RI INTERNATIONAL HORROR FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS FOR ITS 11TH GHOULISH YEAR

50 FILMS. 6 COUNTRIES. 4 RUNNING DAYS. 1 OPENING NIGHT SPOOKTACULAR & GOULISH-GATHERING: Festival Unleashes A Cinematic Symphony Of Horror From Across The Globe with an Opening Night at the VMA Arts & Cultural Center with the World HD Premiere of Roger Corman’s “The Fall of the House of Usher."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (10/08/10) — A symphony of cinematic horror slashes its way across the big screen as the FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) unwraps its Eleventh Annual RI International Horror Film Festival, October 21-24th. In addition to its traditional spooky film fare, this year's festival also includes its popular H.P. Lovecraft Walking Tour, a live-action “Zombiethon Battle” and an opening night screening at the VMA Arts & Cultural Center. The 2010 festival will include an expanded focus that will include horror, thrillers and sci-fi that will run as a thread throughout the screenings. The 2010 FLICKERS: RI International Horror Film Festival is sponsored in part by MGM HD, the Providence Phoenix, WJAR TV 10 and Cox Media.

For one night only, fans of the diabolical duo of Vincent Price & Roger Corman can delight in the High Definition World Premiere screening of the new restoration of the 1960 classic horror film, The Fall of the House of Usher. The program presented by Flickers is in partnership with MGM HD. This unique, one-time-only screening will serve as the main attraction for the Horror Film Festival’s Opening Night Spooktacular.

ABOUT THE OPENING NIGHT:
In true horror-style, the Festival will be “slashing” its opening-night prices: tickets for the entire evening will be offered for the frighteningly-low price of only $5.00 per person and there will be special group rates. Free admission to anyone coming in costume.

The VMA Arts & Cultural Center, the elegant and historic 1,900-seat theater located in the heart of the capital city (1 Avenue of the Arts, Providence) is ground zero for this year’s frightful kick-off. The night’s line-up will begin at 7:30 p.m. with a pair of Award-Winning short horror films fresh from the 2010 Rhode Island International Film Festival: Brett Foraker’s creepy Natural Selection, starring Simon Callow and James D’Arcy, which won First Prize in this year’s Short Film category, and Krishnendu Majumdar’s discomforting The Happiness Salesman, starring Christopher Eccleston, which took home Grand Prize at the Roving Eye Film Festival for Narrative Short. The evening’s Main Event will be the screening of a new, beautifully restored print of Roger Corman’s classic cinematic retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher. MGM HD will be sharing special behind-the-scenes images of the making of the film and never-before-seen interview footage with Roger Corman, himself.

AND THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND:
The Festival’s “Weekend of Frights” will continue on Friday and go through Sunday, with screenings taking place at the VMA Arts & Cultural Center, the Bell Street Chapel Theatre, the Barrington Public Library, and the Providence Public Library in Rhode Island. All library screenings are FREE to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. General Admission for screenings at the Bell Street Chapel Theatre is $10.00 per person. Festival 6-packs available at $40 (which are good year-round and any RIIFF event). Discount Passes are also available.

The FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival is an eerie-sistable salute to what is an often overlooked genre that will include a bevy of World and U.S. Premiers of short, feature-length and documentary films. In all 50 films have been selected from 367 submissions and include works from the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Canada, the Philippines and the United States. Many of the filmmakers will be in attendance, so audience members will have a chance to meet, ask questions, and even network with the next generation of horror-auteurs.

To add to the fun, this year’s festival offers a witches brew of extra-ingredients to entice horror fans, some of the programming highlights include:

• ZOMBIETHON BATTLE,
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25TH 12:30 p.m., Bell Street Chapel Theatre
5 Bell Street, Providence, RI
Outdoor Zombiethon and Battle, Presented by the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA)
The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Their "Known World" consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dress in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events that feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.

Local members will provide a demonstration of some of the many activities practiced by the SCA, including both heavy and light armored combat and for this year’s Horror Film Festival: a Zombie Battle Royale

Free to the general public.

• H.P. LOVECRAFT WALKING TOUR
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22N 3:00 p.m. The tour departs from the John Brown House at 52 Power Street, Providence
The life and work of Providence's best-known fantasy and horror author, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, provide the backdrop for this walking tour. Acknowledged genius of occult and horror fiction, Lovecraft's "Providence stories" (written between 1924 and 1935) provide the basis for this walk. Lovecraft wrote eloquently, and in great detail, about such landmarks as Prospect Terrace, the First Baptist Church, and Benefit Street houses. See the site of his former home, as well as the sights mentioned in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Haunter of the Dark, The Shunned House, and The Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft's own words offer a most amazing literary, historical, and architectural walking tour.

The tour lasts 90 minutes.

Cost: Tickets are $17 per person, include a ticket to the Horror Festival and can be purchased online. The Walking Tour can be purchased in advance by calling the RIIFF offices at 401.861.4445 or ordered directly online at http://www.film-festival.org/HPLovecraft10.php