USA
2018 119 mins OV English
At a forgotten, haunted bijou, a group of strangers have assembled to watch a series of macabre vignettes unspooled by the mysterious Projectionist (Mickey Rourke). Like the best anthology films (DEAD OF NIGHT, CREEPSHOW, TRICK 'R TREAT), the stories' tones range from truly deep, dark, psychological, demented horror to ones with a lighter, satirical spin. Witness a ghost story that will chill you to the bone; an exorcism story guaranteed to make your head spin; a B&W descent into clinical madness; a plastic surgery gone horrifyingly awry; and a cabin-in-the-woods slasher ditty with a unique twist you'll never see coming.
NIGHTMARE CINEMA invited five leading fright masters from around the world to make their own mini-movies in their own distinctive style. Leading the roster: this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Joe Dante (GREMLINS, THE HOWLING); Japan's Ryûhei Kitamura, whose GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, VERSUS and THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN all played Fantasia; Britain's David Slade (30 DAYS OF NIGHT, HARD CANDY, AMERICAN GODS); and Cuba's Alejandro Brugués, whose JUAN OF THE DEAD delighted Fantasia fans back in 2012. And the grand orchestrator of this omnibus of terror is none other than Mick Garris, the Stephen King protégé who helmed the TV versions of THE STAND and THE SHINING, and created the landmark anthology series MASTERS OF HORROR. Another Fantasia alumnus (2004's RIDING THE BULLET), multi-hyphenate Garris also helmed a NIGHTMARE CINEMA segment and directed the cool wraparound. Finally, there's the Projectionist, played by the one-and-only Rourke, "curator to a hundred years of nightmares, trapped in a silver screen that never forgets." Tonight, allow Fantasia to be your Projectionist, unspooling a night of NIGHTMAREs to last you for the next 100 years. - Tony Timpone
