Ethan Hawke's 'The Purge' to Open Inaugural Stanley Film Festival
Universal's horror movie The Purge will kick off the inaugural Stanley Film Festival, the horror film festival set in haunted landmark Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., and which runs May 2 to 5.
Also added to the lineup is Sightseers, a British horror comedy from director Ben Wheatley, which will act as the festival’s centerpiece screening.
Joining the screening list is Cabin Fever, which will be presented by Stanley Film Festival Visionary Award recipient Eli Roth; the Indonesian movie Macabre; as well as No One Lives, from Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train).
Other program highlights include a reading and book signing by author Clay McLeod Chapman (The Tribe: Homeroom Headhunters), a student horror film competition and a screening of silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with a live piano score.
As previously announced last week, Roth's latest, Aftershock, closes the festival. Such movies as All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Black Rock and Frankenstein's Army also will screen.
Purge stars Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey and is produced by horrormeister Jason Blum. It is set in a near future, where, in an effort to keep the country safer, once-a-year crime becomes legal. In this scenario, an innocent family’s home is invaded.
Blum and director James DeMonaco will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
Universal opens Purge on May 31.
