2020: MONSTER FEST | Sydney
MONSTER FEST returns to Sydney for 2020: MONSTER FEST – WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE at Event Cinemas George St from Thursday 29th of October to Sunday 8th of November with a host of World & Australian Premiere screenings and events.
For complete programming, sessions and ticketing, visit our official 2020 MONSTER FEST: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE website.
POSSESSOR
Brandon Cronenberg | Canada / UK 2020 | Australian Premiere
From the mind of writer/director Brandon Cronenberg, POSSESSOR is an arresting sci-fi/horror about elite, corporate assassin Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough). Using brain-implant technology, Vos takes control of other people’s bodies to execute high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment Vos becomes trapped inside a mind (Christopher Abbott) that threatens to obliterate her.
OCCUPATION: RAINFALL
Luke Sparke | Australia 2020 | World Premiere
OCCUPATION: RAINFALL occurs two years into an intergalactic invasion of earth, while survivors fight back in a desperate ground war. As casualties mount by the day, the resistance and their unexpected allies uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind.
THE DARK AND THE WICKED
Bryan Bertino | United States 2020 | Australian Premiere
On a secluded farm, a man is slowly dying. Bedridden and fighting through his final breaths, his wife is slowly succumbing to overwhelming grief. To help their mother and say goodbye to their father, siblings Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.) return to their family farm. It doesn’t take long for them to see that something’s wrong with mom, though—something more than her heavy sorrow. Gradually, as their own grief mounts, Louise and Michael begin suffering from a darkness similar to their mother’s, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over their family.
PSYCHO GOREMAN
Steven Kostanski | Canada 2020 | Australian Premiere
Siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) unwittingly resurrect an ancient alien overlord (Matthew Ninaber). Using a magical amulet, they force the monster to obey their childish whims, and accidentally attract a rogues’ gallery of intergalactic assassins to small-town suburbia.
#SHAKESPEARESSHITSTORM
Lloyd Kaufman | United States 2020 | Australian Premiere
Prospero (played by director/co-writer Lloyd Kaufman), a brilliant and generous pharma-scientist, has had his life and career ruined by blind, greedy, perverted pharmaceutical execs, causing him and his very hot daughter Miranda to flee from NYC to Tromaville, New Jersey. When the evil execs and their elite guests take a celebratory luxury cruise to North Korea, Prospero uses his science, magic, and a load of whale laxative to create the titular Shitstorm, wrecking the cruise ship and causing its execs to wash up on the shores of Tromaville. Prospero’s planned a brutal revenge – with all the sex, mutations, musical numbers, and violence that Shakespeare always wanted but never had!
HUNTED
Vincent Paronnaud | Belgium/France 2020 | Australian Premiere
Eve (Lucie Debay) meets what she thinks is a charming guy in a bar. Yet things go terribly wrong once she realizes she’s come across a psychopath and his puppet accomplice. They engage in a death chase until she decides to fight back. The forest will be her ally.
TOTAL RECALL – 4K RESTORATION
Paul Verhoeven | United States 1990 | Australian Premiere
Haunted by recurring dreams of another life on Mars, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is drawn to Rekall Incorporate to implant virtual vacation memories of Mars, using a special program with the identity of a secret agent. Something goes wrong and the procedure is interrupted. The life of Quaid turns upside down, and he travels to the red planet trying to discover who he is.
12 HOUR SHIFT
Brea Grant | United States 2020 | Australian Premiere
Set in 1999, Mandy (Angela Bettis – MAY, THE WOMAN), a nurse at a hospital in Arkansas, is a drug addict and an abettor in a black market organ-trafficking scheme. During a double shift, Mandy’s cousin Regina (Chloe Farnsworth – DEPARTURE) mishandles a kidney delivery, and chaos ensues as Mandy and Regina frantically attempt to secure a replacement organ before their buyers take matters into their own hands.
VICIOUS FUN
Cody Calahan | Canada 2020 | Australian Premiere
Joel (Evan Marsh, SHAZAM!), a caustic film critic for a national horror magazine, finds himself unwittingly trapped in a self-help group for serial killers. With no other choice, Joel attempts to blend in or risk becoming the next victim.
BREEDER
Jens Dahl | Denmark 2020 | Australian Premiere
A ruthless businesswoman is abducting young women as part of a gruesome bio-hacking experiment to reverse the aging process. When Mia (ara Hjort Ditlevsen, BORGMAN) goes to investigate, she finds herself trapped, branded and tortured in an underground medical facility.
SYNCHRONIC
Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead | United States 2019 | Australian Premiere
When New Orleans paramedics and longtime best friends Steve (Anthony Mackie, AVENGERS: ENDGAME) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan, THE FALL) are called to a series of bizarre, gruesome accidents, they chalk it up to the mysterious new party drug found at the scene. But after Dennis’s oldest daughter suddenly disappears, Steve stumbles upon a terrifying truth about the supposed psychedelic that will challenge everything he knows about reality—and the flow of time itself.
LEAP OF FAITH: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ON THE EXORCIST
Alexandre O. Philippe | United States 2019 | Australian Premiere
A lyrical and spiritual cinematic essay on THE EXORCIST, LEAP OF FAITH explores the uncharted depths of William Friedkin’s mind’s eye, the nuances of his filmmaking process, and the mysteries of faith and fate that have shaped his life and filmography.
ACTION U.S.A. – 4K RESTORATION
John Stewart | United States 1989 | Australian Premiere
After her boyfriend is murdered by the gangsters whose diamonds he stole, a girl (Barri Murphy, ARMED FOR ACTION) is protected by two FBI agents (Gregory Scott Cummins & William Hubbard Knight) who plan to keep her from sharing the same fate.
EVENT HORIZON – 4K RESTORATION
Paul W.S. Anderson | United States 1997 | Australian Premiere
Its name: EVENT HORIZON. The high-tech, pioneering research spacecraft mysteriously vanished, without a trace, on its maiden voyage seven years earlier. But a weak, persistent signal form the long-missing craft prompts a rescue team, headed by the intrepid Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne, THE MATRIX), to wing its way through the galaxy on a bold rescue mission. Accompanying Miller is his elite crew and the lost ship’s designer (Sam Neill, JURASSIC PARK); their mission is to find and salvage the state-of-the-art interstellar horror.
SYDNEY EXCLUSIVES
In addition to our national 2020 MONSTER FEST: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE programming, we are proud to host two Monster Fest Presents screenings curated by Sydney Festival Director Simon Foster.
THE WITCH OF KINGS CROSS
Sonia Bible | Australia 2020 | Australian Premiere
In 1950s Sydney, bohemian artist Rosaleen Norton hits the headlines with allegations of satanic rituals, obscene art and sex orgies. Inspired by the work of Aleister Crowley, she advocates a pantheist vision of witchcraft, and a sexual magic freed from religious and moral rules. Eventually the relentless scandals lead to the downfall of her high society lover. Told ‘in her own words’, the film weaves stylized drama and erotic dancers with rare, never before seen artworks, diaries and scrapbooks. The Witch of Kings Cross is the fascinating portrait of a fearless woman outlaw railing against fearful conservative forces and an insight into the extraordinary work of the art world’s original bad girl.
INTERSECTION
Samuel Bartlett | Australia 2020 | Australian Premiere
When a conman discovers his son has been abducted, he is forced to drive the city streets completing an escalating series of trials to appease his child’s kidnapper, and atone for his career of deception.
Select Feature programming in all States are accompanied by Short Films from Australia and around the globe, for the comprehensive list of Short Film programming please visit our official 2020 MONSTER FEST: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE website.
– VIP PASS: $224* – VIP access to all screenings and events from Thursday 29 October to Sunday 8 November.
– MINI 5 FILM PASS: $80 – Valid for any 5 Monster Fest film sessions from Thursday 29 October to Sunday 8 November.
*Please Note: Monster Fest Presents screenings are outside of our national programming and as such are not included in the VIP Pass however discounted ticketing is available by contacting Monster Fest directly at info@monsterfest.com.au.
