TICKETS
Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow tickets are available from:

Event Cinemas George Street
505-525 George St, Sydney
(02) 9273 7300
www.eventcinemas.com.au/EventsFestivals/MonsterfestTravellingSideshow

Single Session Tickets:
Adult $21
Concession $17.50

5 Film Multi-Pass:
Adult $82.50
Concession $71.50

10 Film VIP Pass:
Adult $132
Concession $110