It's spooky season, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center is getting in on the fun with the second annual Ross Fright Fest.
The film festival returns with a month of classic, campy, thrilling, surreal and unsettling horror films. New this year are family-friendly options, a 3D double-feature on Halloween and two live performances by the Anvil Orchestra.
Fright Fest films will show on Fridays and Sundays beginning Oct. 4. Tickets and more information on each film are available onlline.
The 2024 lineup is:
• "Perfect Blue" — 7:15 p.m. Oct. 4. A retired pop singer’s sense of reality starts to crack as she is stalked by an obsessed fan, in the groundbreaking and rarely screened first film from legendary director Satoshi Kon.
• "The Host" — 9:15 p.m. Oct. 4. When a creature emerges from the South Korea’s Han River and sinks its ravenous jaws into local residents, one victim’s loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches. Directed by Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).
• "Paranorman" — 3 p.m. Oct. 6 (family friendly). Norman Babcock never asked to see ghosts, but his strange inherited talent is now the only thing standing between the cursed town of Blithe Hollow and an all-out zombie apocalypse in this stop-motion animation feature from LAIKA Studios.
• "The Fly" — 5 p.m. Oct. 6. Be afraid, very afraid. From body horror master David Cronenberg, “The Fly” follows a brilliant but eccentric scientist (Jeff Goldblum) who begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
• "The Thing" — 7:10 p.m. Oct. 6. In a remote Antarctic research station, a group of scientists discover a long-buried UFO and are hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victim. Directed by John Carpenter.
• "Possession" — 7 p.m. Oct. 11. A woman (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce. A disturbing cult classic from director Andrzej Zulawski.
• "Raw" — 9:30 p.m. Oct. 11. Vegetarian Justine undergoes a startling transformation after a veterinary school hazing ritual causes her to crave human flesh. One of the most unsettling horror films to come out of the Cannes Film Festival, Julia Ducournau’s bloody directorial debut puts a shocking twist on the coming-of-age genre.
• "Pit and the Pendulum" — 3 p.m. Oct. 13. A delightfully chilling visual treat, “Pit and the Pendulum” unites genre masters Roger Corman and Vincent Price in the story of an Englishman who travels to a sinister castle in Spain to investigate the strange circumstances of his sister’s death.
• "Bubba Ho-Tep" — 5 p.m. Oct. 13. An aging Elvis (Bruce Campbell) joins forces with a fellow nursing home resident who believes he’s JFK (Ossie Davis) to fight the soul-stealing mummy menacing their East Texas nursing home in this cult horror-comedy from director Don Coscarelli.
• "Tales from the Hood" — 7 p.m. Oct. 13. Creepy mortician Mr. Simms (Clarence Williams, III) attempts to scare a group of teenage drug dealers straight by telling them four horrifying stories in Rusty Cundieff’s sharply satirical horror-comedy anthology.
• "Blood and Black Lace" — 7:15 p.m. Oct. 18. One of the pillars of the “giallo” horror genre, Mario Bava’s moody and hyper-saturated “Blood and Black Lace” takes place at an Italian fashion house filled with backstabbing, blackmail and a faceless maniac who is murdering the models.
• "Deep Red" — 9:15 p.m. Oct. 18. A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after witnessing the brutal murder of a psychic. The kinetic camerawork and over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous are on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes “Deep Red” a giallo masterpiece.
• "The Addams Family" — 3 p.m. Oct. 20, (family friendly). When long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years in the Bermuda Triangle, the Addams Family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But Fester’s unusually “normal” behavior raises suspicions that things are not what they seem. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci.
• "Chess of the Wind" — 5:10 p.m. Oct. 20. Screened just once in 1976 before it was banned and lost for decades, this rediscovered jewel of Iranian cinema is one of the most astonishing works of the country’s prerevolutionary New Wave. A hypnotically stylized murder mystery awash in atmosphere, “Chess of the Wind” unfolds in an ornate, candlelit mansion where a web of greed, violence and betrayal ensnares the heirs to a family fortune.
• "Crimson Peak" — 7:10 p.m. Oct. 20. After marrying the charming and seductive Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), young heiress Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is swept away to a remote gothic mansion haunted by dark secrets and ghostly visions. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
• The Anvil Orchestra live performances. The Anvil Orchestra (formerly The Alloy Orchestra) performs unique live musical accompaniment to silent films, transforming the viewing experience for audiences. They will be performing at the Ross for two special Film Fest screenings: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25; and “A Page of Madness,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26.
• "The Old Dark House" — 3 p.m. Oct. 27 (new 4K restoration). A group of stranded travelers stumble upon a strange old house and find themselves at the mercy of a highly eccentric and potentially dangerous family. Directed by James Whale, this humorous and atmospheric thriller features an unforgettable post-Frankenstein horror role for Boris Karloff and became the template for all spooky-house chillers to come.
• "Night of the Living Dead" — 5 p.m. Oct. 27. A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves inside an old farmhouse to escape a horde of flesh-eating ghouls in George A. Romero’s slyly political and highly influential directorial debut that started the zombie film genre.
• "Carnival of Souls" — 7:10 p.m. Oct. 27. After surviving a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances, Mary begins seeing visions of a fiendish man who lures her to a deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. “Carnival of Souls” offers delightfully chilling proof that when it comes to telling an effective horror story, less can often be so much more. Directed by Herk Harvey.
• "Creature from the Black Lagoon" — 5 p.m. Oct. 31 (3D Screening). A group of scientists try to capture a strange prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle in this classic B-movie featuring one of cinema’s most iconic monsters.
• "Dial M for Murder" — 7 p.m. Oct. 31 (3D Screening). Boasting an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock’s chillingly sinister 3D masterpiece follows a former tennis pro whose carefully orchestrated plan to have his wealthy wife murdered goes unexpectedly awry.
