On January 25, 1999, The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The reaction was so strong, the screening was immediately followed by an all-night bidding war for the distribution. Artisan Entertainment was the big winner and what came next, leading up to its July release, was a marketing campaign unlike any other before it. The actors were told to lay low as the campaign proceed to suggest the film was real and the whereabouts of the three “students” in the film were still unknown. Audiences bought in completely.
For the past year, HMN has been a big success with a varied selection of films including anniversary screenings of Halloween and Pumpkinhead, last year’s Best Picture winner The Shape of Water, cult favorite Troll 2, and a crazy double feature of Nekromantik and Nekromantik 2. We also had a couple of themed events including our Carrie prom and our Jaws beach that gave audience members the opportunity to sit safely on the shore or in the water with our inflatable shark. This year we look to make things bigger and better.
For starters, HMN has left its previous spot on Mondays for Friday as a part of The Frida’s new Frida After Dark. Frida After Dark encompasses presentations from Nostalgic Nebula on the first Friday of each month. As its name implies, Nostalgic Nebula looks back at films with a nostalgic eye often with special guests or unique special events. The second Friday of the month sees KAOS’ presentation of the cult film of cult films The Rocky Horror Picture Show complete with a live shadow cast, audience props, and, as the name implies, total chaos. On the third Friday, Bombs Away, the comedy podcast that looks at the best of the worst, does a live podcast recording following a screening of one of Hollywood’s worst.
Our evening starts off at 10:30 with another great edition of our HMN Preshow. Along with featuring our usual collection video oddities and horror movie TV spots and trailers, this month we are adding a special year-long segment. Each month we be showing another segment of a film that has been called one of the worst horror films of all time. This creepy, cannibalistic, sexplotation, horror, comedy stars the original voice of Frosty the Snowman. It must be seen to be believed.
Another new feature debuting this month is the showcasing of a short film from HorrorBuzz.com’s The Screaming Room, the official short film festival of Midsummer Scream. Each summer, the members of the HorrorBuzz Film Team put on what is fast becoming a very well respected and acclaimed short film festival at the annual Halloween convention. Each month we will screening one of the outstanding films that we have included in festival over the past couple of years.
This month’s short is last year’s winner of both the Audience Award for the Supernatural Scares block and the Palme d’Gore, The Screaming Room’s highest honor as the best film selected by the jury. Filmmaking brothers, Carson and Erik Bloomquist‘s She Came from the Woods is one of the best received films to have played our young film festival.
At each HMN, we plan to offer a different specialty drink beginning this month with “Heather’s Tears.” You’ll want to make sure to pick up a glass from the concession stand so you can play along with The Blair Witch Project drinking game. The rules will be on display in the lobby on the screen during the pre-show.
And, of course, everyone gets a chance to win this month’s Pumpkin Pack which includes two free Frida tickets that you can use for next month’s HMN. What are we going to show? Find out Friday night!
We look forward to another great year of celebrating horror with all of you.
Oh yeah, Dum-Dums for everyone!
