With COVID-19 shuttering cinemas and disrupting genre film fests, Los Angeles-based Dark Star Pictures and Bloody Disgusting have come up with a novel way to unveil their latest horror pic acquisition: feature it as a surprise secret finale to a free virtual film festival to run from Jan. 22 to 24.
The indie distributor and horror film website are betting genre fans will come to stream recent international horror offerings like PVT CHAT, Koko-Di Koko-Da, Jumbo, Attack of the Demons, Dirty God and Climate of the Hunter and then stay to view a still secret screening of the latest pick up from Dark Star and Bloody Disgusting’s new joint brand label.
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The finale unveiled on Saturday by Dark Star is Dementia Part II, debuting on the last night of the film festival as a tongue-in-cheek sequel to Mike Testin’s 2015 original film. Dementia Part II stars Suzanne Voss, Matt Mercer, Graham Skipper and Najarra Townsend and comes from the writer/director team of Matt Mercer and Testin
The free-to-watch programming aims to generate buzz around the screening of Dementia Part II on Jan. 23 at 6 p.m., leaving horror fans 24 hours to stream the pic. Tickets for the virtual fest will be available on a first come, first served basis via ticketing links on darkstarpics.com.
“Taking advantage of virtual platforms now available to us, we thought we’d have a little fun and give you a taste of the future and our exciting new collaboration with Bloody Disgusting. We’re beyond stoked for you to not just hear, but see our latest surprise acquisition!” Dark Star creative director Josh Goldbloom said in a statement.
The feature films that already screened at Sundance, Fantasia, Nightstream and Cinepocalypse will be streamed as part of the free virtual festival to be hosted on the Eventive platform.
The first release from the Dark Star and Bloody Disgusting label is the backwoods horror film Honeydew that stars Sawyer Spielberg, the actor and Steven Spielberg’s son in his feature performance debut.
The slasher pic written and directed by Devereux Milburn is set to be released in theaters in March 2021, with a VOD/digital and DVD release to follow in April.
Honeydew was originally supposed to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, but those plans got upended by COVID-19. It has found its audience via the Nightstream festival, as well as stops at the Rome International Film Festival and FrightFest UK.
Jan. 24, 6 a.m. Updated with the announcement that Dementia Part II will close out the virtual genre film festival.
